Fun Finds: 16 Magazine, November 1963

I've gone and done it again! Out foraging for antiques and collectibles, I stumbled upon this vintage issue of 16 magazine and its promises of stories and pictures of stars from the early-1960s forced me to pick it up and bring it home. Now I share its contents with you! At this stage, 16 Magazine made it a habit to take the heads off various teen idols and attach them to cartoon bodies for the cover and this is an example of that. Note the $0.25 price for an almost 70-page magazine.

One fun facet of the mag is that the inside front (and back) cover is made up of a full color portrait. In this case, it is Pa Cartwright (Lorne Green) and his three sons from Bonanza. (Eldest son Adam, played by Pernell Roberts, would depart the show in 1965.)

This disembodied head thing was popular and found its way into ads/promotions within the magazine as well. Most of the stars look pleased as punch to be popping out of a mailbox this way except George Chakiris seems reticent... By the way, a dollar gets you these stars' business and HOME addresses! Stalk much...?!

Mr. Richard is still kicking today at seventy-six. His acting career didn't wind up too great a success, but he did enjoy a singing career resurgence in the late-'70s and early-'80s. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1995.

I included the contents page because it features photos of stars along the right side. My love of seeing pictures of celebrities in little boxes side by side of one another was satisfied by this publication as you'll notice as we proceed onward.

There is some fun & interesting information about Hayley Mills in this article/interview. She was about seventeen at the time of this issue and was already a popular star after having had only six movies released to that point.

While I have nothing on earth against Miss Mills, I somehow missed getting the gene that so many other people have in which they love, adore and revere her and her work. Maybe some day it will all click and I will join in the mania, but it hasn't happened yet for me.

One interesting thing about this era of 16 magazine is that several of the hottest celebrities among its readership (and Richard Chamberlain was clearly one) are older than one might expect. At the time of this publication, Chamberlain was pushing thirty!

I feel like I might have watched Twilight of Honor (1963) about 25 years ago, looking for young Linda Evans, but it's been way too long for me to recall much about it. I've seen Chamberlain talking about his work with Claude Rains, though, and now I want to see it again.

Chamberlain was heavily featured in this magazine and was a clear favorite of its readers. We know now, of course, that Chamberlain was firmly encased in the closet during this period, which had to have been difficult when every other question posed to him concerned girls and/or dating!

This is the first page of a section called "101 Pix of Chakiris & Beymer" and they weren't kidding! The West Side Story (1961) costars had moved on to other projects, but were still adored by teen fans.

Beymer is a curious case, for his seemingly promising film career came screeching to a halt in 1963 and it was six years before he returned in a low-budget shocker (Scream Free!, 1969, which costarred his other West Side pal Russ Tamblyn.)

As promised, the magazine is loaded down with photos of these two gents. Loyal readers will recall that I have met Mr. Chakiris a couple of times and it was a delightful experience.

And Mr. Beymer gets his fair share...

Surely any fan of these guys would be satiated after this many portraits!

If you're the type who keeps score, there are 50 pictures of Beymer and 51, of Chakiris, hence the 101 pix in all.

Here we have a couple of young actors just then entering their teens. Both of them were already getting close to the end of their acting careers, however. Corcoran was pretty much done by 1968, though he did go on to a prolific career as an assistant director and assitant producer of many TV shows. As for Alford, after 1965's Shenandoah, he found work more and more scarce before exiting the biz in 1972.

I cannot deny that while I've taken a huge interest in movies and TV, I am woefully uneducated about most music. I didn't even know who Brian Hyland was! Turns out he is the vocalist behind the bubble gum pop hit that we've all heard, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini!" After his vocal career began to peter out, he, too, turned to television production.

Sandra Dee seems to be a polarizing figure. For everyone who adores her pert, perky persona, there's another who can't stand her sticky sweet sensibilities on screen. I definitely fall in the category of her admirers.

