Lisa Gaye     by Ian Edwards

Sometimes moviegoers are treated to a performance by a relatively unknown actor so powerful that, no matter who headlines the film, it's the wild card who gets a major chunk of the buzz. Such was the case for Lisa Gaye in her career-defining role in the musical hit of 1956, Columbia's "Rock Around the Clock".  The film, and its attendant media blitz, catapulted her into a household name around the world, earning her the sobriquet of "Rock 'N Roll Queen".  It also showcased her widely-acclaimed choreographic talent.  

Lisa wasn't a complete unknown when she joined Universal International in January, 1953 as a contract player.  She had an exceedingly famous older sister, the 20th Century Fox star, Debra Paget, who graced the pages of most movie magazines between 1950-55, which was her peak period.  During this time, Lisa featured in quite a few of the Paget layouts, where she was often billed as Leslie, which, incidentally, was her real name.  She had lived in her sister's shadow for long enough, and although basking in borrowed glory was nice, her own place in the sun was what she longed for.

Her entire family was christened, each with a different moniker. The fancy names were handpicked by her mother, Margaret Gibson.  Names that would look appealing on a theatre marquee.  Rounding off the other sibling members were sister Teala Loring, and brother Frank, known briefly as Ruell Shane.  Both Teala and Frank managed several parts in films, but nothing of great consequence, that would bring them center stage.  Frank, an exceedingly handsome guy in his heyday, had featured parts in Debra's films: Love Me Tender and Omar Khayyam.

Leslie Gaye was born March 6, 1935, in Denver, Colorado.  The family decided to move to Los Angeles, California, when Leslie and Debra were tots, after sister Teala won a Paramount contract.  Since mother was a stage performer, every member in the family was put through the grind of training for a career in theatrics.  The girls trained in soft shoe, tap, ballet and interpretative dancing.  This was, perhaps, the reason why they both possessed figures to die for.  In modern gowns, period pieces and swimsuits, the outfits they sported showcased their hourglass figures to perfection.  Leslie received her education at the Hollywood Professional School.  She appeared in several plays like Joan D'Arc with Queenie Smith's drama group.  But her only professional work before coming to the screen was at the Los Angeles Biltamore Theater as one of the dancers in the Merry Wives of Windsor starring Charles Coburn. 

According to press reports and magazine articles of the 50s, Leslie's career in films was launched through Debra's recommendation.  Universal International in 1953 wanted to borrow Debra for the lead in the musical "Walking My Baby Back Home" with Donald O'Connor.  When Debra arrived at UI to test for the role, her home studio, 20th  Century Fox, decided against lending her.  Debra suggested to UI to use the services of her kid sister instead, since Leslie too was a fabulous dancer and yearned to excel in musicals.  UI were impressed with what they saw and immediately put Lisa under contract.   The lead role in Walking My Baby, however, went to the more established Janet Leigh.  Under the UI contract, the studio also decided to change her name from Leslie to Lisa.   

Lisa trained constantly at the studio with dance lessons, singing, fencing and horseback riding in preparation for her film debut.  The girls were also put through language learning and tests in French and Spanish.  Her first UI test comprised enacting a scene from The Moon is Blue singing Too Young, and of course, dancing.  Subsequently, she appeared in several two-reelers that included: Hawaiian Nights with Mamie Van Doren; Dancing with Earl Barton, making short-tests with John Saxon, Clint Eastwood, Richard Harrison, and a host of other young hopefuls, who were all signed to UI contracts.  She made her film debut in 1954's "The Glenn Miller Story", playing a bobby soxer seeking Miller's autograph in a crowd scene.  Gorgeous as ever, she stood out from the rest of the screaming teens with her auburn hair and green eyes.  In her next Technicolor outing, she was part of the harem sequences in 'Yankee Pasha' which starred Rhonda Fleming and Jeff Chandler.  With Lisa's outstanding beauty, other starlets who featured with her like Mamie Van Doren, Mara Corday and Myrna Hansen paled into insignificance.  Lisa had a certain radar: when she appeared on screen, even in a group, she stole your attention.  Two other bit parts followed in Magnificent Obsession as a switchboard operator and as a hoofer in "Ain't Misbehavin".  

Her first and only starring role at UI was the Western genre "Drums Across the River" with Audie Murphy.  Her role was not lengthy in terms of footage, but it did pack enough punch to make an impression.  As Jennie Marlowe, fiancé of Murphy, she showed a shy reserve, which was very appealing, and did not restrict her from conveying the role's full potential.  With her anxious inwardness for the safety of her beloved, she displayed a subtle vulnerability, and fans wished she had more screen time.  In 1954, she was named 'Carnation Queen' by the Society of American Florists in honor of National Flower Week.  

After two years at UI, the studio decided against renewing her contract.  This left her with no other option but to freelance.  Part of the studio's decision to let her go was because she was involved in a freak accident when she hurt her back badly.  This required her to be strapped in a cast for several months in bed, which put her career in mothballs.  She made use of this free time learning several plays including The Rose Tattoo, which came handy when she starred in the same play at a UI inside-talent show.  There were reports in the press that she was signed by UI to star with Donald O'Connor in 'Francis Joins the Wacs', but the part fell through.  Julie Adams won the role and one wonders why.  This was the second time starring opposite O'Connor got jinxed.  

