LOOK AT ME, I MISS SANDRA DEE
by Wendel Potter
February 27, 2005
Having grown up as a movie fan, I never missed the Academy Awards show up until about ten years ago. It was like the Super Bowl for film buffs.
Nowadays while the Oscars are being handed out, I can easily busy myself with other, more worthwhile projects like filling the ice cube trays with water or sorting my socks by color.
Fact is, I rarely see the newer films and am not familiar with many of today's actors and actresses. When the award for Best Supporting Actor is handed out and the name called is not someone I've heard of, then I may as well be watching Leave it to Beaver.
Oscar Night has become political, even to the point of being racial. It's about lobbying and money. "May the best man (or woman) win" has become a hollow sentiment in Hollowood.
When I was growing up, movies were a treat. It was inexpensive (25 cents for a child and a nickel for candy) and you often got to see a double feature, along with a cartoon, coming attractions, and a Three Stooges short comedy.
Back in Iowa in the early 1960's, I fell in love with Sandra Dee. I remember shelling out my quarter at the box office of the Iowa Theater one Sunday afternoon so I could see the blonde beauty in "Tammy Tell Me True".
From the moment the "Tammy" theme played over the opening credits to the finale when Sandra Dee as Tammy got her first kiss, I was awestruck.
She was melting my heart into a puddle. Or so I thought. Actually I was slobbering all over my Charms sucker and had drooled on my shirt.
A crush had developed. Ah, what a beautiful life we could have together, I thought. I was nine years old and she was 19. I knew I couldn't marry her so I wanted to holler at her, "Sandra! Please adopt me!"
Sandra Dee had that kind of appeal that could lure nine-year old boys away from a neighborhood vacant lot baseball game and rivet them to a theater seat for two hours on a summer afternoon. When's the last time you heard a nine-year old say, "Forget Playstation, dude! I have to go to the movies and see Cate Blanchett. She's hot!"?
Last week, Sandra Dee passed away at age 63. Her film career ended in 1970 and we saw very little of her after that. She suffered through health problems and battled personal demons.
Her name surfaced recently with the release of Kevin Spacey's film, "Beyond the Sea", a tribute to Sandra Dee's former husband, the late singer Bobby Darin. A revival seemed impending, hopeful. Then she was gone and so was our hope.
While nine-year olds today might be asking, "Who was Sandra Dee?", her death made front page news all over the nation. We've lost a part of our culture. We've lost a true star.
Few of our film celebrities today will reach the magnitude of a Sandra Dee so that we will remember them 40 years down the road, long after their popularity has faded, and shed a tear when we hear news of their death. Many of them indeed have talent, but that special charisma that is missing deserves an All Points Bulletin.
Sandra Dee could be written off as another pretty face, an ingénue who made money for her studio over the course of ten years, then was cast into oblivion. But you can't dismiss someone who has left so many movie goers with so many fond memories. She had star power. That's rare today.
No, she wasn't a Katherine Hepburn when it came to acting, but she wasn't bad. She didn't win an Oscar, but then neither did Cary Grant, Judy Garland, Tyrone Power, Gloria Swanson, Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Finney, or Rosalind Russell. Alfred Hitchcock never won the Academy Award for Best Director.
But all of those people, along with countless and equally famous others, were what we knew as movie stars. They entertained us. That was all we asked. They did their jobs well.
So it was with Sandra Dee. She wasn't with us long enough. But she left her mark on a lot of nine-year old boys who, now in our middle age, will miss her.
Sandra Dee won't be forgotten. Her star will shine brightly light years from now. Just because she was Sandra Dee.
Copyright 2005 Wendel Potter
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