Chatterboxing Once Again!

I'm afraid I've gone and recorded yet another podcast. This one is special to me because it constitutes my very first "celebrity interview!" I was asked to co-host an installment of "True Stories of Tinseltown," one of the podcasts on which I was once a guest myself, as child actress Kathy Garver was brought on for an interview.

Garver, who is likely best-known for her role as Cissy Davis on the sitcom Family Affair (1966-1971), enjoyed a startlingly lengthy career as a performer which continues to this day. Dancing away on stage at age three, she proceeded to roles on television and movies opposite many of the top stars of the day. You will be surprised at some of the people she rubbed elbows with over her career as a child actress and - fortunately for us - she has a very good memory.

At the time of the recording, I was STILL battling a serious upper respiratory infection (but there was no way in hell I was going to miss the chance to take part!) Also, because there were three of us, there are times when we sort of step on one another, mostly at first. And I, uncharacteristically I think, seemed to have a higher number of "uhs" and "ums" than I usually do when speaking publicly... I'll blame the meds and also my excitement and enthusiasm over chit-chatting with a famous person.

Miss Garver is now seventy-two and is exceedingly charming, well-spoken and captivating to listen to. I know that even if you were never a fan of Family Affair, you will find her recollections and reflections on the people and projects she was involved with to be refreshing and interesting. I took pains to come up with questions I thought she might not have been asked before in her many previous interviews and it seemed as if she found that refreshing (I felt that it showed in her voice and remarks.)

She is the author of a few books (an autobiography, a book on former child performers and now a cookbook) and remains highly active as a guest speaker and also as an actress in various independent projects.

The fact (which I did not have time to mention or ask about) that she provided the voice for Firestar on the animated Saturday morning kids series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends as well as those of Rima the jungle girl and Hawkgirl on The Super Friends has assured her a spot at various Comic-Cons as well.

After the interview with Ms. Garver ends about 30 minutes in, we continue to flap our gums about Family Affair, Anissa Jones, Kym Karath, Little House on the Prairie, vintage daytime soaps, etc... If you listen, I hope you enjoy it. Here is a link to the recording.

Fun Finds: Movie Stars Magazine, March 1968

This edition of Fun Finds was made possible by a grant from one of our loyal readers. A surprise care package arrived in the mail with several vintage magazines and this was one of them! On the cover are Miss Nancy Sinatra and the four popular Lennon Sisters. (This is one rare time in which I actually prefer Peggy's hairdo to Kathy's - and look how dark Dianne's is! I wonder if someone colorized it incorrectly...) Let's dig in and see what we find within its covers.

There's nothing at all unusual about a feminine protection advertisement in a magazine of this sort, but usually the models aren't wearing huge sanitary napkins themselves! LOL I hope the poor dear doesn't spill any red wine on this dress at dinner (though it will probably soak right into the "soft impressions" and no one would notice...)

This gossip section, authored by famous columnist Army Archerd, touches on the then-fresh split between Tony Curtis and his second wife Christine Kaufmann (the girl he left Janet Leigh for.) He would wed four more times before his death in 2010. Army refers to Sonny Bono's "high-powered" music! James Coburn's wife Beverly hung in there until 1979. What about the "date" between Lainie Kazan and Richard Chamberlain (in mime makeup)? 

Interesting to note that Frank Sinatra offered Candice Bergen the Mia Farrow role in The Detective (after he fired - and divorced - her for not leaving Rosemary's Baby to report to his movie.) The part was ultimately fulfilled by Jacqueline Bisset. Interesting that Roman Polanski's name is misspelled with a "y" on the end. Susan Hayward actually didn't make another movie until 1972, five years after Dolls. The previous owner of the magazine filled out this contest entry chit, but didn't clip and mail it in!

It's interesting to read the take on Lee Marvin and Michelle Triola's live-in arrangement when you know that six years after they broke up in 1970, she sued him, in a landmark case, for what became known in slang as "palimony." She wanted $1.8 million as well as $104K for "rehabilitation purposes," but wound up with $0.00.  It remains a tough row to hoe for those who pursue it with "cohabitation agreements" a common bit of advice to unmarried couples living together. Marlo Thomas never did marry this man. She wed for the first time in 1980 (at age 43) to Phil Donahue, who she'd met on his talk show three years prior.

