FUTURE RAQUEL WELCH HAD HER HEART SET ON ACTING

Actress Raquel Welch—formerly Jo Raquel Tejada—who died Wednesday at age 82, knew growing up in La Jolla she wanted a professional acting career. She told the Evening Tribune in 1958 she was willing to work hard to get what she wanted.

From the Evening Tribune, Tuesday, June 24, 1958:

‘FAIREST’ QUEEN’S A ‘TRIPLE-A GIRL’ LA JOLLAN EYES CAREER AS ACTRESS

When Raquel Tejada of La Jolla grasped the trophy that said she was Fairest of the Fair and Miss Contour she made a fervent remark.

“How I wanted this,” she breathed. In interviews she said she wants to be an actress.

“In the legitimate theater,” she specified. Her answers give some clue to her personality of this brunette beauty.

‘SHE’S NEXT MAID’

They also give some meaning to a pair of remarks by William F. (Bill) Arballo, publicist for the county Fair, who is Miss Tejada’s boss for much of the time during the run of San Diego’s big summer event, which opens Friday.

“This is our Triple-a girl,” says Arballo. “Ability, Anatomy, Actress.

“This girl is the next Maid of California.” San Diego County’s Fairest of the Fair automatically competes for queen of the coming State Fair at Sacramento in July — Maid of California. None of our girls has won it.

THEY SMILE STIFFLY

All reporters interview beauty queens. All beauty queens have great beauty of form and face. Raquel is no exception.

Too many beauty queens answer questions with sweet yesses and nos and I don’t knows.

Too many beauty queens, from stage fright or lack of confidence or fear of spoiling makeup. smile sweetly but faintly and stiffly. Raquel is an exception.

Her face has mobility. She squints, purses her lips, curls the corners of her mouth, rolls her eyes, squints them, frowns and makes grimaces which, if she were less magnificently endowed, would destroy, for a second, her beauty.

‘I WANTED GOOD GRADES’ She’s being natural, not mugging. What about this remark, “How I wanted this!”?

“I wanted it,” she said. “I had wanted it ever since I entered my first beauty contest two years ago.” She was 15 then.

Does this mean the Fairest title had been her whole aim in life?

“Heavens no!” sad Raquel. “It isn’t like that. I wanted good grades too

“No, put it this way. I want to learn. I work hard at my studies. If you do that, you’ll get the grades.”

She did. She was graduated from La Jolla High School, an A student. She is a life member of the California Scholarship Federation.

SHE EYES MOVIES

What about the remark about the legitimate stage?

Was she quoted correctly?

“It’s exactly what I meant to say,” she said. “What about the movies? Television?” “If I have a chance to act in movies,” she said, “I’ll do it. Same with television. I am not passing up opportunities.”

SHE HAS SMALL ROLE

She reached this conclusion after appearing in school plays, after playing the ingenue in “Bullfight” for the Drury Lane Players of La Jolla, and after a small part in “Pal Joey” at the La Jolla Playhouse with Gene Nelson and Benay Venuta.

Miss Tejada this year will give the Fairest and Miss Contour a Spanish flavor always considered desirable.

She favors her father, Armand C. Tejada, and aircraft engineer and native of Bolivia. His parents went to Bolivia from Spain. Her mother, the former Josephine Hall, is blond, English and American with ancestors traced to colonial times.

Raquel lives with her mother, brother Jimmy, 15, and sister, Gail, 14, at 412 Retaheim St., La Jolla. Mrs. Tejada is and aircraft company secretary.

THEY’RE NEVER PESTS

The new Fairest is close to her brother and sister, says they’ve never been pests.

“Jimmy is off surfing all the time,” she said. “And I’m busy. I’d like to see more of him. Gail cried for joy wen I won the title.”