Monday, August 19, 2013

Birthday for T-T-T-T-T TUESDAY WELD!

"She went by the name of Thalia Menninger on the Dobie Gillis show. Remember?"

Walter Egan sure does. He sang those lines back in the 70's. Remember?

He offered up a few extra clues for you all:

"Lord Love a Duck and the Cincinnati Kid.

These were a few of the movies she did."

She was also in 70's films 'Play it As it Lays," "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and "Who'll Stop the Rain." In the 80's, how about "Author! Author!" "Thief," "Once Upon A Time in America," "Winter of Our Discontent" and "Heartbreak Hotel?" She made only two films in the 1990's, "Falling Down" and "Feeling Minnesota," and her last screen roles were in 2001.

But Tuesday Weld…is legend. Like an American Brigitte Bardot, she had a certain look that made her a favorite for fan magazines. People didn't have to go see her films to get a real kick out of her. Seeing a photo was enough! If you did tune in and see her on some TV show, you instantly got it: she exuded an attitude, a spirit…a new breed of "wild child." She had a natural sex appeal...a sweetly omnivorous desire to experience joy. On an episode of "77 Sunset Strip" called "Condor's Child," you see her as both the baby-faced innocent and the femme fatale. She played uninhibited types, as Bardot did, and sometimes the spirit, and her flesh, was good enough to save a bad script.

Here, we celebrate her upcoming birthday (August 27, 1943).

Her first name was Susan, which one of her cousins pronounced Tu-Tu. It eventually, and legally, became Tuesday…and she rocked. Literally. She was in "Rock Rock Rock" in 1956 although her singing voice was dubbed. Trivia fans will note that she played a singer on an episode of "Bus Stop" in 1961, and was messin' with Fabian in the movie "High Time" (1960) and in a typical wild-child role on "The Dick Powell Show" called 'Run Till It's Dark" in 1962. She was also involved with Elvis Presley, who co-starred with her in the 1961 film "Wild in the Country."

Tuesday's lovers were not confined to greasy kid singers. She had a May-December fling with crusty old actor John Ireland, and her last two husbands were Dudley Moore and the violinist Pinchas Zuckerman. So many fans "dream of her still," and would love a chance to just meet the quirky, erotic, tragic, contradictory, unusual, erratic and always fascinating Ms. Weld. Probably the best "fanboy" song of all time, Walter Egan's "Tuesday Weld" has a great closing line. If I ever had the chance to interview the guy, I would not ask him to elaborate on it! It's too perfect the way it stands.

Walter Egan's tribute to….to…..to….t.t.t.t…. TUESDAY WELD

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