Bruce Edwin - The Hollywood Sentinel: Julie I want to begin at the
beginning. Most people that know of you, know of course your
legendary role in TV's Batman, as Catwoman- of course, but you
began, what many may not realize, way before that, in many other
TV shows and films. Also I have learned that you were a
dancer.
Julie Newmar: Well, that's why Catwoman worked! I always thought
it was not (being) appreciated in films - for my dancing, but
almost the opposite thing happened. As an actress, having (also)
been a dancer, the part of Catwoman worked superbly.
The Hollywood Sentinel: I definitely agree.
Julie Newmar: Or if you're a bird, They give you a costume as a
bird, and you're right from the get go!
Hollywood Sentinel: (Laughs) Right! I want to come back to that
role in a moment, but I want to go back to your earlier work for
a moment and to your work as a dancer. I read that you began as a
dancer, and that you began in ballet, and I read that you worked
for Universal Studios…
Julie Newmar: When I was nineteen.
Hollywood Sentinel: Nineteen years old! And you were a
choreographer?
Julie Newmar: Yes, A dancer and choreographer.
Hollywood Sentinel: At Universal Studios…
Julie Newmar: Yes, a dance-in. Do you know what a dance-in is?
They don't do that anymore (… ) well it's the same thing
as a stunt double…
Hollywood Sentinel: OK, yes, or a stand-in…
Julie Newmar: Yes, much more done in the past than now a
days.
Hollywood Sentinel: I see, and so your dancing career really took
off…
Julie Newmar: For someone almost six feet tall, you could say
that it took off!
Hollywood Sentinel: (laughs), So you ended up on Broadway, can you
tell us about that?
Julie Newmar: Yes, I started in Hollywood, because I was born in
the Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, not far from Disney, as a matter
of fact, my father built a house there, I grew up there, in the
hills, looking out at the Pacific Ocean.
Hollywood Sentinel: And you studied dance?
Julie Newmar: Yes, as a dancer I studied almost every form of
dance available for someone living in America.
Hollywood Sentinel: What really made you want to begin in dance and acting?
How did you begin?
Julie Newmar: My dear, my beautiful, my darling mother who was
unable to finish her career as a dancer- she was in the Ziegfeld
Follies, on Broadway, gave me all the opportunities that were not
possible for her, which is how most people's stories are,
right?
Hollywood Sentinel: That's incredible, so she helped, not just
helped but she...
Julie Newmar: She made it possible, drove me to ballet, to dance,
to tap, to Spanish, to Flamenco (…)
Hollywood Sentinel: Wow! And you were what age when you started
all these classes?
Julie Newmar: Probably five.
Hollywood Sentinel: That's amazing, and at nineteen you were
doing choreography for Universal Studios, and when did you end up
on Broadway?
Julie Newmar: When I was nineteen actually, early twenties, I had
done 'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers' (as Dorcas Gailen with
MGM) for Michael Kidd (choreographer), and then took that money,
and bought a plane ticket and went to New York - didn't tell my
parents- and luckily started out right away on Broadway, so the
second thing I did was Lil'Abner, for Michael Kidd (first the hit
Broadway Musical, and then the film version for Paramount, as
Stupefyin' Jones).
Hollywood Sentinel: O.K. And what was it like for a young women
back then in Hollywood, we hear today of imbalances of race or
gender, what was it like for you back then as a young
woman?
Julie Newmar: I can't think that it was any harder or any easier,
you just did what you loved, and you were good at, and
fortunately in my case, I had had all this preparation you see,
after I finished one school my mother would say, you go to
another school (…)
Hollywood Sentinel: Right, so you had the foundation, and knew
what you were doing. Now in the schooling you had, they obviously
taught the art, but did they teach the business too? Did you
learn the business side of the industry in classes in school or
did you have to learn that on your own?
Julie Newmar: No not at all, only the art, you just floated in
our own realm, and you hoped someone noticed you!
Hollywood Sentinel: Wow. Did you have many agents when you were
beginning to get all these jobs?
Julie Newmar: No, no agent! An agent comes after you're famous,
they come and say, well, I see you're ready to work with me now!
(laughs)
Hollywood Sentinel: (Laughs) Around what time did you get your
first team of people representing you?
Julie Newmar: Oh dear, I remember his name was Shurr, his brother
was in Hollywood, and Louie Shurr was in New York, and he saw a
seven foot poster of me in front of the Saint James Theatre, when
I was performing in Lil' Abner as Stupefyin' Jones, and he said,
"Ah! Perfect! She's good for a new comedy coming up called
Marriage Go Round!"