This chatty section is far cattier than Archerd's column, picking at celebrity relatives who aren't as successful as their kin and taking Debbie Reynolds to task for her style choices. The wedding referred to in the caption for George Hamilton's photo was that of President Lyndon Johnson's daughter Lynda Bird Johnson, who Hamilton dated for a time.

The column continues onto this page, with another feature "Talk to the Stars" beginning as well. Pics include the kids from Family Affair and a trio of Kings (thus representing but a fraction of The King Family!) The Q&A section kicks off with a couple intended for then-hot Sajid Khan (whose Hollywood career only extended a few years after this, though he continued to act sporadically up to the millennium.) Incidentally, if you're curious about Barbara Bain's answer, she said that they had a pact to always work together and held out for the opportunity. Also, that the difficulty came in trying to keep up with his marvelous talent.

As "Talk to the Stars" continues, there's a question for Roger Ewing, an actor I'd never even heard of. After looking him up, I see he was a recurring cast member on Gunsmoke, appeared on several other shows and in some movies before concentrating on photography from the early-'70s on. He was reportedly a contender for the title role in Midnight Cowboy before Jon Voight won the part.

This periodical is big on slipping the text in-between columns of ads versus the more common method of lumping ads together on whole pages. For those that enjoy the vintage advertisements, this is a plus in your book! This continuation of the earlier gossip column reflects on Miss Dina Merrill's loss of social standing when she married an actor and has a Star Trek era pic of Leonard Nimoy, minus the pointed ears. Interesting that as early as 1968 Newman and McQueen were debating billing should they ever team up (which they memorably did in 1974's The Towering Inferno.) Donna Reed's husband at this time only lasted until 1971. Three years after that, she wed for a third and final time.

Ending on this page, we read about Eve Arden's children who may be pursuing show business careers. Connie doesn't appear to have gone on to much, but her youngest son (Douglas Brooks West) did a fair amount of writing, directing and producing as an adult. On a happy note, Mark Slade did indeed marry Melissa in 1968 and they remain together still today!

Robert Culp's marriage to France Nuyen lasted less than three years. He wed two more times while she remained single after 1970. At the bottom is a pic of Lynda Bird Johnson and her groom Chuck Robb. They remain wed to this day.

Having wed in 1960, Sammy Davis Jr. and Swedish actress May Britt faced a considerable uphill battle. (In fact, interracial marriage was forbidden by law in 31 states, eventually being accepted in 14 of them until 1967 when a Supreme Court ruling allowed for them countrywide.)

Having created one child and adopted two more, one might think they had a chance for enduring happiness, but it all fell apart in 1968 (Davis had become involved with frequent co-performer Lola Falana, though May gets all the blame in this article.) Britt (who had been wed once before him and did marry again after Davis) is still alive today at eighty-three. Davis had a successful third marriage in 1970 which lasted until his death in 1990 at age sixty-four. As for the bottom of the sidebar, Dean Martin rather foolishly ended his marriage to Jeanne in 1973 and married once more directly after, but it was over in three years. Joey Bishop stayed with his wife until her death in 1999.

Most folks, especially those who've read this blog (or as noted above!), know that the biggest fissure in Frank Sinatra & Mia Farrow's marriage came when she failed to report to The Detective because Rosemary's Baby was running over schedule and she (rightly, in retrospect) sensed it was going to be a landmark film while her part in The Detective could have been done by virtually anybody. 

The angle in this piece is that both Frank and Sammy were facing down divorce at virtually the same time. She had actually taken time during Baby to visit him on Detective, trying to keep their union alive, but when she missed the start date for her supporting role, she was served with divorce papers almost immediately after.

Say it isn't so? Cissy from Family Affair a slut?

Of course it's not true. One of the guys was a man she was paired with on The Dating Game and the other two were her brother (!) and his friend. Typical bait & switch headline.

Actor Frank Converse

Converse had been the lead on a failed amnesia-centered series called Coronet Blue before doing the show referenced in this article, N.Y.P.D., which focused on three police detectives: Jack Warden, Converse and Robert Hooks. He arguably became better known from the mid-'70s trucker series Movin' On with Claude Akins, but enjoyed a long career that extended to 2012. He's seventy-nine today.

