Brigid Bazlen

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Brigid Bazlen
Bazlen in the trailer of King of Kings
Born	June 9, 1944 Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA
Died	May 25, 1989 (aged 44) Seattle, Washington, USA
Occupation	Film, television Actress
Years active	1959-1965
Spouse(s)	Jean-Paul Vignon (1966 - ?) (divorced) 1 child

Brigid Bazlen was an American actress. Although she made only 3 Hollywood films, The Honeymoon Machine, King of Kings, and How the West Was Won, because all 3 remain highly popular films from the early 1960’s, she is still widely remembered. Her career, and her life, were tragically cut short by her premature death from cancer at the age of 44.

1 Early Life & Career
2 Later Career & Life After Acting
3 Selected Film & TV Appearances
4 External links

[edit] Early Life & Career

Bazlen was born Brigid Mary Bazlen on the 9th June 1944 in Fond de Lac, Wisconsin. Her father was Arthur Bazlen, a retail chain executive, and her mother was Maggie Daly, a newspaper columnist with Chicago's American (Chicago Today & Chicago Tribune). Maggie Daly was, with her three sisters, one of what Time Magazine referred to as “the celebrated Daly sisters,” who were known for their writing and work in journalism, fashion and advertising. Life Magazine ran two feature stories on the sisters with a young Bazlen appearing in the second. Columnist Maggie ("Daly Diary" in Chicago's American), the oldest sister, a one-time model was known for her lunch time Chicago fashion shows and as a radio and television talk show guest and TV show host. Kay, who worked in advertising with such people as Richard Avedon, became a Revlon Vice president responsible for its advertising. Novelist and writer Maureen Daly became famous for writing Seventeenth Summer at age 19. Sheila, the youngest, who wrote a Chicago Tribune teen column beginning at a very young age eventually went into advertising as well.

Bazlen was “discovered” in 1950 at the age of 6 waiting for a school bus in front of her house by an NBC executive. The network were testing for the then groundbreaking soap opera Hawkins Falls, Population 6200 (which went onto become the first ever successful television soap opera) starring Maurice Copeland and Bernadine Flynn, and the executive asked Bazlen’s parents for permission to test her. Whilst her mother initially refused, she later relented and Bazlen won a part and became a regular on the show for two years, winning rave reviews.

[edit] The Blue Fairy (1958)

In 1958, Bazlen won the starring role in the children’s program, The Blue Fairy, broadcast by the independent station WGN-TV in Chicago on Monday nights (7.30pm - 8.00pm). It was one of the earliest children’s shows to be produced in colour. In the show, The Blue Fairy, played by Bazlen, lived in the “Blue Forest”. Dressed in a blue gown and diamond tiara, she also clasped a silver wand. At the beginning of each show, Bazlen, suspended by wires, would fly (as if on elfin wings) across the stage saying “I’m the Blue Fairy, I’ll grant you a wish to make all your dreams come true”. She would then sit on an oversized mushroom visited by creatures such as Tugnacious R. Jones, Myrtle Flower, and an old nasal voiced wizard (which were puppets designed by George Nelle and writer-director Don Kane), and introduced stories enacted by the Rufus Rose Marionettes. They also engaged in various projects which included constructing a popcorn machine that would not stop popping and making a sewing machine that turned out marbles. Bazlen won enormous critical praise for her performance (one critic describing it as “beguiling” and “mesmerising” and Hedda Hopper declared Bazlen “the Celtic Alice in Wonderland”) and the show was recognised as the top children’s program of 1958 winning a Peabody Award (which Bazlen celebrated with her mother at Chicago's Pump Room where Brigid downed a two course meal and two bowls of whipped cream for dessert). Although The Blue Fairy could only be seen locally in Chicago on Channel 9, the Peabody Award it won brought it and Bazlen to national attention. Furthermore, the show also inspired Ernie Kovacs into doing one of his notorious comedy sketches where Kovacs (wearing a mustache, chewing a cigar, dressed in a blue gown and blonde wig, and holding a silver wand) flew across a stage, slammed head first into a wall on the opposite side, and was then left dangling lifelessly (in mock fashion) in mid-air!

[edit] Too Young To Go Steady (1959)

As a result of her performances in The Blue Fairy, offers poured in for Bazlen. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wanted her to co-star with Mary Martin in the theatrical production of The Sound of Music, Otto Preminger wanted her for his upcoming production of Exodus, and Paddy Chayefsky wanted her for his Broadway play The Dybbuk of Woodlawn. Bazlen’s mother however turned these down and instead allowed her to take a part in the NBC TV drama Too Young To Go Steady. The series starred Joan Bennett and Bazlen played her daughter Pamela Blake.

