While retracing the enviable career of the exceedingly beautiful and vivacious actress Joanna Barnes, I was able to come to an arguable conclusion – three of her most successful and engaging film characters, whether it be comedy or drama, have been ladies we absolutely love to hate!
Joanna’s detestable trinity of femmes not only possessed a common chill factor but were scrumptiously served up as a main course for malice, arrogance and/or mayhem. To this author, one character stands out proudly among the rest – Gloria Upson, the unbearably smug debutante in the comedy movie classic Auntie Mame (1958). The uppity Upson role has reached legendary status for its sidesplitting catchphrases that are still widely imitated today. The character itself has gone down in the annals of Hollywood as a prime camp favorite.
Who can ever forget Gloria’s uproarious monologue in which she describes to Rosalind Russell’s Mame Dennis Burnside, in highly overblown detail, a “distressing” incident that happened to her.
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“Mrs. Burnside, you could practically write a whole book on what happened to me … Bunny Bixler and I were in the semi-finals – the VERY semi-finals, mind you – of the ping-pong tournament at the club and this ghastly thing happened. We were both playing way over our heads and the score was 29-28. And we had this really terrific volley and I stepped back to get this really terrific shot. And I stepped on the ping pong ball! (No response from the rather stunned Mame) Well, I just squashed it to bits! And then Bunny and I ran to the closet of the game room to get another ping pong ball and the closet was locked! Imagine? We had to call the whole … thing … off! (Still no response) Well, it was ghastly. (No response) Well, it was just ghastly!”
Add to that such delicious Upson one-liners as, “Books are awfully decorative, don’t you think?” and “Upper Richmond is top drawer…REALLY top drawer!” and one has just experienced “top drawer” comedy heaven!
In addition, Joanna went on to show an upper-scale mean streak as the excessively cold and cruel Claudia Marius, who sends gladiator Woody Strode to his death in the epic-sized spectacle Spartacus (1960), and an equally malicious nature as the gold-digging Vicky Robinson, the devious fiancée of Brian Keith and nemesis of little Hayley Mills (playing twins) in Walt Disney’s The Parent Trap (1961). What wily, wonderfully off-putting characters Joanna has left as her legacy.
The pure irony of it all is that Joanna Barnes completely belies the rather unattractive characters she has cleverly defined on film. Warm, winning, relaxing and enjoyably candid, our telephone interview was pure pleasure from start to finish as we recalled her vast acting and writing experiences. While it is true that many of the characters she went on to portray on film, and especially TV, were of a kinder, more benevolent nature and often displayed a higher complexity, it is these three outlandish offerings that will be instantly recalled and will serve as a lasting testament to her accomplishments and consummate talent as an actress.
The 5’5” dark blonde, Boston-born beauty with the distinctively lovely oval face and wide-set green eyes was born on November 15, 1934, the daughter of John Pindar Barnes, a stockbroker, and Alice Weston Mutch. Joanna and her two sisters, Alice and Judith, grew up within a privileged atmosphere in a home that her family had occupied since the early 17th century. She had a formal prep school education before attending the prestigious Smith College, a woman’s liberal arts institution, where she majored in English. She also displayed early signs of interest in writing and architecture.
At the time of her graduation from Smith in the spring of 1956, Joanna was hired to take on a Time magazine job in New York. Before that job began in the fall, however, she found herself in the position of auditioning for movie studios at the sudden instigation of a well-known silent screen legend. She wound up with a year-long Columbia contract and an acting career was born. She diligently made the “starlet” rounds asked of her by her studio – attending premieres, stoking Walter Winchell-fueled gossip with constant dating set-ups, and parading glamorously at special parties and major events.
Starting out on TV and in uncredited movie roles, Joanna’s early career remained relatively unobserved until Warner Bros. came into the picture. After WB signed her on, that studio took a more vested interest in her, finding her parts in movies that not only grew in size and visibility but would have her working alongside Hollywood’s elite – Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Rosalind Russell, Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov, Maureen O’Hara and Debbie Reynolds – in such prominent films as Home Before Dark (1957), Auntie Mame (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Newcomer – Female”) (1958), Tarzan the Ape Man (as Jane) (1959), Spartacus (1960), The Purple Hills (her first femme film lead) (1961), The Parent Trap (1961), Goodbye Charlie (1964), The War Wagon (1967) and Don’t Make Waves (1967), the abundance of which assured her a comfortable place in Hollywood history.
TV, however, demanded most of Joanna’s time during this fertile decade. Many of her bright-eyed, bouffant blondes were utilized to cover Warner’s huge catalogue of popular TV shows (Colt .45, Cheyenne, Hawaiian Eye, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip). Other early ‘60s programs provided her with a fine mixture of comedy, drama, adventure and suspense including Richard Diamond, Private Detective (wherein she met her second husband, actor/director Lawrence (“Larry”) Dobkin (1919-2002); they later divorced), The Tab Hunter Show, M Squad, The Millionaire, The Untouchables, The Bob Cummings Show, The Farmer’s Daughter, Follow the Sun, Bringing Up Buddy, Laramie, Have Gun–Will Travel, Bachelor Father, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Dr. Kildare, along with steady roles on two short-lived series – 21 Beacon Street (1959) and The Trials of O’Brien (1965-66).