Who knew that at one point Davy Jones and Sally Field enjoyed a series of dates together!?

The angle on this story is that he was the guest brought in to crown a Miss Teen International during a pageant in which she was taking part (but didn't win) and gave her a kiss then. But later during The Flying Nun they went on some dates. It didn't last terribly long because she wed first husband Steve Craig in 1968. Jones also wed in '68, but it was kept under wraps to avoid upsetting his teen fans from The Monkees. He had been married three times by the time of his death in 2012 at only age sixty-six.

Here's Davy Jones sidled up to two of Dean Martin's daughters!

Dean was proud of all his children, but Dean Paul Martin (who, for a time went by Dino and was in the music act Dino, Desi & Billy) was a particular favorite. Dean Paul had been married and divorced from both Olivia Hussey and Dorothy Hamel when he died in a National Guard-related plane crash at only age thirty-five. His father was never the same after that. Deana Martin had a thriving music/acting career in the 1960s, later turning to live performance (in Branson, MO, for example) and then recordings produced by her husband.

Here we find a splashy, two-page spread of paparazzi photos featuring Peter O'Toole and then-wife Sian Phillips.

The text refers to her as "ex-actress" though she wasn't exactly idle! She was raising their two children, but still worked occasionally and, in fact, had two films released in 1969. In 1976 came her most striking work, likely, as Livia in I, Claudius on the BBC. They divorced in 1979 after two decades of marriage and Ms. Phillips is eighty-four now. (After O'Toole, she was wed for a dozen years to actor Robin Sachs.)

Now, the cover story, about Nancy Sinatra and The Lennon Sisters (two acts you typically don't associate with one another!) "leaving the men they love. Though it is carefully done, Nancy was NOT in the middle of the sisters during this photo. She's been sneakily cut and pasted in!

The gist of the story is that The Lennon Sisters were departing The Lawrence Welk Show, where they began, to star on Jimmy Durante Presents The Lennon Sisters. The variety show was marred by the uneasy combination of costars, compounded by the horrifying murder of their father by a deranged fan in 1969. And as it turns out, Nancy wasn't leaving anyone! Her collaborator Lee Hazlewood was striking out on his own and moving to Sweden. After many 1960s hits, they reunited in the early-'70s to less fanfare.

Maureen O'Hara kicks off a two-part feature about her life and beliefs.

I thought it was fascinating that in 1968 she says about too much idle time for young people: "There are many, many conveniences, too. What it used to take hours to do, it now takes only minutes." Good lord, it must be seconds now! I've seen sweeping changes since I came along in 1967! She later goes into how she won a screen test at age sixteen and eventually came to Hollywood.

This feature, a continuing series "Complete Pocket Guide to Hollywood," offers photos and little thumbnail bios of any and all stars of movies and TV at that time. Equal weight is given to people whether they were Oscar-winning legends or regulars on a TV show.

As this installment only goes from Kellerman to Knotts and appeared in a monthly magazine, one assumes it took quite a while to amass the entire "pocket" guide! (They must have had bigger pockets than me...!)

Lynn Loring was a child soap actress (on Search for Tomorrow) who grew up and found much work on television. Thinnes also began on a soap (General Hospital) and later starred in the short-lived shows The Long, Hot Summer and The Invaders. And, of course, had a role in Airport 1975, making him a member of our "Disaster Movie Club."

The couple (who, according to the text met in 1964, though Thinnes was married until 1967 to his first wife!) seemed to have a successful union, working together often in the late-'60s and 1970s, divorced in 1984. She didn't remarry, but he did two more times.

I'm sorta doubting it...

I have to say I've never seen either of the movies featuring these two stars together. Anyway, all the text is just a bunch of gibberish to provide a reason for these press shots taken upon Rock's arrival in Rome for filming.

Wrapping up, I close with a couple of ads and one page that had more writing on it from our magazine's original owner. Again, he didn't clip and send it in, but maybe he was ashamed of his mess-up and scratch-outs. LOL

Kicky, '60s bargain fashions.