This article references some of the issues she was having with her marriage to famed singer Bobby Darin, but the worst was either unmentioned or still to come. She suffered from anorexia (during 1959's Imitation of Life, she was sometimes bribed into having a milkshake by makeup man Bud Westmore in exchange for tubes of lipstick!) and later came depression and alcohol abuse. She died of kidney failure in 2005 at only age sixty-two.

Hmmm... I wonder if Michael Landon's desperate efforts have anything to do with his older TV brother Dan "Hoss" Blocker! We'll find out the answer eventually...

This (gentle) gossip section is split between New York and Hollywood. I don't know who "Geegee" was (and apparently with the dark glasses, she didn't want me to know!) I think those who predicted a fling between Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret were on to something! By the way, I always thought Tony Bill (who segued more behind the scenes as the 1970s dawned) was nice looking.

The west coast side of things is handled by child actress turned teen star Lynn Loring. She would later marry Roy Thinnes, become a mom and then ultimately enjoy a lofty position with MGM/UA Television. Notice the blurb for John Anthony Hayes, who many of us recall as the boyfriend of Diane Baker (who replaced a fired Anne Helm) who is given the seduction treatment by Miss Joan Crawford in Strait-Jacket (1964), not "Straight Jacket" as written in the article. Also, Pat Woodell and Gary Clarke, noted as a twosome in the column, did wind up married from 1964-1977. Lynn seemed to know her stuff! 

I never got to see any American Bandstand from this era, but if any of you out there did, you might enjoy this glimpse of some of the regular kids who showed up there and danced themselves silly every day (or, as the case suddenly became, week!)

This two-page spread has Shelley Fabares offering "7 Easy Ways to be POPULAR"

Now, I can't guarantee that if you follow this advice you will suddenly snap all the jaded, scrutinizing heads to attention when you enter the local gay bar, but maybe it will be somewhat entertaining to read nonetheless!

This was an interesting little column with the "hip" slang of the author making note of this or that person. Tippy Walker went on to a brief TV career including several appearances on Dr. Kildare and a decent stint on Peyton Place before turning her attention to the art world. Her costar in The World of Henry Orient (1964) Merrie Spaeth didn't continue acting except for a few guest roles, but began a successful career in communications.

Most of these musical acts' names do not resonate with me at all, but I bet I've heard many of their songs before without ever realizing it!

Guess who?  LOL  This was the left half of a center pin-up.

Yes, this is West Side Story's Russ Tamblyn. The stars of that Oscar-winning musical seemed to really retain impact for a while after its 1961 release.

I made this version of the pinup so you could see him put back together again...

Now we come to Connie Francis offering advice in a column. Her responses (if they were actually written by her) are sound, though Francis had reportedly gone through a tumultuous experience of her own with Bobby Darin. Some dispute it, but she claimed they were close to eloping when her hardcore Italian father ran the singer off.

Another ad with some 8x11 portraits staring back at us. I though you might like to see who was considered hot at this time. (Again, I have to confess I do not know Johnny Tillotson at all!) Fabian Forte and the lesser-known Robert Logan have been profiled here in the past.

With apologies to Mr. Pearson, I just couldn't ever get on board with him as Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie (1963.) Maybe it's because of my adoration of Dick Gautier, who originated the role on Broadway. In any case, I think my feelings are borne out by the fact that his career on screen was over within a few years (and he only acted in one other movie.) Everett, on the other hand, was and is a fave. His greatest success (Medical Center) was yet to come.

A local "over the air" station has recently been re-running The Lieutenant, allowing me to see some of Gary Lockwood's work on the short-lived show. His most well-known project was likely 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) though he guest-starred on countless TV shows over his long career. He is still with us today at eighty.

James Franciscus is another example of an actor nearing thirty being considered a teen idol in this magazine. But who could blame them?! He has his very own tribute here, too!

Another ad and some more portrait photos arranged in boxes. Now, you know by this point that I am half batshit crazy so OF COURSE I went back to see if this picture of George Chakiris is one of the 51 photos printed earlier in the magazine. (And it is.)

Page two of the same ad. Everyone was so CLEAN and GROOMED (and, okay, I'll say it... white.)

