Sandra Dee
Doomed to Stardom
This article appeared in Parade Magazine November 3, 1957
Cover of the Magazine
From model to actress can be a dangerous step-- especially when you're only 15 years old...
Hollywood. What would you do if you had a 14-year-old daughter who earned $40,000 a year?
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Douvan of New York City were faced with that pleasant dilemma last year when their dark-blonde, brown eyed child Alexandra became the top teen-aged model in the world.
A former theatrical agent, Mr. Douvan wanted Sandra to stop modeling and live the life of a normal young girl. Modeling , he knew from experience , might well lead his child into the jungle world of show business-- and he didn't want that. Mrs. Douvan , on the other hand felt that "Sandy should be allowed to go as far as her beauty and talent will carry her."
Then unexpectedly, Mr. Douvan died. His wife took over. Today Alexandra Douvan has become Sandra Dee, young Hollywood actress doomed to stardom.
In her first picture, MGM's current Until They Sail, Sandra plays a New Zealand girl growing up in a parentless home. She worked six weeks on it and was paid $6,000. In her second, Universals Teach Me How To Cry (Editors note: This film was renamed "The Restless Years"), she portrays the illegitimate daughter of a pathetic mother and stars opposite rising newcomer John Saxon. For her third role in a year she will play the lead in Maureen Daly's novel, Seventeenth Summer.(Editors note: Apparently this never materialized) So you can see that her studio publicity department is not exaggerating when it calls Sandra Dee "the hottest young female property in the business."
Now under long-term contract to Universal-International , Sandra starts at $1,000 a week with yearly options. By the time she's 20, she should be earning $3,500 a week. She lives with her mother in a hillside home equipped with a swimming pool. She drives a Buick, owns a mink stole, has two dogs.
At the same time,she has no real friends of her own age. She has never dated a boy. She has never kissed except in line of duty. She has never gone to adance. She diets constantly (example : no deserts). She lives in a purely adult world, bombarded daily by such statements as, "Sweetie, you are the greatest natural actress I have ever seen."
The truth in that Sandra has virtually no acting experience. What she does have is two Hollywood basics, a pleasing personality and a photogenic face. Her smile is warm, friendly, wholesome. When she reaches full maturity, she may be a dazzler indeed.
She claims she is shy and sensitive, "the complete opposite of my mother. " Yet she knows that since the age of 13 she has been leading an extraordinary life and now is well on her way to through immersion "in the show business my Daddy never liked. You see," she explains,"Daddy used to represent various theatrical artists, and he saw few of them could really handle sucess , and what success had done to them. And he didn't want that to happen to me ever. But here I am, somewhat of a success. So it's a funny sort of feeling I have."
Sandra's modeling career began in 1955, when she was attending public school in New York City. A girl in her class was interviewed for a magazine modeling job, missed out because she was too small, suggested Sandra try for it. "I went up there," she says. "They not only gave me the job but photographed me for a cover the very next day. After that I signed with the Conover agency , then moved over to the Huntington Hartford agency. Before long I was working on six jobs a day at $35 an hour."
"Then one day," Sandra continues, "I was walking through the NBC building in New York. A television producer stopped me in the hall and took my name and address. A few weeks later I was on the Vaughan Monroe program. Between modeling and TV I made more than $80,000 in two years.
"Last year , Ross Hunter , a producer from Universal , came to New York to cast Teach me How to Cry. He interviewed 400 girls for the part and chose me for a screen test. That's how I came to Hollywood. Before my contract with U-I was finalized , I did Until They Sail for MGM.
When you ask Sandy which she prefers, modeling or acting , she says quickly , "Acting gives me more satisfaction , but I must say I didn't mind working as a model. Except for the mothers of the other models. They were so jealous, so conniving.
"I'd call another model my age on the phone. I could hear her mother in the background. 'Find out where she's working. Find out how much she's getting. Find out the contract.' Honestly, the mothers were just terrible. They drive their daughters so hard. I haven't found that in Hollywood. "
The reason Sandra hasn't found that in Hollywood is because she's been too busy to look. The history of this town bulges with stories of actresses who became stars because tieir mothers pushed them.Betty Grable once told me,"I would never have become an actress if it hadn't been for my mother.""I never liked to act," Elizabeth Taylor has confessed, "and if it wasn't for my mother, I never would have. " As a result of such tactics , some actresses today are barely on speaking terms with their mothers.
Surprsingly level headed at 15, Sandra says she bears her mother no resentment for guiding her into show business,"Because I'm basically ambitious myself, and I love to act, and after I get to be 22, I'm going to settle down and get married and quit this business , anyway, and by then maybe I'll have a few dollars and a lot of experience."
By that time, observers here hope a normal life for Sandra Dee won't be too late. "Doomed to Stardom" can be a phrase with more than one meaning.
Back to Sandra Dee Tribute