Finally, this lunatic ad that promises to increase cleavage to an eye-popping degree with Mark Eden exercises using a clamshell-like device... The company was indicted for mail fraud and these ads (and the "product") were withdrawn by the early-1970s.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm in the midst of learning a new position at work (after 17 years in the same one!), so it's been tough to gather time for posting. I hope that I'll be able to keep everything rolling as 2018 dawns, though it may result in some briefer, less-involved postings. I'll be back as soon as it's feasible!  Thanks.

Buffed Out...

As ruler of The Underworld, I typically try to make it a place of fun and frolic or a domain from which to highlight some of those folks who (in my opinion) may not have received their full due. I endeavor to stay away from the negative (except where my own inherent cattiness is concerned, of course!) because the surface world is already filled to the brim with bad news. That said, today’s story is a tragic one without a happy ending, but I can at least hope (actually, know) that the body of work left behind by our subject still brings happiness to myself and others.

Our story begins in March of 1958 in West Lafayette, Indiana where a faculty member, Dr. John Paul Jones, and his master’s student wife, Paula, gave birth to a little daughter named Mary Anissa Jones. Paula was of Lebanese descent and the child’s middle name (pronounced Ah-NEE-Sah) meant “little friend” in that language. A little over a year later, a baby brother, Paul, arrived.

The family having moved to California while the children were still toddlers, young Jones was enrolled in dance class at the age of four. Her troupe was asked to perform on The Linkletter Show, hosted, of course, by Art Linkletter, a very famous figure in reality television throughout the ‘50s and beyond. Linkletter was renowned for his ability to interact with children and hosted several shows featuring them.

Called upon to do a cartwheel, she failed the first time and picked herself up to try again, this time nailing it. Already a determined and dedicated little trooper to whatever task she was assigned, she was mortified by her (initial) failure and cried all the way home, though the studio audience was captivated by the adorable doll of a girl.

Soon after, through a friend of her mother’s who had a child in commercials, Jones began auditioning for and landing jobs in advertising. She appeared in close to two-dozen commercials before the age of eight.

Television producer Don Fedderson was putting together a new series called Family Affair, all about the misadventures of a New York City bachelor used to living in his Manhattan high rise with only a valet/butler, but who is forced to take on the task of raising his two nieces and a nephew. The script called for a fifteen year-old girl, a ten year-old boy and another girl, aged six. Anissa Jones auditioned for the part (though she was actually eight) and won it thanks to her extra youthful looks and her utterly charming personality and acting talent.

When none of the boys seemed to be lighting a fire with the casting directors, the series star Brian Keith suggested a little boy he’d recently worked on in the film The Russians are Coming the Russians are Coming who had the ability to cry on cue. Young redhead Johnnie Whitaker was cast in the role, but his tender age of six required a shift in the concept. He and Jones were written as fraternal twins, Buffy and Jody, while Cathy Garver was cast as their older sister, Cissy. (In another example of the age tweaking that goes on in Hollywood, Garver was almost twenty-one at the time!) Ironically, the children were depicted as being from Terre Haute, Indiana, a city not far from Jones’ own birthplace.

This was in 1966 and the year before, Anissa Jones’ parents had divorced. It was not an amicable split and so her home life was surely no picnic. In the series, portraying an orphan shuttled here and there, she didn’t have to reach far to obtain the forlorn, dejected qualities that her character initially displayed. The first couple of episodes of Family Affair highlighted the adjustments that had to be made for this newly formed unit and the misunderstandings that were brought about when a single man takes on three youngsters.

Soon, however, the quintet solidified into a warm gaggle, falling victim only to the regular sort of issues that would befall any family (or, since this was television, let’s say almost any family!) Rotund Sebastian Cabot portrayed the fastidious, efficient, British butler whose household and lifestyle are upended even more than his employer’s by the arrival of the children. His exasperation eventually melted into affection, of course, and the vision of this large man with a tiny twin on each side became an iconic one.

Shortly into the run of the show, Cabot was stricken with bleeding ulcers in real life and had to exit the program for a while. In his absence (the character was called upon to return to England for a spell by no less than Her Majesty the Queen), John Williams stepped in as his brother and took over the combination of butler/nanny duties until Cabot could return, forty or so pounds lighter than when he’d left!

