Inger Stevens: No Hayseed

The article "Inger Stevens: No Hayseed" was written by Susan Smith and originally published in the Miami Herald on December 10, 1963. Here are excerpts:

Actress Inger Stevens gets irritated with lazy actors, dislikes drinking beer from cans and thinks women who wear high heels with slacks look terrible.

When she has free time, Inger takes long walks and paints. "And I read everything, even J. Edgar Hoover. I just finished Jessica Mitford's book about the high cost of dying and I was horrified. What a racket, and those people having 'vaultburgers.' Vaultburgers! What kind of taste is that?"

Her own taste includes simple, tailored clothes. She thinks "junk" jewelry is "for the birds."

Unlike most amateur painters, she won't keep a painting of her own. "If I did, I'd sit and look at it and think of all the ways it could be improved." Her paintings are mostly impressionistic and most given away to friends. 

She denies being a perfectionist, but friends say Inger remembers to a fraction of an inch exactly where she should stand for each line of a scene. 

"In movies you have more time, especially between scenes, to knit or read or make paper dolls or whatever, but in TV we are doing one show per week now, and the pace moves."

Every two years or so Inger returns to her native Sweden for a visit. "All my family is over there now, and they all want to come live with Inger," she says ruefully.

George Maharis and Inger Stevens: An Enduring Friendship

George and Inger during the filming of the
1961 Route 66 episode "Burning for Burning".

When asked about the great actors and actresses he worked with in the past, actor George Maharis listed Inger first. In 2021, Maharis told Rock Goldschmidt of ReMIND Magazine, “I got to work with some wonderful actors and actresses including Inger Stevens, Boris Karloff and Buster Keaton."

George, who recently died at the age of 94 on May 24th, became close friends with Inger after she guest starred in "The Beryllium Eater" episode of Route 66 in 1960. I cannot help but think that Inger would have lived much longer had she possessed more friends as true as George during her lifetime.

George told Inger's biographer William Patterson:

I liked her humanness and warmth. But, at first, she seemed almost afraid of me. Knowing I was a bachelor, she thought that I might be on the make, eager to make a conquest rather than a friend.

George was attracted to Inger's "stubby nose, a crooked mouth, freckles, and listening eyes." Three years after their first episode together (the second would be 1961's "Burning for Burning"), George described Inger as "a marvelous woman, really" and added:

I like Inger. She has a heart as big as the world. I've always had the feeling she needs me. She's the kind of girl who haunts you. You get up in the morning thinking of her and how sweet she is. You want to do things for her. It's a great feeling. Inger and I never went out to fancy places, we just sat around and talked. She's the kind of girl who listens with her big, blue eyes. She gives me the feeling that's she's a sort of trusting child to whom you can say, 'I have four legs,' and she'd believe you. 

George and Inger in the 1960
Route 66 episode "The Beryllium Eater".

After filming "Burning for Burning" in 1961, Inger and George didn't work together again until 1970, but the two remained good friends due to their mutual respect for and understanding of each other. In 1964, George and Inger attended Young Citizens for President Johnson' barbecue party for Luci Baines Johnson in Beverly Hills, California. The photos below show them speaking with Steve McQueen.

George and Inger had many traits in common. As George said after Inger's death in 1970, a major shared characteristic was "falling in love with the wrong people...it's usually harder on a woman, though." 

Both lived without regrets. In 1970, George said:

Everything I do is on the spur of the moment. I've made a lot of rash decisions and mistakes in my lifetime. But I don't regret any of them for one minute. I've never lost any sleep over them. My creed is, do what you think is right, do the best you can, and the heck with it.

Years earlier, Inger shared a similar philosophy:

I hate the word mistakes...I regard life as a series of steps. Maybe I've stumbled on some of those steps. Lots of young people do. But I don't regret it. Everything that has happened to me has helped make me the person I am.

Although both Inger and George valued the artistic rewards of acting, neither were smitten with the business itself. George stated:

I'm only interested in artistic endeavors. The rest you can have. I don't care about business. I don't want to be a millionaire. I tell my manager just to put the money working so people won't tread on me and I won't be a nuisance to other people or to the state when I get old, if I do.

Inger talked about the business of Hollywood, too, sharing:

I was afraid of the people who were handling me at the time. They gave me so much advice contrary to my own ideas...The more I tried to follow their advice, the less inner peace I found.

This town has a tendency to swallow you up...Sometimes people here do everything for the mythical career. Some people sacrifice everything to get on top of the heap. They sacrifice friendship, their own individuality, and become a slave to a career.

Like George, Inger, in 1969, insisted she would never be a nuisance to others. She said:

They'll never hold a benefit for me. And the only reason I'll ever go to the motion picture country home is to entertain the old timers out there.

To maintain privacy surrounding their individual romantic lives, George and Inger cited their busy work schedules on popular television shows.

George answered why he hadn't settled down by stating:

This TV series has given me countless opportunities for that sort of thing but the heavy work schedule, the constant moving around have prevented me from doing very much about it.

Though she was already married to Ike Jones at the time, Inger responded:

Yes, I want to get married, but it will take a very special understanding man to put up with my schedule. I have to be up at 5 a.m. to leave for the studio, and I usually don't get home until 8:20 at night. I never have a day off in the series, and when I do, I have to shoot commercials or photographs.

If they found themselves hemmed in by their public images, Inger and George turned to painting as an outlet of free expression. 

Inger commented:

I like to paint for relaxation. I think the reason that actors and actresses paint is that it's the one thing that they can do that other people really don't tamper with.

George echoed this sentiment in 2021:

I have always loved painting, as you are free to do what you want to do. Just me, the paint and the canvas!

