Iconic actress Julie Adams talks to me about her new book and emerging from the Black Lagoon!

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What better way to make my Halloween season than to have the honor of chatting with the star of one of the greatest horror films of all time?

Scratching beneath the surface of the black lagoon, there is more to the woman in the bathing suit than meets the eye.

That is what Julie Adams, star of the 1950s terror classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon wants people to know when it comes to her life and career in Hollywood.

“I guess I was just lucky,” Julie told me over the phone. “I was always on the lookout for something good; an interesting part that I think I would really like to play. I was proactive and went after the roles that I wanted.”

On Oct. 17, Ms. Adams will be here, making an appearance at a local theater to meet fans, sign autographs, sit in on a screening of the 1954 horror feature that made her a star, and celebrate her 87th birthday.

Before Jamie Lee Curtis, before Karen Black, Julie had audiences on the edge of their seats as she was kidnapped and held captive by an abomination from the depths of the sea. Unlike many other “scream queens,” she never fell victim to typecasting, starring in a wide variety of drama, comedy and suspense in both film and television.

“It is really kind of hard to say why I didn’t get typecast,” she said. “I guess more than anything, I just like to work, and I liked the variety of what I was doing. When you play different roles, it is a continuous learning experience.”BlackLagoon02

During the event, Adams also will be selling copies of her autobiography, “The Lucky Southern Star: Reflections from the Black Lagoon,” which she co-wrote with her son, Mitch Danton.

“For years, she traveled with Ben Chapman (who played the land version of the Gill-Man), doing horror conventions, and fans would encourage her to write a book,” Mitch told me. “In 2009, another fan asked if she had a memoir, and so that night, I wrote the prologue and she wrote the introduction.

“One of the things that women often take away from the book is that Mom was a lifelong learner and continued to evolve. We had a lawyer tell us she was inspired to open her own law firm after reading my mother’s story.”

The iconic actress was born Betty May Adams in 1926 and was raised in Arkansas. The former cheerleader and 1946 Miss Little Rock says the lights of Hollywood reached all the way to her Southern home.

“I was always interested in acting,” she said. “By strange coincidence, my father’s first wife, who lived in Long Beach, came back to visit and looked me up. She knew I wanted to be an actress, and told me if I wanted to get into movies, she would help me.”

The small-town girl quickly learned that a career in film meant a new life and new changes, all the way down to the way she talked.

“I was told I would need to lose my accent. I said, ‘whutt axe-sent?’” she told me with a charming, still-a-bit-Southern laugh.

Julie gained early attention in a series of westerns, including a leading role in 1952’s Bend of the River, when the opportunity to play a damsel in distress kidnapped by a monster came along.

“I was under contract, and they sent me this creature movie,” she said. “I thought, well if I turn it down I won’t get paid. And then I thought, you know, this might be fun.”

Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, one of Universal Studio’s first 3D films, is lauded for its remarkable underwater footage and for the introduction of a classic movie monster, the amphibious Gill-Man.

The movie follows the story of an archaeology team searching for the fossilized remains of a giant humanoid sea creature in the Amazon, instead finding one alive. Adams portrays Kay Lawrence, the sympathetic heroine who defends the creature.

Julie and I at a book signing, Oct. 2013
Julie and I at a book signing, Oct. 2013

Although released 20 years after most of what are today considered the “classic horror” films, The Creature from the Black Lagoon quickly joined Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and The Mummy in cinematic history.

But Julie did not stick with the horror genre, instead branching out to comedy (The Private War of Major Benson in 1956), drama (Go Ask Alice in 1971), and decades of guest-starring roles on television, including The Big Valley (“I got to fight Barbara Stanwyck.”), Night Gallery (co-starring with then-husband Ray Danton), General Hospital, Murder She Wrote, Melrose Place, and Lost.

“Unlike many actors who play the same character in film or television for many years, she was primarily a guest star on literally dozens of shows,” Mitch said. “As a result, it expanded her range. She also loved working on the stage, something about her that many people don’t know.”

During her 60-plus years in show business, she also has starred alongside some of the biggest leading men, including Charlton Heston, Elvis Presley, John Wayne, Raymond Burr, and Andy Griffith.

“I loved working with Jimmy Stewart,” she said. “He was like a lesson in screen acting for me. It did not even seem like he was working, and I worked hard to develop that ‘natural’ ability he had.”

When it came to putting her experiences down on paper, Julie said the intimate experience of writing her life story was made better by sharing it with her son, Mitch.

“I wrote it out in longhand and then Mitch and I would put it together,” she said. “We really had a good time working on it.”

Although the subtitle references a horror classic, her book is actually an inspirational story of a small town girl who hits the big time while avoiding the scandals and pitfalls so common in tinsel town.

“I had a great family, and I am very proud of both of my sons,” she said. “I have wonderful memories, loved working in television, and have the greatest fans in the world.

“I am very lucky to have lived the life that I have.”

For local readers who wish to attend the event on Oct. 17, contact The Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville here!

For more information on Julie and to order her book, click on the book cover below!

Julie also has a Facebook page for fans to keep up to date here!

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