Friday, November 25, 2016

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY: LONNIE TREVOR



Lonnie Trevor had been a movie star and sex symbol in Hollywood back in the 1950s.  But she became better known for frequent appearances in gossip pages and scandal sheets around the world. 

Lonnie Trevor wasn't even her real name. She had been born in One of and she spoke English with an accent, but to broaden her appeal stateside, her name was Americanized.   (Personally, I'd like to think she was originally from Leutonia.)


She was married twice: the first time to Archie Blanc, a racecar driver who lost his nerves in the Grand Prix.  But he went on to win at Le Mans, once Lonnie picked him up as a husband and turned his life around.  

Her second husband was Felix Rodriguez was an alcoholic jockey, but he went on to win at Churchill Downs, thanks to Lonnie as his wife and mentor. 

Lonnie Trevor had a habit of picking up Life 's losers and transforming them.  Which might have been admirable, except when she married Rodriguez, she was still married to Blanc!


Eventually, her licentious lifestyle of illicit affairs and assorted scandals caused the government to exert pressure on the movie executives at Mammoth Studios (via threats to appear before the HUAC committee with the possibility that they would be blacklisted) in order to get them to stop bankrolling the racy films she appeared in. 

And so, early in the 1960s, Lonnie Trevor was "Hollywood's ambassador to the isle of Capri".  There, SIA's thief, Alexander Mundy, played on her weakness for losers in order to mingle with the "Beautiful People" of Capri. 

Eventually Al Mundy was able to complete his assignment and then he turned to romancing Lonnie without any distractions.  

Their fling couldn't last, built as it was on a fiction, but it was probably fun while it lasted. Eventually Lonnie turned her attentions to other men, including electronics genius Harold Van Wyck. However, their affair may have contributed to the paralysis of his wife Elizabeth and hardened his mother-in-law, Margaret Meadis, against him. 

SHOWS CITED:
'It Takes A Thief' - "The Beautiful People"
'SCTV'
'Columbo'
'Beverly Hillbillies'
'The Monkees'

I wrote this character sketch about Lonnie Trevor because I watched her episode of 'It Takes A Thief' yesterday and then I found out that the actress who played her, Ann Smyrner, died this past August at the age of 81. 

Good night and may God bless.....


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