In 1970, after starring in Aaron Spelling's television movie Run, Simon, Run, Inger signed on to costar with George Maharis and Ralph Bellamy in the forensic crime drama Zig Zag (soon renamed The Most Deadly Game). Inger and George worked together preparing promotional videos of the show in the months leading up to her death. 

George recalled learning of Inger's death:

I heard about it at home. Aaron Spelling phoned me. Inger had appeared to be in good spirits, in good health. We had had several conferences on the series. We had just made some promotional films together. It was a great shock...Inger was a personal friend of mine. I loved her and the idea of working with her. We both liked all the elements. It was going to be a great combination. 

After Inger's death, the female lead in The Most Deadly Game was played by Yvette Mimieux and the show did not last its first season. Though we were robbed of watching Inger and George costar once more, the promotional video still exists. 

Zig Zag (1970)

Zig Zag (1970)

Zig Zag (1970)

Thank you, Mr. Maharis, for the indelible mark you left in the world of television and movies. Thank you for enhancing the soundtrack of the 1960's with your smooth, swinging recordings. Thank you most of all for treating our Inger with the kindness and respect she deserved from all of her peers and for continuing to speak her name and share her talents until the end of your life.

Sources:

Boston Globe. October 4, 1970.

Cincinatti Enquirer. October 23, 1970.

Daily News. December 18, 1960.

Miami Herald. August 26, 1962.

Orlando Evening Star. July 3, 1970.

Photoplay. January 1962.

San Francisco Examiner. July 26, 1970.

Inger on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Beauty

Inger in TV and Movie Screen, August 1964.

When asked by fan magazine writer M.P. Todd what it felt like to be beautiful, Inger responded:

You sincerely meant that last compliment, didn't you? I could tell. So I'll give you a serious answer. Today I never think about how I look. Maybe it's because for too many years I thought of myself as ugly. You know the type. I had straight hair, teeth that went in all directions, and I was the shape of a string bean that had been left out in the sun too long. By the time I grew up to look like what I am now, I had already developed the feelings inside of a girl who does not consider herself pretty. I'll tell you a secret, if I am attractive today it is because my face—all of me on the outside—reflects an inner security I have never possessed before. 

What was it like as a girl being treated like a Hollywood beauty? Inger shared:

At first, the attention, the compliments are wonderful. Later, often too much later, the beauty discovers that people, especially males, flocked around her mainly because it gave their egos a boost to be seen with her. At first, innocently, the beauty trusts too much. She believes all the excess adjectives. She delights in all the conquests  she makes merely by existing. But then it begins to catch up with her. If, along the way, she hasn't taken the time to develop her mind, her personality, her character, then she usually winds up alone. She's confused. Unable to cope with the situation. She becomes bitter, miserable. She realizes all too late that she's been used like a pet—a toy—to be exhibited then put back on the shelf. 

Perhaps that's why I searched so long to try and find the right way for me to live my life. There was a period where I, too, received and reveled in the flowery adjectives and the phony attention that actually wasn't directed at the real me but at what my surface supposedly represented. When I finally understood—it was a painful period. I won't discuss it, except to tell you that that I finally hit upon a solution. Now I don't allow myself to rely or depend upon outside words of praise from others. This leads only to self-deception and pain, believe me. Today I have learned to rely only on myself to judge my own true worth. I see my weaknesses and I try to correct them. I see my strengths and I try to preserve them. 

Source: 

Todd, M.P. "A Brand-New Inger Stevens." TV and Movie Screen. August 1964.

The Journeys That Shaped Inger

Inger Stevens poses at LaGuardia Airport
bound for Washington, D.C., October 1965.

Official records and lists may appear to be dull reading material; however, when the records involve Inger Stevens and can be paired with stories of her experiences, a warm profile of a lively woman emerges.

I've set out to match records I've discovered with anecdotes found in various articles about Inger as well as in William Patterson's book The Farmer's Daughter Remembered.

A Star is Born

On Thursday, October 18, 1934 in a Stockholm hospital, Inger Stensland was born to parents 21-year-old Per and 20-year-old Lisbet. Inger was the first child of Per and Lisbet, who were married six months prior to her birth.  According to Patterson, Inger was named for the Norse princess Ingebjørg. I've highlighted Inger's entry in the Swedish Birth Index. Listed as adöpt (döpt meaning christened or baptised), Per Stensland and Lisbet Potthoff are indexed to the right.

Inger's entry in the Swedish Birth Index in 1934

Per to America

Following a separation from Lisbet, Per traveled to America as an academic fellow in 1940. (Inger and her brother Ola would be left behind in the care of their family maid before moving in with their aunt and uncle.) That same year the American-Scandinavian Foundation of New York City released the following inquiry regarding the status of fellows stranded in the United States due to World War II. Per would not return to Sweden. In 1944, Per, with a new bride and a baby on the way, would request that his two eldest children join him in America.

Inger's father began a fellowship in America in 1940.

A Lonely Journey to America

9-year-old Inger and younger brother Ola arrived in America from Sweden in July 1944. The children were chaperoned by a family friend and traveled on the SS Margaret Johnson for six weeks before docking in New Orleans on July 15, 1944. Leaving family and country would be difficult for a person of any age, but little Inger and Ola's journey included additional challenges that would remain painful memories for Inger for the duration of her life. For example, all freighter passengers were inspected by German troops during a stop in Denmark and the freighter was even followed by a German U-boat during a portion of the journey. 

To make the experience even more frightening, Inger's father Per was not in New Orleans to meet his children. Biographer Patterson writes that Per was too busy working on a thesis paper to meet Inger and Ola, neither of whom could speak English. Instead of being reunited with the father they had not seen in four years, the Stensland siblings were met by the Travelers Aid Society and escorted by a Salvation Army representative on a train to New York City. When they reached New York City, Per was still not there to greet his children. Inger was told he was busy with his academic work in Cape Cod and the children were placed in separate rooms of a New York City hotel. The next morning Inger and Ola boarded a train for Cape Cod where they were finally reunited with their father.