Leaving UI may have seemed traumatic at the time, but it paved the way to a blossoming television career.  Her prolific career in TV spanned the period 1955-70.  Fifteen years of solid work in every genre that TV had to offer.  In that medium, she moved on to more substantial roles that required her backlog of self-taught emoting experience to come into active play.  It is estimated that she has starred in nearly 250 TV episodes in all the top-rated shows of the 50's and 60's. 

Lisa adopted different accents and aesthetics, and inner lives as disparate from each other as they were from her own.  Versatility was the cornerstone of this star's career.  She was never more herself when she played someone else, vanishing so credibly into so many guises.  She prided herself as an actress who could move with ease from contemporary roles [Perry Mason] to period pieces [Jim Bowie] and even futuristic turns [Science Fiction & Men Into Space].  Her doll-like features, dancer's gait and excellent sartorial sense often proved a hindrance with skeptics trying to dismiss her off as a "glamour star".  Casting directors' attitudes towards beautiful actresses, in general, were often tinged with a certain ambivalence.  But Lisa transcended every role with her individuality, bringing rich shades that lifted the characters [she played] from the realm of the stereotype. 

Some of the highlights of her TV career included: A French art student in This Is Your Life [1956]; a nun in 'Frontier', a French model in The Bob Cummings Show; a cardsharp/a gypsy/Indian squaw in Death Valley Days; a trapeze artiste in Whirly Birds; a water nymph in The Millionaire, a taxi-dancer in Hawaiian Eye; an explosive nightclub entertainer in Markham, a sleuth in Surfside Six, a Middle-Eastern princess in Hawaiian Eye, a hillbilly in I Dream of Jeannie, a Latin-American dancer in Bold Venture.  The list is interminable.

1955 proved to be the turning point in her life, not only professionally, but personally as well.  it was in this year that she was spotted by Bob Cummings to appear in his show as the French model, Colette DuBois.  The show aired from 1955-59 and Lisa appeared constantly.  She also met Bentley C. Ware at an auction for cars and married him in August 1955.  Her family playfully referred to him as B-Ware.  He was big and burly, reminiscent of Esther Williams' husband, Ben Gage.  Depending on which year's article you read on Lisa Gaye, Ware was either a sportswear manufacturer, a dietician for low-calorie candy or ran a secretarial agency.  

Unlike her sister Debra Paget, who thrived on publicity, Lisa was reticent to cultivate it.  She never let creativity usurp her "real" existence.  While the highs and lows of her craft meant the world to her, she was still comfortable with the drone of the ordinary.  "I loved the work, receiving a bound script, getting under the skin of the character and then going home to my family.  I just disliked the publicity", she stated in an interview.  Paget, on the other hand, had a transparent, overarching ambition to be famous.  On the road to success, every detail of her life was pressed into service to round out her film persona.  

Earl Barton choreographed the dancing in the world-hit "Rock Around the Clock", when Lisa became a craze.  Lisa was a people's person and once she made a friend, it was for life.  Barton was a friend who trained with her at UI.  An exceptional dancer, he was instrumental in choosing her as his dance partner in the Columbia film that netted millions at the box-office.  Her terpsichorean abilities were in full force in the film and you couldn't take your eyes off her.  Her Rock-A-Beatin Boogie number with Barton was the showstopper and displayed what two of Hollywood's greatest dancers were capable of delivering.  Neither music nor dance would ever be the same again.  As a dancer, she was more than generous in her refinement. 

With such a hectic TV schedule, she hardly found time for films, but did grace a few which where a faint echo of her Rock Around the Clock glory.  Shake, Rattle and Rock, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (disappointingly underused), The Sign of Zorro and Frontier Rangers.  The last two were offshoots of the TV series Zorro starring Guy Williams and Northwest Passage starring Keith Larsen, Don Burnett and Buddy Ebsen.  

A major-missed opportunity was playing one of the leads in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, West Side Story.  Lisa auditioned for the part that was eventually played by Rita Moreno.  She was called back several times to audition, but the role fell through.  My guess is that the plain looking, Natalie Wood felt threatened by Lisa's gorgeous looks and body.  Moreno went on to win a Best Supporting Oscar for her turn, as a Latino dancer opposite George Chakiris.  Though her acting was appreciated, she looked old and haggard enough to be Chakiris's mother. Judging by what Ms. Gaye looked like in "The Lovely American" on 77 Sunset Strip in 1961, her chemistry with Chakiris would have been spot on.  Besides, a short, non-dancer like Moreno could never hold a candle to Lisa's statuesque figure and dancing abilities.  If Lisa had bagged the Oscar, her career in the 60's might have charted a different course.  But that's too much of a hypothetical situation to delve into now.  