Wow. This page, the debut of a new segment, states that the issues of the magazine are finalized two whole months before hitting the stands. That had to have been hard to handle when trying to remain current. I have to say I was never too hot on Philippe Forquet, who had been considered the handsomest young actor since Montgomery Clift. His on-screen career was all wrapped up by the late-'70s, though he is still with us today at age seventy-seven.

Here you go, Annette Funicello fans! The many faces of an ex-Mouseketeer. Enjoy all the corny jokes (and artwork!), too!

You don't know DICK... until you've read all of the chapters of his life in this continuing feature. Like I said, he was very, very hot at the time.

Lest you think that Johnny Crawford ONLY has hates, this is but page one of a two-page spread (and some loves do kick in at the bottom of the second column.)

By the standards of some of the folks in this issue, Crawford is a pup at age seventy today. He turned to orchestra leading later in life and has enjoyed a second career in that vein. (He also waited until 1995 to marry, but they've been together for close to thirty years now.)

Now we get to see what was making Michael Landon grimace so back in the earlier part of the magazine. BTW, Marcia Goldstein, if you're out there leave us a comment on how things went with your prize poodle!

Here we find fresh-faced Bobby Vinton who (in something I actually have some degree of trouble imagining) was headlining a production of The Music Man! Mr. Vinton is still going today at eighty-one (and remains married to the one and only wife he wed in 1962.)

As we've seen in other Fun Finds, Paul Petersen was another very, very popular teen star around this time. This photo montage depicts his foray onto the stage (in Cleveland, Ohio!)

He looks cute as a bug during this period. I had no choice but to chuckle, though, at the thought of this movie and TV veteran (even then in the midst of a long run on The Donna Reed Show) being put up in a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge!

This is a pretty detailed account of what it might be like to go on a date with Michael Anderson Jr. It isn't written by Lynn Loring (at least not credited), but she'd just gone out with him and even met up with Sal Mineo and Jill Haworth!

This seems like something I might have done... gone over the upcoming TV shows and marked which ones I wanted to watch. However, I was usually very reluctant to write in my magazines.

I remember one time as a freshman in college, I was doing the TV Guide crossword puzzle with a pen that included a small highlighter in the opposite tip and this stupid bitch spread a rumor (which refused to die) that I was sitting there highlighting my TV Guide as to what shows I would be watching. What made me mad was that she wouldn't believe me and insinuated that I was lying about it and I make it a personal habit never to lie. But I do love this array of celebrity heads!

Here's Geegee again, this time to announce the (write-in) winners of the 2nd Annual Gold Star Awards (this sounds like one of my infamous fictional events over at Krazy Kaptions!) I feel terrible that I have never even heard of "Female Star of Tomorrow" Candy Moore, but then again she didn't exactly set the world on fire (and for whatever reason, the sequence of The Lucy Show, in which she played Lucille Ball's daughter, is rarely rerun that I have ever seen.) I also have no recollection of the Singers of Tomorrow, Mike Clifford or Dee Dee Sharp.

This last section is devoted to letters, some of which are of mild interest. I scanned it because there are more celebrity photos included.

Some of you might recall Randy Boone from my recent tribute to the hooty Terminal Island (1973.)

The story about Johnny Mathis is nice, though I'm glad the girl wasn't heading to see Bill Cosby! As for the photo of Roy Thinnes (then of General Hospital), "Ray Thinnens?" Really??

The back inside cover features a color, head-to-toe portrait of The King, which means we've reached the end of this Fun Find.

What's fun, though is that the back cover also has more star photos, not a random ad! One thing I loved about this magazine was that all of the articles were done on one or two pages, not flipping to the back for reams and reams of babbling copy. And most, if not all, of the ads were associated with the magazine or with photos of the stars, not all sorts of junk and debris.

And because I love y'all and didn't want anyone to crane his or her neck, I scanned the back page upside down so that you could see Lynn, James, Shelley and Gary right-side-up! Till next time!