Inger would later tell reporters that Per "couldn't afford to meet us." She would recall the terror she faced aboard the ship and on arrival in America. 

New York seemed to us then like a city of revolving doors. Every time we went through one, I was sure I'd lose Ola...After dinner, the Travelers Aid Society member took me to the thirteenth floor of the hotel and put Ola somewhere else; mine was a tiny green room that looked like a cell. Have you ever been on the thirteenth floor during a thunderstorm? I was sure I'd be killed before morning. 

Inger would share that she and Ola expected to see cowboys and indians on arrival. Instead:

When our freighter docked at New Orleans after being trailed by a German U-boat for almost a week, the Travelers Aid Society brought us to New York. Two days after our arrival, a hurricane struck Cape Cod and partially demolished our little house. I was terrified. I begged to go back to Sweden. I'd been prepared to face Indians, but I didn't dream life in America could be so violent.

In 1965, Inger said:

I still feel like the same girl who got off the boat from Sweden. Maybe a little taller and a little more money, that's all. But I'm not changed inside. 

Inger and Ola Stensland (highlighted) arrive in New Orleans on July 15, 1944.

Although Per is listed as the relative they will be joining in America,
it took days of lonely travel for Inger and Ola to reach their father.

Crunch and Des in Bermuda

A passenger manifest dated October 27, 1955 shows Inger embarking from Bermuda on return to New York. Inger traveled to Bermuda to play the part of 'The Actress' in a Crunch and Des episode entitled Salt Water Daffy. Although filmed in 1955, Salt Water Daffy was not released on television until 1956. In his book on Inger, Patterson shares a letter that Inger wrote to a friend about her Bermuda experience:

I saw how people actually lived which is something I could never have seen if I didn't do it on my own...I wanted to be in and around the water every minute because it is so beautiful. The water wasn't blue; it was a rich green, but crystal clear and as we flew in over Bermuda the sight of the water alone was breathtaking. Under the water you could see the coral reefs, which looked like black sleeping animals, from the sky. Since I worked all the time, I didn't get to swim or enjoy it the way I would have wanted to, but Tony and I hope to go there together sometime.

(Note: Tony is Anthony Soglio, Inger's agent whom she married in summer 1955 and divorced in 1958.) 

Inger is listed on a 1955 passenger manifest. She was filming
an episode of Crunch and Des in Bermuda.

A Beauty Judges Beauty

On November 20, 1959, Inger landed in Los Angeles on a Pan Am flight. For promotional purposes, she served as a judge at the Miss Colombia Beauty Contest at the Hotel Tequendama in Bogata, Colombia, and made her way home via Panama.

Inger returns to L.A. from Colombia by way of Panama.

Traumatic Landing in Lisbon

On April 4, 1961, Inger embarked on a vacation that started in Paris and included stops in London, Madrid, and Rome with her hairstylist and friend Leslie Blanchard. After Leslie returned to America, Inger visited family in Sweden in May. In the final days of her trip, Inger boarded a Boeing 707 that stopped in Lisbon on June 15th. As it landed, the plane's nose gear collapsed creating a fire. Immediately after Inger and her fellow passengers exited the plane, it exploded. All passengers and crew were physically unhurt, but all were certainly shaken by the close call.

Source: The Star Press. June 17, 1961.

Source: Morristown Gazette. June 27, 1961.

Inger reportedly discussed the incident with columnist Cynthia Lowry in February 1963, saying:

I still hate to talk about it. The plane started burning and I thought I would be burned alive. And I put on my coat, of all things, and curled up on the floor. Somehow I escaped and now I feel as if I were on borrowed time, that the worst is over and it's clear sailing. But it is reassuring to know you continued to function under pressure and didn't give in to hysteria.

William Patterson writes that Inger was so rattled by the event that she chose to forego air travel, returning to America by boat. However, a passenger list for Pan American flight No. 153 shows Inger boarded a flight in Lisbon and arrived in New York by plane on June 20th.

Inger returns from Lisbon after a near-death experience.

Secret Honeymooners 

Six months after her widely reported Lisbon flight, Inger and her new husband Ike Jones managed to fly under the press's radar—although not for as long as we have been led to believe, but that deserves its own post on another day. On December 29, 1961, Inger arrived back home in Los Angeles after a trip to Mexico City. Browsing the flight's passenger list, I found the record for Inger's husband Ike Jones, who was also on the CMA flight on the 29th. (CMA was an affiliate of Pan American that provided non-stop flights from Los Angeles to Mexico City.)

Ike Jones in November 1959, two years before
his wedding to Inger Stevens.

Ike was a producer for Nat King Cole's Kell-Cole Productions as well as a film producer and actor. Inger and Ike met at a Hollywood party in September 1960. A little over a year later, in November 1961, Inger and Ike privately married in Tijuana. After a quiet celebration for two at a small restaurant and motel, the couple returned to Los Angeles. A month later, Inger and Ike traveled to Mexico City for a secret honeymoon. 

Although their relationship was far from the best-kept secret in Hollywood, the general public would not be fully aware of Inger's marriage to Ike until after Inger's death.

Inger returns to Los Angeles after a secret honeymoon in Mexico City.

Ike Jones, Inger's husband, listed on the same flight from Mexico City.

While this post includes a small sampling of her travel records, the documents represent major experiences—her Swedish birth, arduous immigration to the U.S., early television filming and film promotion work, dangerous Lisbon landing, and private marriage—that would shape Inger's life and worldview in significant ways.

Inger in a late-1950's travel photo.

Sources:

Documents were retrieved via Ancestry and Familysearch.

