Sandra Dee

"I'll Choose My Own Weapons!"


This article, written by Irma Ronson, appeared in Movie TV Tattler Magazine December, 1960



The lady who ran the first model agency for which Sandra Dee worked when she was a teenager in Bayonne, New Jersey, had a pet expression. "Remember, girls, if your girdle has to take you in too much, you won't get taken out very much."

Sandra has remembered that little homily faithfully. Her figure, fortunately, doesn't need too much attention, but she examines it carefully at least once a week.

"Bumps that shouldn't be there," she says, "can appear like magic. I can't afford them. Not only because I'm an actress, but because I'm a woman. And the competition is pretty fierce; not only around here, but everywhere."

In the modeling field, the competition could get more than rough; it could wax downright nasty. Sandra remembers the times she was left "standing there with my mouth hanging open while some other girl glib-tongued her way into the day's assignment."

She learned to hold her own quickly enough. Today, Sandra can sweet-talk anybody out of anything. And she is not averse to so doing when it's necessary. "But I'm glad it isn't necessary very often."

If she's referring to roles in movies, it's certainly not necessary any more. Her home studio, Universal--International, for whom her latest smash hit is "Portrait In Black," has to turn down forty or fifty offers a year from other studios and independent producers. In this respect, the studio--and her agent--run her life, but in no other.

"My private life is my own. I owe the studio only the obligation of behaving myself to the extent that I don't get involved in any scandal which could hurt me at the boxoffice. And I'm not about to do that. I'd be hurting myself more than anyone."

Thus it was that when Sandra went to Europe to be near John Saxon, who was making a picture there, the studio was as unperturbed as Sandra at the hinted nastinesses in various Hollywood columns. Like Sandra, the studio knows that Sandra isn't that dumb.

That she was quite obviously chasing John Saxon didn't bother her, either. At that time, at least, Sandra was convinced that John was her cup of tea. She wanted to add the sugar. "Or lemon, as the case might be. That's something you can't find out until you live together."

Frankness is used deliberately by Sandra. She has discovered its shock value. When she wants something printed, she uses the technique of saying what she thinks. Like the matter of John Saxon. "If I want something, I go after it. If that something happens to be a man, so be it. No girl ever collared one by sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring. Any girl knows that some other girl will make hay while you sit by the phone."

Sitting around anywhere isn't her idea of living. Even if there were no John Saxon, Sandra would have traipsed off to Europe, anyhow. "I've been dying to go. I had the time in between pictures. If I had sought permission, there would have been a thousand reasons why it was impossible. Once I announced flatly that I was going, it was a fait accompli."

Sandra calls this technique "the power of the positive," or, "he who hesitates misses the plane." It's one she's always used. As long ago as freshman year in high school, she announced that she had begun to seek work as a model. "Of course, everybody objected. Imagine, a teenager in that world of 'iniquity' among the fashion trades in New York!" she laughs. "But when I showed them I had already been booked for my first job, they knew I was serious. And they knew that I knew what I wanted."

Knowing what you want is to Sandra the most important part of successful living. "I don't mean only money, or fame. I mean knowing the kind of clothes you want, the kind of man you want, the kind of books you want to read. Emphasizing the positive and eschewing the negative."

Not that she believes a girl should always be forthright. "You can chase a man away like that. Most men, I guess. And if they realize that you're pursuing them, they don't like it. Traditionally, theirs is the role of the hunter. So let's let them do the hunting--as long as we choose the weapons."

Though she ardently believes in this kind of "trickery," Sandra does not believe in pretending to be dumb or ignorant or naive because supposedly men want their women that way. "First place, I don't believe it. Second, I never believed that a girl shouldn't let her brains show. I've always had kind of a hunch that men aren't nearly so enamored of 'dumbbells' as we think. And if you've got brains and he doesn't want 'em, then he's really not for you anyhow, is he?"

On this subject, Sandra is firm indeed. "This is a different kind of world we live in today, anyhow. Seems to me we ought to not only parade our brains more, but use them, too."

In her early teens, Sandra developed a severe case of telephoneitis. It's diminished somewhat, but her greatest love is still that handy instrument. It's also her biggest single expense. "It's sort of an itch; I've got so many friends constantly scattering to the four corners of the earth, and every once in a while I just have to talk to them."

When Sandra was a model, she earned as much as $35,000 a year. For a while, it made her feel sort of guilty to be earning all that money. "All I did was pose. I used to see men coming home in the early evening, just like me, and think about the fact that maybe they earned all week no more than I had received for the day. But I've gotten over that, although sometimes I honestly think about how maybe our democratic system has some faults, after all! Still, you have to see it the other way--everyone has an equal chance. It's what you do with it that counts."

Outside of acting itself, what Sandra adores about movies is the chance to tour the country on personal appearances. "When you make friends that way, you're making future customers for your pictures, of course. But more than that, I'm strictly an extrovert from wayback; I love to meet all kinds of people, and I love those big luncheons and dinner interviews and the radio and TV stuff. It's all exciting, and it makes you come alive."

She also likes to study. "It goes on all the time, informally as well. I see someone on the street or in a store and I ask myself how I would react to similar situations or problems. At home, I act them out. I find that this kind of 'homework' added to my regular acting lessons helps me on the set. Also, I like to do roles which other actresses do and which I criticize to myself after I've seen the picture. I think I'm honest enough with myself, too, to tell myself that I've done a better interpretation or one not as good. But the practice is the important thing."

What of the future? "Oh, I haven't looked beyond the one fact that I love both acting and Hollywood. This is what I want to do and where I want to stay." Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "And this is where I want to marry--as you have certainly guessed--because it's so convenient for both of us!"



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