In 1961's "Night of Evil", she had a meaty part as a raped student, who is raised in foster homes, and then goes on to win one beauty pageant after another.  She gets embroiled with a con artist and ends on skid row.  The film had tremendous arc of character development: starting off as a timid, innocent young girl, and she goes through betrayal, abandonment, sexual awakening and eventually a life of crime.  The classical beauty of Lisa was never more in evidence.  

The success of her numerous television appearances made her a known face, registering especially in Europe and England.  She began to transcend geographical boundaries.  In 1962, she made La Cara Del Terror with Fernando Rey in Spain.  The film was given a general release in the USA only in 1964, with the title Face of Terror.  In 1964, she again starred with Rey in the sci-fi thriller "Man in Outer Space".  Stills, lobby card, and press books pertaining to the film do seem non-existent.  But it wasn't too long ago that a 35mm print of the film was available on Ebay.  The film did get a capsule review back in the 70's when it was shown on TV in Marietta, Ohio.  

She made a B-grader "Castle of Evil" in 1966 with old pals Scott Brady and Virginia Mayo.  This was followed by "The Violent Ones", also low-budget.  Her last film outing was "Valley of Mystery" with a line-up of veterans like Richard Egan, Lois Nettleton, Leonard Nimoy, among others.  Valley was actually a pilot of the intended TV series Stranded that never sold.  

Lisa had a squeaky-clean image and always conducted herself with dignity and poise.  She possessed an unassailable likableness.  She was never linked romantically with any of her co-stars, even though she had starred with some of the handsomest men in the movie/TV industry.  Her husband once remarked to Mike Connors, "You seem to spend more time with my wife than I do."  Connors was the star of the "Mannix" TV series in which Lisa guest-starred often.  There were also Clint Walker [Cheyenne], Van Williams [Bourbon St. Beat], Robert Conrad [Hawaiian Eye and Wild, Wild West]; Troy Donahue [Surfside Six], Scott Brady [Shotgun Slade], Ty Hardin [Bronco Lane], Maverick [James Garner and Jack Kelly], Ed Byrnes [77 Sunset Strip] and on and on.

She once had an obsession of collecting cat figurines.  She loved cats but was painfully allergic to the live kind.  They made her sneeze.  instead, she started a collection of cats in ceramic, metal, glass, wood and jade, which back in the 50's was highly valuable.  "People tell me I have cat eyes, but I don't believe women are as catty as men", she remarked in an interview. 

Lisa's daughter, Janell was born in the mid-sixties, which put a hold on her career for a while.  She could no longer tackle her career with a vengeance since "family" came first.  Still, she found choice parts in TV series: Wild, Wild West, Time Tunnel, I Dream of Jeannie, Perry Mason, Mod Squad, et al.  She occasionally starred in stage shows like "Darling, I'm Yours' with Gene Nelson that garnered rave reviews. 

Lisa Gaye wasn't just an actress, she was also an excellent pianist, painter, sculptress, swimmer, linguist and did nobly with archery too.  She expressed herself imaginatively through the canvas as also sculpting.  She visualized abstract thoughts like lines from a poem, and gave them form through the medium of metal and clay.  Simplicity was an underlying thought influencing the structure and design of her sculptures.  The figures she created seemed pensive and at peace with the surroundings, a reflection of Lisa's state of mind. 

She was a regular at Everywoman's Village in Van Nuys in the late 60's-early 70's.  She also found time for other pursuits: Poetry was her muse during her teenage years.  Being philosophically inclined, Lisa penned several poems bordering on self-introspection.  Some of her poems were even read on the radio in the early 50's.   

She was a great transformational actress, given that she was a wizard with foreign languages.  She had a way with dialects and disclosed: "I have just to listen to someone with an authentic accent, and I've got it."  Fluent in French, her stock dialects also included Armenian, Russian and Spanish.  Her own accent, however, did have the unmistakable inflections of her hometown, Denver.  

In the early 70's, she had to grapple with changes dictated by life and destiny.  She changed agents and never found work again.  She lost her husband in 1979 when he succumbed to a heart attack.  Lisa was totally devastated and moved to Houston, Texas, where her wealthy sister Debra resided.  She was a caretaker for Debra's palatial home for a few months before she joined a religious TV station, where she worked as a receptionist for 19 years.  

Today, she lives in retirement and is active in her church choir.  Lisa conjured up an overwhelming sense of intelligence, good breeding and class.  She exuded poise and grace.  In 2002, a Western Annual named her 'Reigning TV Queen of the Western'.  To movie buffs all over the world Lisa Gaye will always be loved and remembered as the One & Only Rock 'N Roll Queen as "Rock Around the Clock" is a monument in American Film History. 

Her husband Ben summed her up best when he said: "Lisa is first and foremost a woman.  She is no walking, talking, greasepaint doll.  You cannot expect more alluring femininity than she has."  In an interview in 1954 she stated, "I'd like to take my career on a slow and steady pace, and when I do make the grade, I'd like to stay a while."  She did stay in the entertainment business for 17 long years and captured a millions hearts with her undeniable star quality.  Luis Aquino keeps the memory of Lisa Gaye alive with his beautiful geocities site on the internet, constantly updating it with information and photographs.  This archive of memories is a tribute to the beauty and talent of Lisa Gaye.