Nancy Bacon (1940-2018), pinup model and B-actress, started working as a cocktail-waitress at The Sands, and she became the darling of the local celebs. As she recalls in her memoir Legends and Lipstick, “After about a month of constant, adoring surveillance, I was finally invited back into the inner-sanctum where the Rat Pack drank, partied, and made love until dawn. But none of the boys dared lay a glove on me. Word had come down from The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, that I was underage and could only be ogled from afar. So, I honed my drinking skills and picked up intel no young lady should ever hear!” She soon left Sin City and after a whirlwind tour through Europe, Nancy settled in Hollywood, CA.
She appeared in several films—cheesecake B-movies with names like Sex Kittens Go to College and The Private Lives of Adam and Eve—but she never took to acting because she hated having to be on set at the crack of dawn. She preferred late nights to early mornings. Her life took a hairpin turn when she met Don Wilson, co-founder and rhythm guitarist of the hit band The Ventures. Wearing a tight yellow sweater, lime green pedal-pushers, gold high-heels and a saucy smile, she graced the cover of their 1964 Walk, Don’t Run Vol 2, then tied the knot with Don shortly after. They had a daughter, Stacey Wilson.
Nancy Bacon was also the editor of the infamous Confidential magazine and worked as a gossip columnist. Throughout the swinging sixties, Nancy hobnobbed with heartthrobs ranging from Paul Newman to Jayne Mansfield, plus exciting friendships with the Rat Pack, Judy Garland, Bobby Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, and Marilyn Monroe. While undeniably strong-willed, she was addicted to cigarettes—even the trendy treatment at Schick Shadel failed—and took her last puff on December 16, 2018. Nancy passed away on her own terms, bringing to mind a song she loved: My Way. She adored Sinatra, but the Elvis version was closer to her heart because he was her favorite guy and the “one that got away”—of all the stars she knew, The King not only eluded her, he had the nerve to die on her birthday in 1977!
"I was a freckle-faced farm girl, fresh off the bus and wide-eyed with awe at the splendor of the big city: Hollywood. I was the youngest of nine children, and grew up on a farm in bleak, cold, nowhere Ellensburg, Washington. My earliest memory was dreaming of escaping. As soon as I could formulate a clear thought it was to just run and never look back. In the blazing California sun I was struck dumb by the opulence, the lush, tropical gardens, the tables laden with exotic dishes, the gorgeous women. It was surreal. I have had a fantastic life. I’ve been lucky. I’ve been rich. I’ve lived among the famous. I’ve known beautiful people and I’ve been made to feel beautiful through them and by them. I know it would be more politically correct for me to confess and express guilt about the way I handled my life, but I honestly cannot do that. And at the time I never intended to hurt anyone. I’m sure that there is going to be a little fuss over what I have written about some of the people I have known—mainly Paul Newman—but everyone can be damn sure that as long as it lasted, everyone enjoyed themselves!
The Sexual Revolution was in full swing. Jayne Mansfield was completely outrageous and I adored her. Those were sexually freer times, and while Women’s Lib was in vogue, we didn’t look at the dynamics between the genders in quite the same way as the generations to follow. I have to say if a man really bothered me, I laughed at him and moved on. And for every prick I ever met, there were ten or twenty truly wonderful human beings who gave me a hell of a lot more than I gave them. All in all, I’ve been pretty lucky to have known all the flamboyant, beautiful and outrageous people with whom I spent my formative years. I have soared on drugs, booze, fright, love, excitement, on the edges of dangerous rides. If there is any message in all of this, it is simply that I have never soared so high as when I have been in love: cold sober, perfectly straight, and clear of eye." —"Legends and Lipstick: My Scandalous Stories of Hollywood's Golden Era" (2017) by Nancy Bacon
Duane Eddy & The Ventures: "I Fought The Law". Originally written by Sonny Curtis for Bobby Fuller (1965).
"He was a good ol' boy, and he had a good Christian soul. He never knocked nobody down in his life — He loved us all, and he treated us right." —"The Real Buddy Holly Story" (1979) by Sonny Curtis
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