"Ex-UCLA Star Named to Belafonte's Harbel Film Co." Jet. November 5, 1959.

http://files.lib.byu.edu/family-history-library/research-outlines/Scandinavia/Sweden.pdf

Hopper, Hedda. "Inger Too Busy for Romance." The Los Angeles Times. May 18, 1958.

Lowry, Cynthia. "Not the Girl Next Door?" The Akron Beacon Journal. February 12, 1963.

Patterson, William T. The Farmer's Daughter Remembered. Xlibris. 2000. 

Indomitable Inger and Her 'Post' Remarks

In early 1964, Richard Warren Lewis wrote a two-page feature on Inger that primarily focused on the challenges Inger had faced in her life up to that point. 

On her family:

I witnessed an awful lot of fighting in my family. I got used to keeping things to myself and never really saying what was on my mind. I was always afraid of hurting somebody.

On her 1955 marriage to agent Anthony Soglio:

[The wedding day] was the worst day of my life. I wanted to be anyplace but where I was. I married him for a lot of the wrong reasons. I had been dating him for about eight months, and he was the only person I knew in New York. For me the whole marriage proved pretty much of a nightmare. The experience made a lasting impression on me. I still have a fear of marriage.

On her 1959 suicide attempt:

It was such a relief. At that moment I thought it was the most rational thing I'd ever done in my life. For a long time I had nobody to talk to, including the man I had been with. When I began trusting the analyst, everything came out too fast. I felt lonely and sorry for myself. I felt like I didn't quite belong in the film world, that I wasn't good enough. I was constantly getting depressed. I had made a complete mess of my emotional life by trying to be very giving to a man because I was hoping he would do the same to me. I was just screaming out for somebody to love me. I kept searching for some kind of peace and tranquility. The more I searched for it, the more holocaust there was around me. It kept getting worse. [At a New Year's Eve party] Everyone was drinking, and it became more and more depressing. Everything seemed so distorted. I felt I was on the outside looking in. All of a sudden there was only emptiness. I needed someone to talk to, but there was no one left. Then everything exploded.

On her personality:

Once I felt that I was one person at home, and the minute I stepped out the door I had to be somebody else. I had a terrible insecurity, an extreme shyness, that I covered up with coldness. Everybody thought I was a snob. I was really just plain scared...I always used to jump into friendships and give too much. You can't do that. You end up like Grand Central Station with people just coming and going. And there you are, left behind...Sometimes I wonder if being an actress is really going to be enough for me. When you're sixteen, being in show business is a very romantic notion. You dream about your pictures all over the magazines. But what you think at sixteen and what you think at twenty-nine are two different things. If I took a test, I would probably find I'm in the wrong field.

In his biography of Inger, Patterson wrote that Inger, upon learning a new word, would write the word and its definition on an index card. On the back, she would use it in a sentence. On an index card for the word 'indomitable', Inger wrote:

Inger is indomitable because of her courage and her pride.

The Oxford English Dictionary (personal sidenote: Hi, Chuck!) defines 'indomitable' as:

1. That cannot be tamed; untameable.

2. Of persons, etc.: That cannot be overcome or subdued by labour, difficulties, or opposition; unyielding; stubbornly persistent or resolute.

From her earliest days in America, attempts were made to tame Inger. A father and stepmother, both possessing more force than love, started the trend of Inger's life. That disapproving look Inger saw in her father's eyes quickly transferred to the eyes of her first husband who, too, wanted her to bend to his rule. Then came studio executives whose attempts to silence a stubbornly vocal Inger—and her independent views on Hollywood—continued for the rest of her life. In spite of this resistance—not to mention the lovers who let her down along the way—Inger took a firm stance. She remained that wonderfully unique girl named Inger Stensland. 

Just two weeks before her 1959 suicide attempt, Inger told a reporter, "I just don't want to be a second anybody, only myself." At that time, another reporter in Allentown, Pennsylvania had the pleasure of meeting with Inger and wrote:

Young and pretty, and undoubtedly talented, Miss Stevens has a lot more and that is an innate intelligence that makes her a very interesting conversationalist. There was none of the vapid, trite remarks—inspired by the press agent—which so frequently provide so small a gamut of conversation with actresses and actors. Miss Stevens has very definite ideas on many things and is most convincing, too. 

In a 1963 article "Inger Stevens' Dim View of Stardom and Gold," Inger criticized stars saying they "do everything for the mythical career." She elaborated:

Some people sacrifice everything to get on top of the heap. They sacrifice friendship, their own individuality, and become a slave to a career...Why kill yourself and your identity reaching for something that's not there? It's not going to make you more accepted.

As the 1960's progressed, Hollywood higher-ups maintained their efforts to keep the unyielding Inger down and columnists relentlessly pursued her in an attempt to expose a life she intended to keep private. Still, Inger, through her intelligence and generosity, made large contributions to society throughout her life and continues to impact us today. I cannot think of a person more worthy of being called indomitable.

Sources: 

Finnigan, Joseph. "Inger Stevens' Dim View of Stardom and Gold." Press and Sun-Bulletin. November 24, 1963.

"Indomitable." The Oxford English Dictionary. Second Edition. Clarendon Press, 1989.

Kohl, John Y. "The Curtain Rises." The Morning Call. December 21, 1958.

Lewis, Richard Warren. "TV's Farmer's Daughter has battled death, fickle suitors, and self-doubts." Saturday Evening Post. January 4-11, 1964.

Mendlowitz, Leonard. "Wants to Be Self." Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph. December 16, 1958.

Patterson, William. The Farmer's Daughter Remembered. 2000.