Hollywood Sentinel: And so did things speed
up for you then with him?
Julie Newmar: They do, and at that point, if you're discovered,
which you usually are in New York, where they keep an eye on
things (…) then you become bi-coastal. And, low and
behold, I had an apartment on Carper Avenue in Los Angeles, and
on Eaton Place, in New York.
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: That's great. I want to kind of
skip ahead now- you did so much work there in between - but I
want to come up now to the later work, that most of the world
knows you for, and that is of course Catwoman. Now, what was this
like for you, did you realize when you were doing this role how
big of an impact it would have?
Julie Newmar: I think the things one thinks about is creating the
role, however, I knew it was brilliant because the writing was
brilliant, a man by the name of Bob Kane, and Stanley Ralph Ross
created the hour long shows that I did as Catwoman on the Batman
series. It was innate for me, all I had to do was put on the
costume and walk on the set. The costume in (their) words played
the scene.
Hollywood Sentinel: Well I agree. I recall watching you as a
young guy growing up, and I think I share this with most any guy,
straight or gay…
Julie Newmar: (Laughs) You're right on both accounts!
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: (laughs) …and that was
that- I'll admit, I had a total crush on you!
Julie Newmar: Thank you, and that's what my second book is about!
My second book is-thanks to you, and all those red blooded
American boys out there, who are all now Daddy's and Granddad's,
and I thank them all--constantly for their passion, and the
second book is called 'First Fantasy,' and it is just charming
stories about the first image that boys and young men see on T.V.
or whatever, that get (them) turned on, that lights their fire!
(laughs)
Hollywood Sentinel: (Laughs) That's great.
Julie Newmar: And I have just gorgeous stories, and I'm looking
for more. It's going to be the new chicken soup book, of first
fantasies, or virtual fantasies…I like that- virtual
fantasies!
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: I do too. Now let me explore
that for a moment…
Julie Newmar: Well, what would you like?!
Hollywood Sentinel: (laughs)
Julie Newmar: Gotcha!
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: (laughs) Did you get a lot of
backlash from parents at the time, who were against the sexuality
conveyed by you in that role?
Julie Newmar: Well, I was completely dressed! There were no four
letter words!
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: I know!
Julie Newmar: Think about it now, think about it- you're not
looking at what you see today- you're looking at highly charged,
normal and natural energy between two people. Hello?! Hallelujah!
Hurray! How neat, how purr-fect, and that was healthy!
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: I completely agree, but I feel
at the time it was so provocative…
Julie Newmar: But little boys at the time,
they're not going to run and tell their mothers, they're going to
wonder what happened, they're going to think, I don't understand,
I don't get it, what's that mean? Later on that divine impulse
connects itself with something here in the now, in the present
day, this is why these stories are so gorgeous—that people
send me—because they tell me, oh gosh, I always loved that
girl with blonde hair when I first saw here when I was five years
old! And now my wife has long blonde shiny hair just like the
first girl I fell in love with! I can't tell you how great these
stories are…
Bruce Edwin - The Hollywood Sentinel: That's excellent, that's
great…
Julie Newmar: Mmmm!
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: Now, I said the line earlier
about gay and straight men, now why do you feel that you've been
so embraced and loved in the gay community?
Julie Newmar: Is it because I'm tall?
Hollywood Sentinel: (Laughs)
Julie Newmar: You ask them! Do they want me to be Debbie
Reynolds? I love Debbie Reynolds, but she's about five feet
two!
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: (laughs), is she? I didn't know
that!
Julie Newmar: (…) or Judy Garland! She was about
5-2… (reportedly only 4 foot, 11 and a half inches)
Bruce Edwin - The Hollywood Sentinel: The first thing I noticed
about you Julie-that any one that has the pleasure to speak with
you and hear your voice off screen will notice-is that your voice
off screen is not much different than the voice of Catwoman that
you used to do…
Julie Newmar: Ooooh, well, would you want it to be? Wouldn't you
want there to be me?
Bruce Edwin - Hollywood Sentinel: (Laughs)
Julie Newmar: Wouldn't you want a little stroking? And a little
feline adulation?
Bruce Edwin - The Hollywood Sentinel: Oh my!
To be continued in next issue…
www.JulieNewmar.com
© 2011, The Hollywood Sentinel. All rights reserved. No
part of this interview or images to be published in any form
without express written consent from the publisher.