Talking about blonde bombshells, I probably identified the most with Joey Heatherton. She was one of THE original blonde sex kittens. And, I got to watch her on TV.
Joey Heatherton was at the top of her professional popularity in the 1960s. In the 1950s and 1960s, you had "sex symbols" and then you had "sex kittens" the likes of Ann-Margret and Joey Heatherton.
To me, Joey was THE blonde "sex kitten" who was multi-talented in that she could sing, dance, act and entertain! She was quite the package.
Joey Heatherton is in the group, blondes are sexier and have more fun! You know?
Oh, did I also tell you that we [me and her] had something in common? Well, surely you have heard about doppelgangers yes? Ah, I had so many people telling me that Joey was my doppelganger ... well at least HER hair and hair style ... that was THE doppelganger. How about that : doppelganger hair styles! Oh my.
Photo Credit: The original Joey Heatherton from Wikimedia Commons.
I'm thinking that Joey Heatherton was a one-of-a-kind classy star! She was sexy, but approachable. And, she was a smart gal with talent! Oh, did I mention she was a blonde who reportedly was sexier and had more fun than the average gal performer! It was refreshing to see that she had the confidence to appear in movies in her later years.
She Made the Cover of Playboy Magazine and was showing a lot of class in April 1997. It will be a collector's edition some day. Joey Heatherton shows a lot of class and doesn't reveal too much physically.
She was an amazingly entertaining “sex kitten” who had the coolest “shag” hairstyle!
Her father was the vaudevillian and television pioneer Ray Heatherton (1909 – 1997).
She appeared numerous times on The Perry Como Show, Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers, The Andy Williams Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Ed Sullivan Show and This Is Tom Jones.
This is Joey by Leslie Raddatz - Reprinted from TV Guide Magazine, August 31, 1963:
This is the assignment on Joey Heatherton. I sorta figured Joey was probably a comic like Joey Bishop, but actually Joey isn't like him at all. In fact, Joey isn't even a comic.
Of course, Joey's short like Bishop - 5 feet-3 - but, where Joey Bishop has dark hair and brown eyes, She has blonde hair and blue eyes - much bigger eyes than Bishop's. The general build and physical appearance are also quite different. Joey Bishop is what I would describe as wiry, which is not the way I would describe her.
Joey was born in New York on Sept. 14, 1944, the daughter of Ray Heatherton, a former musical comedy star, who until recently was The Merry Mailman on WPIX. [A New York City independent TV station.] Her mother was a dancer in the Broadway production of "Babes in Arms," in which Ray Heatherton appeared, and that is where they met.
With that background, it is only natural that Joey would turn to what we in the trade call show biz. She got her start in "The Sound of Music" when she was only 15 years old and has been in a number of Broadway plays since.
She has also done a lot of television - The Perry Como Show, The Nurses, The U.S. Steel Hour, The Virginian and Route 66. She recently completed her first motion picture, "Twilight of Honor," which is also the first starring vehicle for Richard Chamberlain - Dr. Kildare.
For a young lady who was graduated from high school only a year ago, that is an impressive list of credits. But actually Joey didn't get to her own graduation; she was appearing in summer stock in Buffalo at the time. This fall she is planning to take courses in English literature and psychology at Long Island University - between commuting to Hollywood for TV and motion picture roles.
Joey's interests are those of any teenager. But despite the fact that she swims, skates and rides horseback she is not muscular; and all the hot dogs, pastrami and gooey sundaes she eats have not made her fat, although she is, you might say, rounded. Nothing like Joey Bishop at all. ###
Heavenly Body Entering Orbit, by Gerald Astor - Reprinted from Look Magazine, February 8, 1966:
She sings some, acts too. But her body lifted Davenie Johanna Heatherton up from the ruck. Beyond these tangible virtues, what has given Joey Heatherton orbital velocity is the way she moves that torso.
When TV's Hullabaloo went on the air for the first time, Joey made a guest appearance. Although the show brought grunts of wrath from the critics, Joey's dance hiked temperatures and eyebrows. The talk about the dance helped the program survive. Bob Hope made the troops laugh when he visited the Dominican Republic and Vietnam; they howled when Joey danced.
She could have been born and raised in a trunk, since mother Davenie and father Ray met as performers in a Broadway musical. However, Joey was brought up in a prim Long Island suburb of New York. She started ballet school at six, studied four years with George Balanchine, put in a year on modern-jazz dance and went on to voice and dramatics. Richard Rodgers, "the wall-to-all carpeting of show business," says Joey, gave her the first big break with a part in The Sound of Music.
After the Broadway turn came some TV dramas and film flops. Something about Joey's sexy-kid look earned her roles as a teener in trouble. She now rejects such parts: "No more pregnant ingenues for me."
Also off her list for the present are marriage and the white picket fence. "I'm not interested in marriage now. We've got a picket fence home, and it doesn't interest me." Keeping suburbia and show biz in harmony poses problems. Townsfolk don't realize their contagious colds and late hours ruin performances. She laughs at silly tales of her smoking pot and doing a strip in a bar. Father Ray tells her, "You don't have to be a kook."
Choreographer Jaime Rogers thinks Joey's "tremendous vitality and her energy make her very sensual. She gets her motor going, and it just flows out naturally." Some critics of the free-flowing body have labeled her dancing "sleazy eroticism." Joey shrugs off the hullabaloo over Hullabaloo as the result of unfortunate camera angles. She offers no apologies for her style and writes off bad reviews as symptoms of confused minds.
For a girl with a fiery reputation, she lives in a remarkably temperate climate. Her home continues to be with mother, father, brother and dog, Mr. Didums, in Rockville Centre. She relaxes by riding and swimming, sometimes bursts out with clothes-buying orgies.
"Somebody takes care of the money, I draw what I need." Her mother accompanies 21-year-old Joey on most road trips, and she dates rarely. "It's too much of a drag to come all the way back from Manhattan on the train with the drunks." ###
Find out more about this hottie!
Joey Heatherton fan site - The new home for Joey Heatherton fans!
Celebrity Nooz - A little on Joey then and now.
Perfect People - Joey Heatherton pictures, posters, photos, cds, memorabilia.
Star Pulse - Joey Heatherton Biography, Discography, Filmography.
The Internet Movie Database - For a complete listing of Joey Heatherton's filmography and more!
What do you think of Joey Heatherton?
- Wow, what a hottie!
- I didn't know much about her.
- I've got a girlfriend that's hotter.
- Not my type.
Blondes Have More Fun - Like These!
History: Who is Joey Heatherton was originally created on Squidoo by JaguarJulie on August 30, 2007. Highest lensrank ever achieved: #506 overall. Lens #103 in the quest for Giant Squid 200 Club.
