MONIQUE

This posting may be a little hard to write, because I genuinely liked this lady and I think she liked me.  The inscription reads. "To my darling Larue, Thanks for the fun.  Love Monique."














Long before the Kardashians became famous for being famous, there was a lady named Monique Von Vooren.  Of Belgian descent, she was first noticed in America as a co-star to Lex Barker in 1953's "Tarzan and The She-Devil."  She went on to become a "guest star" on numerous TV shows ("The Dupont Show of the Week", "The United States Steel Hour" as well as "Batman" not to mention various game shows)  She also appeared on Broadway in "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" and "Man in the Moon." She even authored several books and had a cameo appearance in the film, "Wall Street" as the "Woman at 21."  So, as you might surmise she was no dumb blonde but a savvy lady with ambition.  And also very vain.

I did two shows with her at the Meadowbrook ("Irma La Douce" and "Damn Yankees.")  And she had a wicked sense of humor and a genuine zest for life.  (As I recall, she had a much younger boyfriend who came to the theater every night.) The photo below is from "Damn Yankees" wherein I played the postman (That's me hunched over in the center.)



 Now for the hard part..... While doing a bit of research for this blog, I came across a recent photo (within the last few years).   It seems the vanity with the help of a plastic surgeon has taken over.
She was so vivacious and now looks sadly rather "vacant."  Too bad.  I really liked her.  I hope she's happy.










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