Barbara Eden brings her magic to RI Comic Con
At 92 with a career going back 70 years, Barbara Eden still feels the love for what she does.
A trouper who’s done it all — stage, cinema, TV, nightclubs, records— Eden attends Rhode Island’s Comic Con in Providence Saturday and Sunday
It won’t, surprisingly, be all “Jeannie! Jeannie! Jeannie!” fans who 38 years later still adore her touchstone series “I Dream of Jeannie.”
“Or course it’s mostly ‘Jeannie’ but a lot of people now, according to my fan mail I’m getting all over the world, are seeing these older movies that I did at Fox with Elvis (“Flaming Star’) and Pat Boone (‘All Hands on Deck’), and the Irwin Allen films (‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’). That always surprises me. Or they will see one episode I did for ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ — ‘The Manicurist’ — and they will have photographs of the show and I sign them.”
Born in Tucson and raised in San Francisco, Eden settled into Hollywood’s all-girl Studio Club for aspiring actresses. Her first break was as a foil in skits with Johnny Carson.
“This was for ‘The Johnny Carson Show,’ a summer replacement for Red Skelton. My first part was a woman who would sing off-key and then I did about 9 or 10 shows that summer with Johnny.”
That led to Eden being signed as a contract player by 20th Century-Fox, the studio where Marilyn Monroe reigned. Coincidentally, her series there was “How to Marry a Millionaire,” a spin-off of Monroe’s hit.
When her contract ended, “I went out and worked, guesting and doing movies.” From the trades, “I was aware that the ‘Jeannie’ series was in the works.
“They were testing young women — all beauty contest winners. All very tall, gorgeous women: Miss Israel, Miss Spain, Miss Italy. That’s not me,” she laughed, “I’m short, blonde and supposed to be funny.”
Imagine the shock when her agent called to tell her she had the role that would define her career. “I said, Do they know what I look like? He said, ‘They must — and they want you to meet Sidney Sheldon at the Beverly Hilton for tea.’”
Sheldon was an Oscarwinning writer who also created “The Patty Duke Show” and “Hart to Hart.”
“People always ask, How did you get the part? I haven’t a clue but I can only guess because I learned later, at dinner at Sidney’s during the show, he would have a lot of writers. Many of them were people I worked with on ‘The Johnny Carson Show.’ I just have a feeling that’s how I got the part.”
For more information, visit https://www.ricomiccon.com