Saturday I sat down to watch TV. I came across one of the channels that runs old movies and settled on Where The Boys Are, a movie released in December 1960. I don’t recall having seen this movie since I saw it in its original release.
Where the Boys Are starred Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss, Connie Francis, George Hamilton and Frank Gorshin. It follows four Midwestern college girls who headed off to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for spring break. They were hoping to have a good time and possibly meet “nice boys”. The story follows the four as they meet a variety of guys who become the girls' dream come true and in some cases their worst nightmare. This movie is a glimpse at the beginning of change in sexual attitudes that would result in the “free love” attitudes of the late sixties.
Most interesting to me was a chance to see the actors and actresses who were in this movie. I had forgotten how young and handsome (untanned) George Hamilton was! This movie also marked the acting debut of Connie Francis who sang and made a hit of the title song… Where The Boys Are. Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton who were matched in the movie as “Tuggle” and “TV” later went on to appear in several comedies together: The Honeymoon Machine, Bachelor in Paradise, and The Horizontal Lieutenant. Frank Gorshin played a jazz musician and later became a staple character actor with a long career in movies and TV appearances, most notably as the Riddler in the Batman TV series. Yvette Mimieux, a tiny blonde actress, had success earlier that same year with the release of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine with Rod Taylor.
By far, the most interesting of the actresses in the movie was Dolores Hart. By the time she made Where the Boys Are, she had already appeared in two movies with Elvis Presley. In fact, in Loving You, she was the first actress to receive an on-screen kiss from the handsome young singer. Several years later, she appeared in the Elvis movie King Creole. A short three years and three or four movies later, Dolores Hart left Hollywood behind and became a nun. She has resided the years since in a convent in Connecticut and is now known as Rev. Mother Dolores. She recently made an appearance before a congressional committee to support legislation that would fund research into a disease called peripheral idiopathic neuropathy. It’s a painful neurological disease that affects many Americans and Mother Dolores herself.
How remarkable it is that a young woman of that time would turn her back on a world she had reportedly fallen in love with when she was seven years old to spend her life in the quiet solitude of a convent!
Where the Boys Are starred Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss, Connie Francis, George Hamilton and Frank Gorshin. It follows four Midwestern college girls who headed off to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for spring break. They were hoping to have a good time and possibly meet “nice boys”. The story follows the four as they meet a variety of guys who become the girls' dream come true and in some cases their worst nightmare. This movie is a glimpse at the beginning of change in sexual attitudes that would result in the “free love” attitudes of the late sixties.
Most interesting to me was a chance to see the actors and actresses who were in this movie. I had forgotten how young and handsome (untanned) George Hamilton was! This movie also marked the acting debut of Connie Francis who sang and made a hit of the title song… Where The Boys Are. Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton who were matched in the movie as “Tuggle” and “TV” later went on to appear in several comedies together: The Honeymoon Machine, Bachelor in Paradise, and The Horizontal Lieutenant. Frank Gorshin played a jazz musician and later became a staple character actor with a long career in movies and TV appearances, most notably as the Riddler in the Batman TV series. Yvette Mimieux, a tiny blonde actress, had success earlier that same year with the release of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine with Rod Taylor.
By far, the most interesting of the actresses in the movie was Dolores Hart. By the time she made Where the Boys Are, she had already appeared in two movies with Elvis Presley. In fact, in Loving You, she was the first actress to receive an on-screen kiss from the handsome young singer. Several years later, she appeared in the Elvis movie King Creole. A short three years and three or four movies later, Dolores Hart left Hollywood behind and became a nun. She has resided the years since in a convent in Connecticut and is now known as Rev. Mother Dolores. She recently made an appearance before a congressional committee to support legislation that would fund research into a disease called peripheral idiopathic neuropathy. It’s a painful neurological disease that affects many Americans and Mother Dolores herself.
How remarkable it is that a young woman of that time would turn her back on a world she had reportedly fallen in love with when she was seven years old to spend her life in the quiet solitude of a convent!
Left: Dolores Hart c.1960 Right: Rev. Mother Dolores today.
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