Inger Stevens' Hollywood Hairdos by Leslie Blanchard

Inger Stevens was featured in a striking color cover of the November 1963 edition of Latest Hollywood and TV Hairdos. I hoped that the "five dazzling do's" promised within the magazine's pages would feature more Inger in full, glorious color. Instead, the hairstyles are in the form of sketches by Maning. The article is interesting in that it talks about the contrast of the simple styles worn as Katy Holstrum on The Farmer's Daughter in comparison to the "unbelievably lavish offstage coiffures ever created" that Inger donned offscreen. Those hairstyles and brilliant hair color were all the work of Inger's friend and hairstylist Leslie Blanchard, and were also highlighted on the Clairol ads the two worked on together during the run of the show. More on Leslie and Inger's friendship with quotes and photos after this photo break!

TV-Picture Life magazine highlighted Leslie and Inger's friendship and working relationship in February 1965. The cover of the magazine revealed that the article was titled, "Inger and the Bachelor: TV's Most Whispered-About Affair" and I expected it to be a teaser about Inger's fictional character Katy and Senator Morley on The Farmer's Daughter; I was pleasantly surprised to find it was an article on Leslie and Inger's friendship. The two met at a beauty salon on West 56th Street where Leslie was the color specialist. He recognized Inger immediately and recalled that they shared a common bond and were both discontent with their careers at that time:

We looked at each other and we both felt as if we had known each other for years. We had respect for each other, almost from the first moment...She told me I was strong enough to be on my own. She wasn’t even my client then, but she insisted I go with her, and she kept encouraging me. When I came back to New York, I did strike out on my own...I think she feels her troubles also provided a wonderful awakening for her. She did a lot of thinking and she realized that she didn’t have to be part of the Hollywood whirlwind and that she could succeed by hard work, talent, and just being herself. 

They were frequent travel companions, exploring Colombia, Jamaica, and Europe. Blanchard commented:

We did the tourist bit. We visited museums, went nightclubbing, went to the theatre, and just walked around. 

When the chance to star in The Farmer's Daughter came up, Inger was torn. She was concerned about being tied down to a weekly sitcom. Blanchard said:

I told her she’d have to do what she felt was best for herself. All a friend can do really is be a good sounding board and be a good listener and not a talker. When you listen, they make up their own decision. Well, Inger made up her mind to do the pilot. She is a very sensible, very logical, a very positive thinker, like I am. 

It was when Leslie took Inger to a Clairol press show that Clairol executives found her to be "wholesome and vivacious" and sponsored The Farmer's Daughter, making Inger their spokeswoman due to the fabulous impression made on them. When Inger was shooting a television documentary in Sweden, Leslie traveled with the crew and took care of Inger and her hair. He elaborated:

It’s remarkable because Inger has no Swedish-speaking close friends in America, yet she remembers the language she spoke up to the age of 13. We were together almost all the time. I’d see her at 5:30 am to do her hair, and then while it was drying, I’d fix her breakfast of soft boiled eggs, for her. I kidded her that I wanted more than hairdresser credit on the tv screen, and that I wanted credit as valet and cook. I colored it once, set it once, and combed it three or four times a day in Sweden.

Leslie Blanchard's career continued to rise long past Inger's untimely death and he was renowned the world over as a highly demanded and uniquely skilled hair stylist. 

Finally, here are the gorgeous Clairol ads featuring Inger and Leslie.

Sources: 

"Inger and the Bachelor: TV's Most Whispered About Affair." TV-Picture Life. February 1965. 

Latest Hollywood and TV Hairdos. November 1963.

 

Sometimes I Just Want to Go AWWRRRK!

Inger, Mickey Sholdar and William Windom
Source: TV Guide, 1963.

In 1963, Inger talked to friend-journalist Robert Roos for TV Guide. I've featured some of her noteworthy quotations below. Her remarks show that Inger held an interest in working with developmentally delayed children early on and that she was never afraid to question the importance of acting. Some actresses may have worried about job security or backlash from their managers and publicity folks, but not Inger. She was a straight shooter when it came to candidly discussing her career—when it came to her interracial marriage, however, she showed more caution and played coy. 

In these comments, I see a woman who is a grateful, hard worker, but restlessly searching for more meaningfulness in her life. I also see a funny little jab at former boyfriend Bing Crosby! In interviews, Inger talks a lot about being "found out" to be a fraud, or, in other words, a bad actress lucking into plum roles—all the while those around her sing her praises to no end. We know that Inger was incredibly modest, but could she have truly doubted her abilities? I tend to think these comments were perhaps a defense mechanism. Inger had been disappointed so many times in her life. I wonder if she thought that if she playfully put herself down first, it wouldn't hurt so much if others criticized her later. I'm just speculating, of course, and would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Show writer Steven Gethers calls Inger an "angel" and remarks that Inger's "the best I've ever seen." Director Don Taylor elaborates:

She is as professional an actress as I've ever worked with. You give her a kernel of an idea and she comes back with the whole acorn. She's a delight. She is prepared to work, she wants to work and she is on time for work.

Still, Inger expressed doubt:

Sometimes when I'm doing a part, I think, 'My heavens, I'm not really capable of doing any of this. Some day they're going to find out I just can't do it.

On her youth:

I only knew a little English—just what I'd picked up from coloring books. I used to get terrible headaches when I was learning English. I remember the day I started thinking in English. I felt all light and airy—like I had been liberated...I did odd jobs, mostly in the garment district and looked for theater jobs during my lunch hour. But that's not a very good time because everyone is out to lunch.

On her first movie:

I never thought in a million years that I would get that part, but I went in there and just sort of did it. It scared the living daylights out of me. I'd never done a movie before—and to work in a film with Bing Crosby! My gosh or gee whiz—I can't say anything stronger because Mr. Crosby is a very religious man.

