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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Inge Jaklyn: Adventures Of A Beauty Queen in Hollywood

All photos:  Alan Mercer   make-up:  Anthony Cody 

Inge Jaklyn was born and grew up in Vienna, Austria. She is a remarkable woman who has had a fascinating life. She is an honest to God 'Beauty Queen' who happens to be a down to earth, intelligent and talented actress. Not content to be a mere pretty face and statuesque body, she studied her craft at some of the best acting schools and did her share of theater, one production after the other, playing a wide range of characters.

She has recently returned to the screen with appearances in two films, 'Pooltime' which is out now on DVD and 'The Visitor From Planet Omicron' being released after the first of the year.

I met Inge through Tom Tangen. She is a warm and delightful person. I'm so pleased to be able to share some of my experience with her.


AM: Inge, I don't know very much about you but one thing I do know is you've had a fascinating and full life.

IJ: I certainly have. I started out when I was nine.

AM: What did you do first?

IJ: I went to a professional children's theater. At the age of sixteen I won a fabulous newspaper contest.

AM: A contest for what?

IJ: They were looking for a young woman who could be a 'Film Star of Tomorrow.' I won this contest over 2200 women. I got contracts from three film companies. I did play the Empress Carlotta of Mexico in a film by Ernst Marischka, who was a very famous filmmaker at the time.  When I was seventeen my mother insisted we drive out to the country where they were crowning a Rose Queen. Of course whatever my mother wanted had to happen. She was a very strong-willed stage mom.

AM: Were you a little insecure at the contest?

IJ: I knew I would not be Rose Queen because the man who owned the property we were on, had a daughter in the contest. So I knew she would win. The people wanted me to win however so there was a controversy. I became the first Rose Princess.

AM: When did you learn English?

IJ: I had learned it in high school and business school.

AM: When did you become Miss Austria?

IJ: At age twenty I was crowned Miss Vienna and ten days later when I turned twenty-one I became Miss Austria. This brought me to the United States in the Miss International Beauty Pageant.

AM: What year was this?

IJ: This was 1962 in Long Beach. I had very nice chaperones, a husband and wife, and they invited me to stay with them in their house after the pageant.

AM: Did you want to stay in California?

IJ: I was enchanted about America and California, all of it... Long Beach, Hollywood.

AM: So you stayed. What did you do?

IJ: First I got a call from the head of casting at MGM. I read some lines and they told me if I ever come back they were sure they could use me and had work for me. "With the age range that you are we certainly can cast you." I have my heart set to immigrate to the United States now.

AM: What was something exciting you did at this time?

IJ: I worked with the Harlem Globetrotters in Hawaii when they were world champions. They wanted me to kick off the game. I don't play basketball! They told me just take the ball out there and throw it up, so I did that and one of them grabbed the ball and with his little finger, and spun it around before throwing it through the hoop. The game was started!

AM: That's very cool.

IJ: Then the bowling team that won the championship wanted their trophy presented to them from me by the pool of the hotel. They wanted me to wear this very pretty sky blue bikini with white dots. So I presented them with their trophy and there was a huge amount of press.

AM: So this is how you really started making appearances?

IJ: Then I got a call from London that I was going to be a participant in the Miss World Pageant and I had to be there in one week and I was in Los Angeles! I was at the airport and a gentleman heard me speaking German and asked me if I was from Austria. I said, "Yes I am from Vienna." He told me his name and that he was president of Anglo Fabrics and he was flying to Colorado and would I join him.

AM: That's quite the invitation!

IJ: So I went with him to Colorado on my way to New York. Then he said he had business in Vienna and several mills in New York. I told him how much I would love to immigrate to the United States and he told me it was my lucky day and that he would sponsor me!

AM: That's a fairytale!

IJ: It was absolutely meant for me to come to Hollywood. What I had to do immediately was take out a working permit. Now I get a call from Paris asking me if I would like to go to Australia for about four months and model Christian Dior.

AM: This is unbelievable!

IJ: I would be going to Australia with three other Beauty Queens, Miss Iceland, Miss Denmark and Miss Japan. It paid very well and I thought why not. Then I got a call saying the trip was cancelled so we are going to Africa!