[edit] The Honeymoon Machine (1961)

Brigid Bazlen as featured in cartoon format in the poster for The Honeymoon Machine

Through her role in Too Young To Go Steady and because she was “precociously attractive” (as one critic put it) in a very similar way to Elizabeth Taylor at the same age, Bazlen came to be dubbed “the next Elizabeth Taylor” and was signed by MGM (who started promoting her as “the new American Bardot”). The first film she did for MGM was The Honeymoon Machine alongside Steve McQueen, Jim Hutton, and Paula Prentiss. She stars as Julie Fitch, girlfriend of Fergie Howard (played by Steve McQueen) and daughter of Admiral Fitch (played by Dean Jagger). In the film, Fergie Howard, a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, attempts to make an ill-gotten fortune whilst on shore leave in Venice by beating the roulette wheel at the local casino with the assistance of his ships brand new ultra sophisticated high speed computer (known as ‘Honeymoon’ – hence, the title of the film, ‘The Honeymoon Machine’ – also reinforced by the fact that it ultimately ends up bringing two couples together in matrimony: the Bazlen and McQueen characters and the Hutton and Prentiss characters). In conjunction with Jason Eldridge (played by Jim Hutton), the scientist who built the computer, Fergie works out that the computer can predict which numbers will come up on the roulette wheel, thereby enabling him to place bets on those numbers and make the crooked fortune he is after. However, there’s just one problem - Admiral Fitch. The Admiral, Fergie’s ship commander, is staying on the floor below in the hotel Fergie is residing at whilst on leave. Fergie must pull off the scam whilst ensuring that the Admiral does not find out about it as if he does, he will be in serious trouble. Fergie fails. However, not only does he avoid a court martial, but he also wins Admiral Fitch’s daughter, Julie (i.e. Bazlen), as his new wife (she was in fact a willing accomplice in his scam!). It was fashionable at the time of the film’s release for critics to ‘pan’ it. However, the film is now widely recognised as a superb comedy (featuring fine performances from Bazlen, McQueen, Hutton, Prentiss, and Jagger, and a simply outstanding comedic performance as a drunk by Jack Weston as Signalman Taylor. As film comedy drunks go, Weston’s performance is one of the best in cinema history and his stunt in which he walks and crawls along a high rise ledge drunk would have been worthy of Harold Lloyd!) and Bazlen displays great comic timing in her first film role.

[edit] King of Kings (1961)

After starring in The Honeymoon Machine, Bazlen won the role of Salome in King of Kings, which also starred Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus. The film is about the life of Jesus Christ. As with The Honeymoon Machine, it was fashionable amongst professional critics upon the film’s release to slate it. Indeed, it was dubbed “I Was a Teenage Jesus” because of Hunter’s youthful appearance in the film, despite the fact that he was actually 35 at the time of its making, and theologians hold that Jesus was around this age at the time of his death. Bazlen’s performance as Salome came in for especially hostile criticism at the time, the ferocity of it being partly inspired by the fact that Bazlen’s selection for the role was viewed as “MGM dictated”. Nevertheless, just as the film itself is now highly regarded (Hunter's performance as Jesus, especially in the Sermon on the Mount scene, winning much acclaim as have the performances of Robert Ryan as John the Baptist and Frank Thring as Herod Antipas), Bazlen’s performance has likewise been re-evaluated down the years as being superb (her voluptuous seduction of a drunken lascivious Herod winning her especially rave reviews). It is also widely regarded as her best performance.

[edit] How The West Was Won (1962)

Bazlen’s final film role was as Dora Hawkins in How the West Was Won, a film about the history of the western expansion in the United States as told via the story of one pioneer family's history.

[edit] Later Career & Life After Acting

How The West Was Won completed Bazlen’s 3 film contract deal with MGM and unfortunately her contract was not renewed following the criticism her performance as Salome received in King of Kings, criticism now widely regarded as having been grossly unfair. After completing her role in How The West Was Won, Bazlen returned to Chicago where she appeared in many stage roles right up until 1966 when she gave up performing to marry the singer Jean-Paul Vignon. The marriage produced one daughter (Marguerite Vignon) but ended in divorce. Bazlen did return to acting briefly in 1972 by taking up the role of Mary Anderson in the NBC daytime TV drama Days of Our Lives. After that, however, she completely retired from acting altogether. Her mother later stated that Bazlen just lost interest in acting as she grew older. Tragically, soon after moving to Seattle, Washington, she died of cancer on the 25th May 1989, aged just 44.