Roos notes that Inger laughed a "deep laugh and did not clarify the remark." However, Bing married Kathryn Grant shortly after his relationship with Inger. In that marriage and as he aged, Bing became stricter in his attitude and more narrow in tolerance. In fact, reading Inger's jest reminded me that Rosemary Clooney talked about this change in her autobiography Girl Singer. Rosemary wrote that "Bing had been intolerant and judgmental, as reformed playboys and quasi-alcoholics often are" and, post-1957, often lectured others on their "scandalous behavior." It must have been exasperating for Inger to see this dichotomy in Bing's character because she loathed this type of superficiality in others.

On The Farmer's Daughter:

I realize I'm lucky, but the series takes away my freedom—my freedom to come and go. I've always worked from early in the morning to late at night but now it's every week with no time off. I find I get very irritable. There are people around all the time, touching me, fixing my hair or makeup or adjusting my clothes. Sometimes I just want to go 'Awwrrrrk,' but I don't. After all, the series could run five years if it is successful. That's a lot out of a person's life.

Inger shared that although she spent most of her time working, her hobbies included playing guitar, painting, cards and going to the horse races. On acting and life, Inger shared:

I like to do things I can get completely involved in, like chess. My mind jumps around a lot, and when I can really concentrate on something, it relaxes me...I'm working so hard I feel I'm wasting time. When I lie down at the end of the road, I'll want to have left something behind—even if it is just having helped one other person. I would like to utilize myself to the best possible advantage...I think one of these days I'll stop being an actor. There is another step for me to take. I don't think you are capable at 16 of deciding what you want to do with the rest of your life. I like acting and I'm not knocking the theater. It's just that I don't know whether acting is the way I ought to spend my life...I'm interested in working with retarded children. I realize I'm not qualified now, but children are no different from other people—they're just shorter.

Inger sounds like she is considerably aware of just how fleeting time and our opportunities are in this life. She consistently brings up a fear of wasting time, of missing out on the experience of living—remarks that take on a more poignant meaning now.

Source:

Clooney, Rosemary. Girl Singer. New York, Doubleday, 1999.

Roos, Robert. "'Sometimes I Just Want to Go AWWRRRK.'" TV Guide. September 28, 1963.

Inger on Katy and Men

Inger was a gifted singer and musician, as seen
here in this photo that accompanied the article.

In a TV-Radio Mirror interview with the cast of The Farmer's Daughter, Inger shared her thoughts on the character she played and the enjoyment among the cast on set. Inger said:

The odd thing is I've learned so much about myself since I started playing Katy. We're so much alike. We've both grown this past year. And, just like Katy, I'm much more relaxed that I've ever been. Perhaps it's the success of the series, but I'm not having fits over my career anymore. I look at it more objectively. I realize there are more important things in this world than acting. Hollywood may be the center of my life at present, but let's face it: It's a dot on the map, considering the world at large.

Another point. My sense of humor has sharpened up since I became Katy. Either I've gotten more "hep" or else it's because of associating with Bill Windom, Cathleen Nesbitt and Peter Kortner, all of whom have keen senses of humor. This is so important in a running series like ours. When things go wrong on the set—and believe me, even the smoothest show has its bad days—we can always find something to laugh about. Suddenly the gloom evaporates. Thank Heaven for that! It must be murder to work with grouchy people you don't like.

I think the feeling of warm friendliness somehow carries over to the viewers. I get loads of letters asking whether Bill and I are really in love, "because it sure looks that way on the screen." Naturally, we're flattered that our acting is so convincing, but we certainly aren't in love. Bill, as a matter of fact, has a lovely wife and three children. He also has many qualities I admire.

Inger also talked about what type of man attracted her. Inger's statements about finding the perfect man to journalists during the 1960's are always interesting to read. We know now that Inger had already found a man named Isaac Jones and was married to him, but that fact was oblivious to all but Inger's close circle at the time. The most revealing part to me is when Inger says, "I honestly believe I could handle both a home life and a career. In a sense, I'm doing that now." Yes, she definitely was and more than "in a sense!"

It's so easy, you know, to get romantic about your leading man. You're both playing people in love with each other, and you have a tendency to start living the part. It happened to me in my first years in Hollywood. The men were single, unattached and attractive, in all but two cases, and these two might as well have been bachelors for all the loyalty they showed their wives. Both were later on caught up in scandals, and I now realize how lucky I was not to take them seriously.

I like the more mature type of man, and I draw no line with respect to age. I was married once before—to a Broadway agent Tony Soglio—but it lasted on six months. I was only nineteen at the time and had very immature expectations. I realize now that no man could have lived up to my standards at that time. It's taken me ten years to grow up as a woman. I feel sure now that I'm at last ready for marriage. I honestly believe I could handle both a home life and a career. In a sense, I'm doing that now.

I'd like to feel secure and confident that I was joining my life to the right man's. The right man? Well, he'll have to have these two qualities that are a must for me. They are a good sense of humor and the ability to respect me as a person and win my respect, at the same time.

Source:

Emmons, Beatrice. Inger Stevens: The Man Who Stopped My Wedding." TV-Radio Mirror. January 1965

Inger on Katy's wedding, painting and the early part of her career

 

In 1965, Inger talked with Joan Barthel about a variety of topics. I cherish reading about Inger and her life from the lady herself. 

On Katy and Glen's wedding on The Farmer's Daughter:

The audience has been writing in—they can't stand it any longer. The audience wants the marriage to happen. At least, the women do. I'm not so sure about the men. Anyway, we're not doing Orphan Annie, where we all stay the same for 50 years. We're both fairly intelligent people in the series, and I don't think two intelligent people could continue playing this game much longer. We'll have a chance now to show that marriage can be fun, that people can be lovers though married.

On working on a television show:

Five years is a lot out of your life. I live my whole life on television. The hours are long—5 in the morning to 8:30 at night, five days a week—and there's not much time to do anything except learn your lines and keep healthy. At first I thought a series would be one big prison, but it hasn't been, and I haven't regretted it at all.