Initially, Jones referred to Cabot as Mr. Cabot, but as their interpersonal relationship as fellow actors developed, she took to calling him “Sabby” as all his friends did. When her cat Tiger (a gift from Brian Keith) had kittens, she named one of them Sabby in his honor.

Keith had in real life suffered the loss of a child when his eight year-old son Michael died from a sudden case of pneumonia. This potentially devastating event did continue to chip at his heart, but he and his wife adopted three children to go with their surviving daughter, so he knew a little something about raising an unorthodox family.

The series was saccharine, occasionally immensely so, but it was also pleasant, charming, tender, amusing and, probably most of all, cute. The “hook” of an unconventional family at the center of a sitcom was still a rather new thing (something Nanny and the Professor and The Brady Bunch would expand on. In fact, Susan Olsen, Cindy on The Brady Bunch, won her role on the series with the same curly ponytails that Jones sported on Family Affair and would, like Jones, be forced into wearing them until long after they were age appropriate.)

Anissa Jones had a precious, but still quite natural, manner that was so appealing. She somehow had a distant, thoughtful type of visage and a sweet little voice that sometimes had a plaintive quality to it, especially when she was asking questions that she didn’t know the know the answer to. For me, some of the cutest moments of Family Affair are simply watching the excitement in the children when “Uncle Bill” comes home after a long trip. I find these ecstatic bits to be even more endearing than the scripted “special” scenes supplied by the writers. Nevertheless, Both children were cuter than cute though Jones, perhaps, holds a special place in my heart because my little sister (thirteen years my junior) was almost a carbon copy of her. I would never post pictures of my sister here, but the resemblance is startling. It continued to be there as she grew into her teens (although my sister was a hopeless brat while Jones was always visible only in an idealized way.)

One thing that was admirably forward about the often cutesy and cloying program was its use of children from varied walks of life as friends of the twins. The casting of the children’s friends was frequently multiracial.

Buffy carried an unusual doll around called Mrs. Beasley. It was a big, blonde thing with glasses and a blue, polka-dotted dress. (And it underwent quite a makeover from the pilot to the series, becoming far cleaner and more attractive overall!) The character treated it as if it could talk to her and related to it as close friend (almost an imaginary friend, though at least the physical object of the doll was on hand.) This doll became immensely popular and was eventually marketed to little girls in stores all across the nation.
Family Affair was, like Fedderson’s previous series My Three Sons with Fred MacMurray, almost completely geared to fit its leading man. MacMurray had a special arrangement in which he would have all of his scenes filmed together in a certain block of time, then the rest of the cast would do their own scenes later, thus freeing him from being around for too long. Likewise, Keith’s scenes were all done in a row and in a certain time frame, leaving the rest of the cast to work around that after the fact.

Considering this, it’s even more amazing that young Jones and Whitaker could give the type of performances they did since they were filming scenes and episodes completely out of sequence, many times without Keith even being present, to have them patched together later in editing! Keep in mind that there were THIRTY episodes a year filmed of this show the first two years, far more than are ever done of a sitcom nowadays. Naturally, though they got on well with Keith (and Whitaker, in particular, adored him), they in time gravitated more towards Cabot.
In 1967, Jones helped present the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy Award to The Monkees. The following year, she, along with Whitaker and Cabot, were assigned to present the award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Drama. The threesome walked onto the stage, with Jones carrying the ever-present Mrs. Beasley, and the children stepped onto two small risers that had been placed there for them.

After reading the nominees’ names clearly and sweetly, the winner was announced to be Gunsmoke’s Milburn Stone, a man who had been playing Doc Adams on the series for thirteen seasons and was in the middle of the fourteenth (and it would run for twenty!) He came up to the stage and, finding that there seemed to be no good place to go amidst the risers, the children and the sizeable Sebastian Cabot, knelt down onto Anissa’s riser and spoke into the microphone that had been placed low for her! (And I'm sorry, but I don't know who the blonde is who was helping to hand out the statuettes that year.)

She asked if he wanted her to leave and he exclaimed no, choosing to embrace her with his right arm as he gave his acceptance speech. She looked on bemusedly as he continued to thank his cast and crew, occasionally smiling to herself at the occasion. (Incidentally, both Keith and Cabot were nominees in the Leading Actor in a Comedy category that year, perhaps canceling each other out, though Keith was nominated alone two other times and never won an Emmy for his work on Family Affair.)

