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34
winter
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spr ing
Even though the reviews were less than positive, Allan says that after the
movie came out, people “were lined up around the block to see this movie with
Tab.” On Wilshire, there was a huge billboard of you in a loincloth and Linda
Darnell has her arm around you. It may not have been a great movie, but it
was a big hit, right?
I guess, but I couldn’t get a job for the longest time after that; nobody
wanted me [and I still wasn’t under contract]. I had a tremendous amount
of popularity with the young kids though, so Henry Willson suggested
sending out some telegrams saying, “Tab Hunter is available.” Eddie
Small, a producer of B films, picked up on it, and I did three films for
Eddie Small in a row. In one, I was on a tank crew in the Sahara desert
called
The Steel Lady
. I spent half the picture dying. The other was
Return
To Treasure Island
(1954) with Dawn Addams. We shot it in San Pedro.
No island. Phony palm trees, and they put a phony beard on me. The
director – E.A. Dupont – was one of the biggest directors of Hollywood
silent films and it was like his swan song. He looked up from the script
and at me in this phony beard and said, “Jesus Christ. This is the
biggest
piece of shit I’ve ever directed in my life.” And, I couldn’t disagree
with
him. It was the second feature at the drive-in movies.
So, you made a few B movies to pay the bills. Then you did
Battle Cry
in 1955.
Merv Griffin
told me about that one and it was an extraordinary
film. I had to do nine tests before I got the role. Warner Brothers didn’t
put me under contract immediately after that, but another Warner
Brothers film came along –
The Sea Chase
with
Lana Turner and John
Wayne
– so they said, “Let’s exercise this kid’s option,” and then I got
my seven-year contract.
What kind of pay did you receive as a contract player for Warner Brothers?
When I did my first film, I think I got maybe five hundred or
seven-hundred-fifty a week.
Jack Warner l
oaned me out to Columbia or
Conversations:
One of Tab’s favorite films is
That Kind Of Woman
(1959), in
which he co-starred with Sophia Loren