Sandy Warner: Beyond Exotica

[This thread was formerly titled " The Exotica Girl in The Twilight Zone "]

As newbies are wont to do, I was digging around TCs archive and was surprised to find little discussion of Sandy Warner outside of her role as Martin Denny's cover model. As was expected of entertainers of her era, Warner did a little bit of everything: dancing, modeling, singing, . . . and acting -- including two guest parts on The Twilight Zone. I find it amusing that two of her acting appearances with the most longevity both have some connection to Exotica or the lounge scene of the day. Her first episode has her appearing in a leopard print dress. And her second episode has her playing a dancer in a nightclub.

Anyway, here's a look back. Take special note that, unlike Martin Denny's album covers where "sultry" and "mysterious" was expected, here Warner actually gets to smile:

"TWILIGHT ZONE: A NICE PLACE TO VISIT"
Two-bit crook Rocky Valentine (Larry Blyden) makes his way to an after-life which he didn't expect. Warner played "Beautiful Girl #1," one of Valentine's after-life molls.

"TWILIGHT ZONE: THE DUMMY"
A ventriloquist (Cliff Robertson) has a battle of wills with his own dummy. Warner plays "Noreen," a dancer in a chorus line.

[ Edited by: Baron von Tiki 2010-05-29 18:50 ]

Excellent post and screen grabs BVT! :D

Oh cool! I LOVE the Twilight Zone. Now I'll have to rewatch those episodes.

Thanks for posting :)

Wow! And I just discovered (thank you, Internet) that she was also in Point Blank as a waitress. I just re-watched that a couple of weeks ago and now I'm going to have to re-re-watch it. Good job it's a great movie.

Cool info, thanks Baron!!

I alway wondered what other things she did.

Now if we can just dig up some modeling photos!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

Do any of you remember the pre-Explorer/Firefox/Mozilla early days of the internet, when Netscape was the only browser? Netscape had an animated icon located at the upper right corner, which would show 'progress' being made whenever a document was being downloaded onto your browser - I believe it showed some meteor type action (This was in the dial-up modem days)

Some brilliant fellow on the Exotica music list figured out how to replace that official Netscape animation sequence with some tiny photographs of Sandy Warner. It was wonderful - as documents were downloaded to your PC, Sandy Warner would slowly wink at you.

Documents may download today much faster than they did back then, but certainly not with the same charm.

Vern

Hot dog! If you give yourself some time to dig, you never know what you'll turn up.

According to Sandra Warner's IMDB page, she was uncredited as 'Emily,' a member of Sweet Sue's all-girl band, in the Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe film Some Like It Hot. Grace Lee Whitney, best known as Yeoman Janice Rand in the original Star Trek, was also an uncredited member of Sweet Sue's band in the movie.

When the US Postal Service unveiled the Marilyn Monroe postage stamp, they reunited Tony Curtis with the remaining members of Sweet Sue's band. So, guess what shows up on page 187 of Grace Lee Whitney's book, The Longest Trek: My Tour of The Galaxy: A photo of that reunion circa 1995! Here's that photo. Sandra Warner's on the far right:

More digging revealed discovery of an extra on the Some Like It Hot Collector's Edition DVD: "Memories of The Sweet Sues," in which Warner, circa 2001, reminisces about her time in the production of the movie. So people wanting to see modern video of Sandra Warner need only rent Some Like It Hot.

Even more digging reveals Ms Warner once again reminiscing about the movie in this Facebook blog entry from The Egyptian Theater when they hosted a 50th Anniversary showing of Some Like It Hot. Included with the blog is this photo of the Sweet Sues again, circa 2009. Warner is the one in white.

So, in answer to the question "Whatever happened to Sandra Warner ?," we can say that she's still around and, hopefully, still collecting residuals checks from all the work she's done over the years.