AM: Where did you go in Africa?

IJ: We went all over, up the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast to Angola all over with police escorts in five star hotels. I had nothing to do until my immigration permit was ready so I went. We had rehearsals in Paris with beautiful fashions by Christian Dior. We each had a fantasy costume and I was assigned The Bluebird of Happiness that came at the end of the fashion show.

AM: What was Angola like?

IJ: In Angola I looked out the window and a big red thing flew by and I asked what kind of bird it was and I was told it was a butterfly. I thought that's a big butterfly! Then another one zoomed by but it was green. We had strawberries everyday. It was a tremendous adventure.

AM: So how did you get 'into" Hollywood?

IJ: I worked for the German Broadcast reading their commercials and helping in the office. There was a very lovely woman at the apartments where I rented. She happened to know Jack Rose, the manager of Robert Comings, and she introduced me to him.

AM: Did he help you?

IJ: He introduced me to someone else and eventually I got an introduction to Joe Pasternak, who was producing all these movies with Elvis Presley. I went to Joe Pasternak's fabulous Bel Air Estate on Bellagio Road. Instantly he really liked me. He just went for blondes. He was one of those types. He invited me for lunch where I met his niece Judy.

AM: Did he put you to work?

IJ: He cast me in 'Made In Paris' starring Ann-Margret. I play a sales girl at a very high class department store. I had no car all this time and I needed to get to Culver City so Mr. Pasternick had his niece Judy pick me up every day. She had a red convertible. I was taken into Pasternick's family just like I was a member.

AM: You made a couple of appearances on a popular TV show 'Hogan's Heroes.'

IJ: I had two 'Hogan's Heroes.' One in sixty-five and one in sixty-six. But the more interesting story is my audition for 'It Takes A Thief ' with Robert Wagner. At the audition they asked if I could play a beauty queen who plays the accordion, like I was in real life, but could I do it in a bikini? But, when the show aired, I was the opening and it looked like I was playing the accordion naked! You couldn't see anything was on me. I looked naked! What can you do? It was one of those things!

AM: How did you react when you saw the show?

IJ: It gave me a gasp. I felt tricked into it. However you don't want to complain because you will get a bad reputation. You can really strike out in Hollywood!

AM: So you continued working.

IJ: The producers liked me so much I got called back for a second show. Then I got a call asking me about being in the film 'In Like Flint' starring James Coburn. They needed Flint Girls and Amazons. The producer and my agent insisted on me being an Amazon. My agent because it was a lot more pay than a Flint Girl, but the Flint Girls got more exposure.

AM: You really had some momentum going.

IJ: Now comes 'The Stars of The World' Talent Pageant in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but it is only one week before I have to be in Jamaica. This was the worst adventure, so horrendous.

AM: What happened?

IJ: On my last day in New York I took a cab to the airport and they asked for my visiting visa. I said, "What visiting visa?" You are not an American citizen and can't get into Jamaica. I told them I had a contract and I was expected to be on the set. The captain of the plane called and spoke to the director.

AM: What did you do?

IJ: I had to go back into New York City and go to the Jamaican Embassy and get the visa. I raced back to the airport the next day, got to Jamaica only to find out when I landed there had been a tropical storm and I was unable to get to the hotel because the road was blocked.

AM: I bet you weren't used to this?

IJ: I had to spend the night at some tropical house with two guards. I was so upset. The next day the streets were clear and I was able to get to the set. Then I was told how lucky I was. They said if this storm hadn't occurred I would have been a day late and they wouldn't have been able to use me at all.

AM: Inge you do have a lucky star!

IJ: We ended up doing many photo shoots and traveling to New York to Dodger Stadium where I had the great honor to meet Sandy Colfax which was really nice.

AM: Tell me about the movie you just wrapped.

IJ: That is 'The Visitor From Planet Omicron' where I have 121 pages of dialogue. It was ten days straight through, sometimes twelve hours a day. I play a woman who has bridge parties with other women. One day her doorbell rings and there's an Alien from Omicron. He gets involved in the lives of me and my son. It's a very funny movie.



Some of Inge's tiarras and trophies

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