On working on Broadway:

Every time I've opened in a Broadway play, I've had to throw up.

On people:

When I really dislike somebody, I try to find something nice about them—and generally I can't find anything.

On making art:

Working with your hands is a very satisfying thing—you forget about a lot of things that are running about in your mind. On weekends I like to paint. I like to paint faces, and people with a lot of movement. I painted a still life once and I hated it.

On overcoming early frustrations in her career:

You're so afraid to say you're wrong, to say you don't know. At a certain point in my life I was very withdrawn, and there is always at time in your career when you lose your perspective. But I think I benefited much from that unhappy period in my life. I can laugh at myself now. I can cry, too, but I laugh more often.

On her passion for working with kids who were developmentally delayed:

The only thing I can be sure I'll be doing five years from now...

Source: 

Barthel, Joan. "A Sweetie from Sweden." The New York Times. July 25, 1965.

Inger on Fashion

In 1963, during the first season of The Farmer's Daughter, reporter Lydia Lane interviewed Inger about fashion. Inger had suggested that Katy's wardrobe be limited to a budget of $250 so that she looked realistic. Inger spoke of that decision and her fashion sense and rules in general. During her life, Inger talked about living simply and frugally quite a lot and took pride in finding quality, long-lasting items for a good price. She was skilled at accentuating her beauty while building up her savings account. Inger always looked both completely on trend and timeless. What follows are the words Inger said to Lydia Lane:

It was a challenge to plan a fall wardrobe on $250. It had to include everything—shoes, dresses, coats and accessories. Along with economy, I had to be sure what I had chosen would be becoming and photograph well. The whole idea was my own, but I felt I would strike a level of reality if my wardrobe was confined to the limited salary of the heroine of the story.

When I was first starting out in my career, I found that the most economical way to dress well was to find a good dressmaker because you don't often find good fabrics in inexpensive, ready-made clothes. Although they are cleverly designed, you can't expect them to hold their shape.

I decided on blouses and skirts as my basic outfits. You can make a few things look different by changing them around or sometimes wearing them with a vest. I chose one dark dress that was simple enough to serve double duty for Sundays, luncheon dates or for evening wear. I had one raincoat and a double-duty cloth coat. I limited by colors so I could use the same shoes and bag for everything. I didn't try to economize on these accessories because it proves more expensive in the long run to use cheap leather goods. 

You have to be methodical about dressing yourself. The people who are not never look well dressed. They lack harmony in their ensemble. There are a few basic rules that can't be ignored. The foundation of a dress depends on fit and fabric. Everything else is secondary—color, design and trimming. In order for me to feel and look well in a dress I must be comfortable and it must be appropriate for the occasion. I like freedom of movement.

I don't like to see clothes too informal after dark or too dressy early in the day. That is why, if you can afford only one good dress, you should get one that you can change accessories for day or evening wear.

I am lucky because ever since I can remember I have had a flair for knowing what was right for me. If you don't have confidence in your taste, it can be learned through trial and error, although that can be expensive. Reading fashion magazines, attending fashion shows, looking through pattern books are some of the ways to learn the trends in current styles.

Sources:

All photos on this post are scans of originals from my collection.

Lane, Lydia. "Inger Stevens Learns How to Plan Wardrobe without Great Expense." The South Bend Tribune. October 20, 1963.

Only Girl in "Devil" Film

When asked about being the only girl on the set of the film The World, The Flesh and the Devil which only had a 3-person cast, Inger responded:

I love it, but not for the usual reasons. When the cast of a picture is as compact as ours, the feeling of dramatic intensity which we need and desire is always predominant on the set...something like doing a stage play or a 'live' television show.

Director Ronald MacDougall remarked:

As far as I can remember no theatrical people have ever been exposed to such a story. Inger will emerge from the picture as one of Hollywood's most important stars. When she arrives in New York, she is lonely, frightened and disillusioned. But as her character becomes accustomed to being alone, he grows in strength and position.

Source: 
Pam, Jerry. "Inger Stevens Only Girl in 'Devil' Film." The Valley Times. May 16, 1959.

Bing's New Leading Lady

Parade West Coast correspondent Lloyd Shearer met with twenty-two-year-old Inger Stevens to discuss her role as Bing Crosby's love interest in Inger's first motion picture Man on Fire. Shearer describes Inger in the following way:

...Inger remains herself. She wears little makeup, looks more like a coed than an actress who studied under Lee Strasberg of the Actors' Studio in New York. She speaks openly and honestly in simple sentences; she dresses in uncolorful clothes; she lives modestly in a small Westwood apartment, owns no automobile and says candidly, 'Although I'm earning $600 a week, I'm not too crazy about Hollywood.'

When the topic changes to Inger being a bit unreadable, especially as starlets go. Inger responds:

I'm a mixture of many heritages and environments. In particular, the environmental changes I've made have always been drastic. I'm sure they've affected my personality. 

Producer Sol Siegel happened to see Inger in a television production and felt she would be perfect in the role of Nina Wylie opposite his partner Bing. Siegel recalls:

I was also told she was one terrific actress and that she was under contract to my old studio, Paramount. So, I gave her a test. I liked her. Then I discussed her with Bing.

In the interview, Inger talks about the film but mostly she talks about Bing, with whom she was smitten at the time:

The first day of rehearsals I was so nervous I thought he'd fire me. Instead, he was very quiet. I found out later that Bing Crosby takes a good deal of knowing. He weighs things very carefully. He's cautious. If he likes someone, he opens up. But this takes time. He's extremely likable and an extremely fine actor. Essentially, he's an instinctive actor who doesn't realize how good he really is. He's not impressed with himself at all. The one thing that bothers him in front of a camera is a lot of takes. He gets stale quickly. The first take is usually the best for him.