[[[((8-0))]]]
The Super Secret Sigil of The Electric Tiki Society(tm)

[ Edited by: Baron von Tiki 2010-06-14 18:47 ]

It's nice to hear that she's still around. And we all get older, but with no disrespect to Ms. Warner or to you for this nice thread on her, I'd really prefer to keep the image of her in my mind as this, if you don't mind. :)

That cover was perhaps my first experience with Exotica (and thus Tiki), thanks to Sandy Warner's seductive looks. I just didn't know it then. It will always remind me of the changing attitudes and evolving cultural consciousness we experience throughout life (as mentioned in this thread:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=36023&forum=11&11 ):

I first came upon this LP at the American Forces Thrift Store in Berlin in the early 70s. Still a late teen, I was into David Bowie and Iggy Pop and the Stooges back then, yet I fell in love with the title and image of this cover. But there was no way on earth I would have considered listening to the music on that album, so clearly was it "old style" to me then. And I certainly would have never guessed that 30 years later I would be in Hawaii and meet the artist who recorded the album (thanks to Gecko) and even later include his music on a compilation I would publish. But Sandy Warner's timeless beauty spoke to me beyond the Generation Gap! :)

Great research, Baron.

Yes, excellent research! I didn't even know she had an IMDB entry.
I kind of agree with Rob above, in that the "mystique" of our Sandy off in some unknown limbo is shattered (a bit like when Theakston & the guys from The Betty Pages discovered Bettie Page and ushered her back into the spotlight), but it's great to see she's doing so well and (of course) that she's still alive and healthy.

On 2010-04-09 14:37, GatorRob wrote:
It's nice to hear that she's still around. And we all get older, but with no disrespect to Ms. Warner or to you for this nice thread on her, I'd really prefer to keep the image of her in my mind as this, if you don't mind. :)

[image of PRIMITIVA album cover]

Yeah, I know. She's old enough to be our mother or grandmother today. In fact, she and my father were born just over three weeks apart -- which means she was 25 in 1960 and turned 75 a month ago.

And while I (really) like the PRIMITIVA album cover also, I'm one of those guys who has to go beyond the still image or flickering film and discover the real person behind it. It adds some substance to the illusions on the album cover or movie screen.

The thing that boggles my mind, though, is my discovery that there wasn't just one Exotica Girl. Technically, there were TWO: Ms. Warner has a twin sister named Sonia !

[ Edited by: Baron von Tiki 2010-04-21 22:25 ]

Here's an interesting pic: Sandra Warner (center) made up to look like Marilyn Monroe for a promotional shot for the film Some Like It Hot. For whatever reason, Monroe was unavailable for the shoot. Tony Curtis is on the left and Jack Lemmon is on the right.

WOW!!!! What a beautiful shot.

Thanks Baron!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

Okay, thought I'd add a few more up here, but I don't have the aptitude at the moment to make the caps look cool with the awesome logo's & lettering BvT added:

as "Frankie Topps" in The Fugitive ("Chinese Sunset", 1966)

as "Gina" in The Untouchables ("Element of Danger", 1962) While she only gets a tiny role here, it's worth finding anyways for Lee Marvin in an awesome over-the-top performance.

and as "Stephanie Carew" in Perry Mason ("The Case of the Bountiful Beauty", 1964)

Wow! These are great! She looks so different in these roles -- a real crime novel femme fatale. As for the "cool lettering and logos," don't worry about it. You, too, can spend four years and thousands of dollars on a graphic designer's degree like I did. But I hardly think it's worth it just to label screen-grabs. :D

Thanks for adding to the thread. Again, they were great !

An artful life well lived and still being lived. Bless her.

Good on Sandy and thanks to her, for being her. And to Tiki Centralites, for your contributions.

Here's another Sandy Warner album cover I found in a thrift store: It's PolyPop. . . but it's NOT a Martin Denny cover !

That's Sandy!? I've had this album for like ten years and never knew!

The one without the guitar is also Sandy Warner:

The Hugo album cover is beautiful; 'have to look for one.

Hooray for Sandy being who she is and what she gives Exotica Culture!

Hey! Now that the thread's been brought back I can add this:

...from Bonanza, sixth season I believe, titled "The Scapegoat" from 1964. First cap with George Kennedy who tries to woo Sandy. Not too great an episode otherwise.
Then again, I was always Big Valley > Bonanza...