When the category was over, she went to exit with Mrs. Beasley when Cabot instructed her to pick up her riser as Whitaker had done. She placed the doll on the riser and picked both up, with not a little bit of effort (!) and padded off with Cabot. Having me relay this whole scenario to you, even with pictures, does not do justice to the unbelievable sweetness of the moment. Jones had a particularly adorable walk, made even more so by the then-fashionable patent leather shoes, tights and short dresses she was placed in.

One year, Jones broke her leg and the event was written into the series so that there would be no loss of production time (to speak of) over it. She was put in a cast and the scripts were revised, whenever necessary, to reflect her injury.

Jones attended school, like many other acting children, right on the lot of the series, except for those periods when she wasn’t filming. However, a significant amount of her free time was spent promoting the show. She posed for still photos, went on promotional trips, appeared on other series including Laugh-In and an episode of To Rome with Love as Buffy Davis, and was generally pressed into service like a workhorse.
Her image was marketed in every conceivable way. There were Buffy dolls (that came with their own miniature Mrs. Beasleys!) There were comic books and storybooks about the show. Any type of girl toy imaginable seemed privy to having her image associated with it, even this bizarre, scary-ass makeup and hairstyling head that has nothing whatsoever to do with Jones or Buffy! Check out that scary face and ask yourself if your daughter wouldn’t come screaming into your room at night if she awoke to have this decapitated noggin sitting on her dresser! There was even a Buffy cookbook with recipes galore for those burgeoning chefs still in frilly panties and pinafores.
There were countless paper dolls, too. Some were just of Buffy, some of Jody and some of the whole family. We can all thank Jesus that the Sebastian “Mr. French” Cabot paper doll came fully clothed already and wasn’t depicted with him in his underwear and sock garters!
Her face was on everything and I am seriously doubting that she was ever properly compensated for the use of her image. That was not the way in those days. The series ran from 1966 to 1971 and I know that members of The Partridge Family got nothing from all the use of their images for their show, which ran from 1970-1974. This advertisement, meant for toy distributors, even contains the phrase “Put Buffy to work for you” in its text! Yes, she was put to work constantly, and for every photo and every personal appearance, her hair was tugged and pulled into those ponytails and then curled meticulously into place.

In 1969, while Family Affair was still in production, Jones was cast in the Elvis Presley movie The Trouble With Girls (and how to get into it.), one of his last films as an actor. Based on a period novel set in the 1920s, this was a departure for The King in that he wasn’t the absolute focus of the storyline. In fact, for the first and only time, he appears in less than fifty percent of the footage! Jones appeared as the child of Sheree North and got to work with not only Presley, but also cinema legend Vincent Price. For once, she was seen in hairstyles differing from her Buffy ponytails. Continuing in the spirit of racial harmony found on Family Affair, she shared many of her scenes with a young black actor named Pepe Brown. Also appearing without credit as an auditioning child singer is Miss Susan Olsen, who would soon become an even bigger iconic child star than Jones on The Brady Bunch.

When Family Affair was cancelled in 1971, it was still a moderately successful show (it was a top five program in its second, third and fourth seasons), though ratings had tapered off. CBS was changing its image to more adult-oriented fare (as well as eighty-six-ing anything considered rural in tone.) It was still popular enough to warrant plans to switch it from CBS to ABC, but in the end ABC decided that having The Brady Bunch was enough of that series type.

Incidentally, a now-forgotten remake was put forth in 2002 with Gary Cole and Tim Curry, holding to the basic premise. The sweetness was mostly replaced by the now-typical brattiness and sarcasm found in TV children. The stale, unsuccessful show only lasted for fifteen episodes before being mercifully yanked. The children of the series have since continued to work in television (and, in some cases, movies), but the chemistry of the original series could not be duplicated in this rehash.

With Family Affair in reruns during the day, Buffy was still in the public’s consciousness. Initially, Jones went to school and attempted a normal life (making many friends), though the idea of an acting career had not left her. She strenuously sought the role of satanically possessed Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist, which was a complete and total departure from her work in the sitcom, but ultimately Linda Blair was cast.

