"Not since the beginning of time has the world beheld terror like this!" - Tagline from "Creature from the Black Lagoon:

Knowing that I was going to write about Julie Adams and famous movie (and co-stars), my vampirical self got up at 4:00 a.m. this morning to watch her appearance on "The Alfred Hitchcock ​P​resents" episode "Dead Weight"​ from 1959. As Joseph Cotton's mistress, held up by gunpoint in a car at lovers’ lane, Julie's scene was brief but highlighted her patrician ​beauty, trim figure and mostly her beautiful back​less dress. ​H​er performance was ​good but perfunctory. So, I quickly looked ​i​n her biography to see what she had to say about the episode. As is the case with so many golden age of Hollywood biographies, she had nothing but kind and classy things to say.​ No goss or dirt here. 

Kind and classy is also the best way to describe Julie Adams When I met her in person at the Hollywood collector show in ​A​pril 2012.  Still a very attractive woman, she had a pretty steady group of people approaching her because of her appearance in the cult horror film ​"​Creature from the Black Lagoon​". 

I was more interested in her biography “The Lucky Southern Star” and talking to her in person to ask a few questions. I love when ​c​elebs are selling biographies that have limited printings by small publishing companies because I find those to be more interesting and collectible.  Additionally, her biography came with a soundtrack CD ​from “Creature from the Black Lagoon". 

Julie was a bit tired from the long day, but still very accommodating and kind, answering all my questions. We talked a bit about the back and forth between Julie and Julia, and I guess she never really liked the name Julia.  But interestingly she would ask me do you want me to sign this picture Julie or Julia.​ I wanted "Julia" written on the "Creature" photos, because that's how she was billed. 

You’ll see from the Universal Studios postcard (1953) sent to fans with a pre-printed white autograph says that you can get an 8x10 autograph for $.25 and an 11x14 for $1.00 – so cheap!  Calculating with inflation can you imagine a celebrity mailing you an 11x14 autographed photo for less than $12 today?!?!?! Umm. Me thinks, not. 

As I often do when I meet celebrities in person​, I bring very rare pictures that they might not have in their own collection. In this case I brought a​n original 10x8 from her ​1957 movie ​"​Slim Carter" with Jock Mahoney and Tim Hovey. She looked at it with interest and said, ​"I don't have a copy of this​". So, I pulled one of my usual trade suggestions and said I would give her the original if she would sign my copy for free. 

The classic shot of her ​in the white bathing suit at the feet of the creature was one that she had been autographing all day. But she did like the printout of the poster that I had asked her to sign, since this variation (with her swimming away; not in the creature’s arms) was not presented to her very often. 

All in all, my experience with Julie Adams was pleasant - as was to be expected.  She was attractive, kind, classy, benign, and reserved.  Just ​a​s in most of her roles. 

But I highly recommend watching Julie playing against type, as a mean, evil, cunning, manipulative beauty in the episode of "Big Valley" called "Emperor of Rice" on YouTube. She's stunning and FANTASTIC in it - plus she gets to taunt and literally whip Barbara Stanwyck across the face while Barbara is tied to a chair.

I'm sure there are other actresses in Hollywood who WISHED they could have whipped Barbara across the face

Watch wicked Julie whip Barbara ... about 35 mins in, but the whole episode is good (especially if you just fast forward to watch Julie's scenes. ...

Now for a little bit of focus on the rest of the cast of "Creature from the Black Lagoon".  Looking through my collection I realized that I have the two Leading Men, Richard Denning and Richard Carlson. 

Honestly, I really don't know much about either Richard off the top of my head. Just that Richard Denning was married to Evelyn Ankers and did some “jungle movies”.  And that Richard Carlson disliked Regina Giddens (Bette Davis) in “The Little Foxes” and he got the girl in the end for a happy ending. These are the random factoids that live in my skull. 

As for the creature itself, there was Ben Chapman who played the "Gillman" (aka “The Real Gillman”) creature on land. He had beautiful penmanship, was quite handsome under that costume head and by all accounts was a really nice guy. 

Ricou Browning was the stuntman who played the creature underwater. Thank you, Michael Augustine-Reed, @Hollywoodboy63 for letting me purchase this vintage, original fantastic still of Ricou in the tank on-set. I love it! 

As for the cultural impact of “Creature from the Black Lagoon", I can say that I love, LOVED Guillermo del Toro's "Shape of Water" which was influenced by the movie. Richard Jenkins (along with the other Oscar nominees from the film) put forth a moving and truly career-defining performance.  He’s always good though; fantastic in “Dahmer”.  With 73 different award nominations and 16 wins, I think he might be able to just wink, burp and pass gas with a knowing grin and get a nomination. 

P.S. You’ll see that I do have a few things to say about the scantily clad John Bromfield, star of the sequel "Revenge of the Creature".  At a drive-in near you.