I'd been on the film two days when I had to go to the hospital for an appendectomy. When I came back, Bing greeted me like an old friend. We'd all have tea at 4 o'clock, just sit around and talk. I've dated him several times and for an actor he's unusual. He doesn't like to talk about himself. He's extremely well-read and interested in more subjects than show business. He knows so much about politics, sports, painters and writers you wouldn't believe it. He's one of the most well-rounded gentlemen I've ever met. After you go out with Bing, you're spoiled for young men, of, say 25 or 26.

Right now I consider myself a very fortunate girl. I'm doing what I like best—acting. In Man on Fire I play a lawyer's secretary who saves Bing Crosby from making a lot of mistakes. In the end we wind up together. It's a good part, but the picture is basically a Crosby vehicle. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my young life playing opposite Bing. I hope I'm lucky enough to do it again.

Source: Shearer, Lloyd. "Bing's New Leading Lady." The San Bernardino County Sun. June 16, 1957. 
Note: The two photos featured in this post were included with the original article.

Cues from the Zoo (1956)

In 1956 Inger was featured in a news story about actors learning from the movement of animals. At the time, Inger was studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Inger is photographed in front of the lion and leopard cages at the Central Park Zoo and comments:

Mr. Strasberg advises us to browse around the zoo studying the animals. The object is not only to learn to move like a certain animal, but to feel like one. Later we pantomime our chosen animal in front of the class, with everyone trying to guess what we are. I happen to be a pretty fair panther.

The brief article promotes Inger's upcoming performance in the Broadway play "Debut" with the author predicting that "Mr. Strasberg, Flappy the seal and even the raccoon will be proud of their pupil."

Source:
Lieber, Leslie. "Cues from the Zoo." St. Louis Globe. February 5, 1956.

The Lady's a Loner and Likes It

In 1967 reporter Jack Ryan met with Inger Stevens in a bar in Utah, where she was shooting the film Firecreek. Inger was playing pool with the locals and holding her own in the game before she sat down to talk with Ryan about her tendency to live a life of solitude. Ryan wrote that "Inger smiles gently and speaks softly so that her ideas don't sound as harsh as they read...Inger's steely self-possession seems far less total, and you wonder whether it may be a thin shield rather than a complete attitude." Here is what Inger shared about her life in the interview:

On being a dancer:

At 16 I ran away to join burlesque. I never thought of it being bad, so, because I didn't think bad, nothing that happened to me was bad. I remember being asked to care for a drunken performer, sick and helpless. People said, "disgusting and shocking." I thought only that he was a sick man; nothing shocked or disgusted me because I could see nothing bad in the world.

On being frugal in spending:

I have no status symbols. Oh, I tore up some rosebushes at home for a sauna bath and pool, but I use them every morning, not just look at them. My Mercedes? Well, I squeezed the dealer down $500 from his bottom price, and my cars last me seven or eight years, so they are hardly luxuries. 

About her 2-year marriage to agent Anthony Soglio in the 1950's:

All I wish to say is that it left a lasting impression on me.

On her nearly 3-year battle with Paramount over her contract which ended with Inger going in debt to pay off contracts made by her former husband Anthony Soglio:

It was a nightmare but when it was over, I was a free woman in every sense of the word. I no longer needed anyone. I could laugh at problems that once would have made me so moody that I'd be afraid to be by myself. Now I'm alone a lot. People ask me if I'm lonely. I tell them I have my own small home, and I like its solitude. I have my own Mercedes to take long drives—alone. 

On traveling:

My favorite pastime is travel by slow freighters to strange ports—again alone. Am I afraid? Never—well, yes, once I was frightened off from visiting Marrakesh, but maybe I'll still visit it to see for myself. I'm planning freighter voyages to the Orient and the Greek Islands. It's better to travel alone unless you are with somebody very much a part of you, and there's nobody like that in my life. Yes, I'll do that soon. The Greek Islands? No, I'm saving them for my man, whenever I meet him. I'm not so independent to rule out marriage, but he'll have to be somebody you can think and communicate with. I want a marriage we can grow in. When I meet this man—then I'll sail the Greek Islands with him. Until then, I'm saving them. [When Ryan asked "what if he doesn't want to go to the Greek Islands?", Inger smiled and replied, "He will. He will."]

We know now that Inger was actually secretly married to producer Ike Jones from 1961 until her death. That marriage, kept secret because it was interracial and would've destroyed Inger's career at the time, was marked with a lot of separations in living arrangements and romantic arrangements and has been described as tumultuous by some. Knowing that Inger and Ike continued to be romantically involved with others and spent much of their marriage estranged, I don't know if Ike was the man she says she's holding out for in the interview. Perhaps, the smiling reply "He will. He will." was a sweet, secret acknowledgment to Ike of their future plans. I have wondered if interviews about her not being married include words or phrases that might not mean anything to the reporter or the public, but were a secret code between Ike and Inger...just my own speculations here. Interestingly, in Ike's obituary, it actually has a small quote about the two traveling. Friend and producer Bob Booker remarked:

They would to go the airport, walk up to the counter and say, ‘When’s the next flight and where is it going?’. They would disappear for a week.

I do believe that Inger was a loner throughout her adult life and enjoyed her solitude; she was conditioned to be independent after a traumatic childhood and I think she felt better protected on her own and in control. I'm always pleased to find interviews of hers; I know she is guarding some truths,  but she's shedding a good deal of light on her life as well.

Source:
Colker, David. "Ike Jones dies at 84; pioneering African American film producer." Los Angeles Times. October 11, 2014.
Ryan, Jack. "The Lady's a Loner and Likes It." The Kilgore News Herald Sun. August 27, 1967.