Keith, having thoroughly enjoyed working with her on Affair, asked her to work with him again in The Brian Keith Show, in which he played a Hawaiian pediatrician. Jones would have portrayed a local teen of the surrounding neighborhood. Having already survived the grind of a punishing TV show schedule, she declined the part (which was taken on by another girl and in short time written out altogether during a restyling of the show.)

In what might have been a career-building role, she was offered the Jodie Foster part in Taxi Driver. She didn’t accept the part for reasons unknown, though it was the edgy, alternative sort of work she was eager to do in the wake of Mrs. Beasley and the ponytails. She continued to busy herself with school, friends and a job at a local donut shop.

Her personal life had continued to be messy with some back-and-forth living between her parents until her father won custody of her and her brother. This was followed, though, by her father’s premature death. Then she was branded a runaway when she decided not to go back and live with her mother, but chose instead to live with friends. She wound up in state custody for a time before moving back to her mother’s. On her eighteenth birthday, she was allowed access to the earnings she had accrued during her time as a young TV star.

$180,000 is a nice chunk of change now, but in 1976, it was the equivalent of almost three quarters of a million dollars. She had no need or reason to work at all again. She still wished to be an actress, however. She purchased a car, a Pinto, and continued to seek acting opportunities while working at the donut shop. She and her brother rented an apartment together not far from her mother.

Things seemed to really be on the verge of happening finally when she was offered a shot at the role of a child prostitute in the film Pretty Baby. Director Louis Malle was planning the film set in the brothels of New Orleans and a key role was that of a twelve year-old girl. Every young actress in Hollywood either auditioned for the controversial role or turned down offers to play it for whatever reason. Tatum O’Neal, Jodie Foster, Linda Blair, Kristy MacNichol and Dana Plato all allegedly turned the part down. Others who sought it were Diane Lane, Michelle Pfeiffer, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Laura Dern, Helen Hunt and on and on and on.

Sadly, Anissa Jones would be dead before the official auditions came about. The role in Pretty Baby would ultimately (and controversially) be played by Brooke Shields.

1976 was a time when the drug culture in America was close to full swing, especially in California and other “happening” areas. Jones fell in with a group of kids who were partying heavily and began a relationship with a boyfriend who was a drug user. A wealthy eighteen year-old girl with her own car and little to no parental control placed into this environment was a recipe for disaster. Disaster struck on August 28th, 1976 when Anissa was found dead in the bedroom of a friend’s house after a night of partying.

The coroner who examined her body had never witnessed a drug overdose this severe. Her body was filled with no less than four different types of drugs including cocaine, PCP, Quaaludes and Seconal. Having only been on her own a short while, she had all but $17,000 of her earnings still left in the bank. There were no official services held for her and she was cremated, her ashes spread into the Pacific Ocean. Eight years later, her little brother Paul would also die of a drug overdose.

Child stars in Hollywood have long been the victims of everything from driving or larcenous parents to uncaring executives to lack of proper education to exposure to all sorts of behavior they should have been shielded from as well as many other dangers. Every year that passes brings just a little more insight, awareness, legislature and understanding of the pressures and temptations that these children face, but there always seems to be one constant: some kids simply cannot adjust to life as they enter young adulthood. So many turn to drugs in order to (temporarily) soothe the pain. It’s ironic and sad that these kids who bring such pleasure to millions of people are sometimes living in excruciating torment.

Anissa Jones did make a difference to some people. There are many young men and women who saw her death (seemingly impossible to grasp from the outside looking in) as a wake up call to give up toying with drugs. There are those who risked death, but somehow came out on the right side of it (like Brady kid Maureen McCormick, who shoveled enough coke up her nose to fill a thousand snow globes!) Even Johnnie Whitaker, who saw his treasured friend die from drugs, went through a period of addiction himself. He, and other survivors – notably Paul Peterson – have striven to raise awareness and offer support to kids in their situation. Then there are those for whom nothing can cause them to avoid that trap.

Today, Jones is still entertaining a whole new generation of children when their parents, many of who grew up watching her, show them the DVDs of Family Affair. All five seasons have been released and they are a delightful piece of entertainment for young people (and maybe even some not so young!) The story of Anissa Jones is a sad one, but her legacy of Buffy Davis still puts a smile on many faces even now.