Joey Heatherton: The Mr. Skin Interview

The Joey Heatherton Album was a daring release at the time, since people weren't expecting you to make such a subdued and introspective album.
I chose the songs and put my heart and soul into that one album for MGM. I'll never forget going through stacks of sheet music and finding "Gone". And I always loved "Someone to Watch over Me". They would always give me up-tempo songs for my TV appearances, but I eventually got in there and did some really good work. Someone has given me some DVDs of the old Dean Martin Show, and I'd forgotten that I did some really nice things there.

The reissue also adds lots of your earlier recordings, including "The Hullabaloo".
I was on the first Hullabaloo! I made that show a hit because they had me in a leotard! They wanted me to wear pink slacks. I didn't even know what a G-string was! I ended up doing Hullabaloo in my leotard, which was my rehearsal outfit!

By then, though, you'd already established yourself as a serious actress.
They called me the New York actress back then. Richard Rodgers was my big daddy, my mentor, and Josh Logan, gosh, and I'd done a lot of plays and gotten very good reviews. Then I went out to Hollywood and did movies, working with George Segal and Bette Davis and Susan Hayward, and was treated with great respect. I never had a problem because I was embraced by Frank Sinatra--and there was my beginning with Perry Como when I was fifteen, and working with Dean Martin, and Jerome Robbins when I was thirteen years old, so I learned pretty young, and I loved it!

The original album cover featured you in a sexy baby-doll pose. It was kind of a shock to get the CD reissue and see the cover with you in a topless shot.
It was a shock for me too! That was done by the great Harry Langdon Jr., and I guess it was taken when I was making a movie with Richard Burton called Bluebeard. I think it was taken between scenes on the set, and Harry said, "Come on, you opened your robe in Bluebeard, can I have a shot?" He told me we weren't going to ever do anything with it--and years later, surprise! The people at the label told me about the shot, and I saw it, and it is pretty. I couldn't remember when it was taken at first, but then I had a dream about it. I told them it was a perfect shot for the cover.

It's also good to see that the CD has the theme from the underseen thriller My Blood Runs Cold (1965), since that was such a great showcase for you.
That's the way it was done at the time. I was making movies and just doing straight acting, and my agent or manager would look for chances to suggest that I sing. People would say, "I don't know--she's a straight dramatic actress," and they'd say, "She's quite a great singer too." I'd done a TV show called, I think, Breaking Point--a show about psychiatrists--and then I was suggested for Hullabaloo to Gary Smith, who'd been the set designer on The Perry Como Show. He said, "Of course I know Joey, she sings and dances," and then Hullabaloo jumped straight into music, and then I was with Bob Hope and Dean Martin, working with Sammy Davis Jr., Count Basie, Frank Sinatra! I was hot as a firecracker!

Was it hard to get taken seriously as both an actress and a glamorous nightclub entertainer?
I had to fight the leotard thing, but I was always working. I was doing films and Las Vegas, headlining at Caesar's Palace, doing movies and doing the albums. I had the mattress commercials too, and that had become quite an item. They were very sexy and provocative. Really beautiful commercials. I was on the road for what felt like forever to big crowds, and it just kept going and going. But I had a manager who took off with the loot. That was quite a lesson. He took off with five million dollars. That's why I kept going all over the world.

You headlined an amazing cast as Xaviera Hollander in The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977).
When I saw those great people around me at the time, it was such a blessing. All these wonderful, terrific character actors were there. George Hamilton, Jack Carter, Larry Storch, Phil Foster from Laverne & Shirley--and Billy Barty! It was great to have a movie where I did comedy. I'd done so many TV sketches on the Dean Martin Show and on Dean's Summer Show with people like Frank Sinatra Jr. and Paul Lynde. Oh, my god--some of those sketches are out of time and space! [Editor's note: After the seasonal try-out, The Dean Martin Summer Show became Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.]

When you made Bluebeard, were you aware that you were a lot better than the material?
I was just happy to have the good fortune to work with the great Richard Burton, who was a good pal. I learned a lot. He helped me get a divorce too, which was interesting. We stopped shooting the movie because of that. My problem was I had to go home and get a divorce. With Richard's support and encouragement, I was able to get back and finish the movie.

You've had one of those careers with amazing highs and major lows. How are you doing today?
Things are terrific! Really wonderful! I'm going to do a new CD, and I'm going to be playing Vegas again! I feel like I'm Joey Heatherton's daughter. I should feel like Joey Heatherton's mother.