A journalist, columnist, and magazine writer at various stages of her career, writing would always remain a predominant interest for Joanna. In the 1970s she refocused strongly on the pen and turned novelist with a series of offerings – The Deceivers (1970), Who Is Carla Hart? (1973), Pastora (1980), Silverwood (1985). Seeking less and less attention in front of the camera, her slowly diminishing ‘70s and ‘80s TV input included guest appearances on Nanny and the Professor, Alias Smith and Jones, Hawaii Five-O, McCloud, Marcus Welby, Planet of the Apes, Ellery Queen, Fantasy Island, Charlie’s Angels, Barney Miller, Hart to Hart, Remington Steele, Trapper John, Benson, and her last, a 1989 appearance on Cheers. Filming was even more sporadic with co-star/featured roles in B.S. I Love You (1971), I Wonder Who’s Killing Her Now? (1975) and the remake of The Parent Trap (1998).
Married to renowned architect Jack Lionel Warner from 1980 until his death in 2012, Joanna continues to write “stuff” (short stories, poetry) at her Sea Ranch home in Northern California. She possesses a down-to-earth charm and elegance that, as stated earlier, made this interview, which took place on December 23, 2017, rich and rewarding. For her multitude of fans, this hopefully will assist as another fitting tribute to a lady of many enduring qualities and talents.
Gary Brumburgh: Acting was not an interest of yours growing up I understand.
Joanna Barnes: Not at all. Never performed in school plays or anything. My parents were not involved professionally in the arts. I first expressed myself through writing. That was my first love.
GB: Where did you receive your education … in your native Massachusetts?
Joanna Barnes: Yes. I attended Milton Academy [Milton, Massachusetts], a prep school, during my high school years. Then I attended Smith College [Northampton, Massachusetts] where I majored in English and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. I was quite honored to receive a college award for poetry during that time. It was one year after Sylvia Plath received the same honor. I had other interests as well. I audited Henry-Russell Hitchcock’s architectural lectures when he was a Smith professor.
GB: So, what then propelled your interest in acting?
Joanna Barnes: It was just prior to my college graduation in the late spring and Time magazine was going to hire me that September. Since I had some time free until then, I decided to go to Los Angeles on some other business matters first. Before I went, however, I visited a close friend in New York. While there my friend’s mother, a well-regarded actress, asked me if I had ever been to Los Angeles before. I told her, “No.” She said, “Well, why don’t I see if I can get you a single line or something in a movie? Something easy like, “Mr. Jones will see you now!” or “Dinner is served!” or something like that. You could write about the whole experience.” I thought it was a terrific idea, so I took her up on her generous proposal. My friend’s mother was Carmel Myers!
GB: The silent screen star?
Joanna Barnes: Yes. She sent me around to see all these casting people in New York and I was eventually asked to read a part. That seemed to me a very easy thing to do because I had been steadily writing and when you write you get used to playing all the parts. The characters don’t speak like each other or move like each other and they are nothing like each other, so to play just one character I thought would be a vacation! So, I got to read for these casting agents and before I even got back to Carmel’s apartment, Warner Bros., Paramount and Columbia had all called her wanting to sign me to a contract!
GB: And this was done without any prior acting experience?
Joanna Barnes: None. In retrospect, I realized they could also wring some decent publicity out of me because I was a former debutante back East and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. In any event, I signed a minor contract with Columbia. Carmel made it very clear to me that if I still wanted to take the Time magazine job by the time September came around I certainly could as long as I wasn’t in the middle of a film shoot and as long as I didn’t act for anyone else. I agreed. I figured this would be a productive way for me to spend the summer, that’s all. My intention, however, was to take the magazine job in the fall.
GB: Obviously your summer experience went quite well.
Joanna Barnes: I went out to Hollywood that summer and I found out that I liked it enormously! I found the people I got involved with out there just lovely. Being brought up so far away from Hollywood, I always thought quite naively what it would be like … that the businessmen out there were big, unattractive and would smoke big stogies, act crudely and speak terrible English. You get the picture. To put it mildly, I had a very innocent and stodgy view of the whole scene. It was nothing like that. The people I met were so nice and extremely charming. I found these people to be wonderful conversationalists who were well versed in world events. I became exposed to people who had amazing art collections and were a part of major social events. I was really thrilled by it all! And as far as the acting part of it? I absolutely loved being on the studio set. You could say I was as happy as a pig in high mud! I decided to stay with it.
GB: Do you remember what your very first part was in Hollywood?
Joanna Barnes: Yes. A TV episode of Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers. Philip Carey and Warren Stevens were the very first victims of my acting inexperience.
GB: Have you ever seen that episode just to check out how it all started out for you?
Joanna Barnes: No. I don’t necessarily watch myself. After that I did some live broadcasts for The Ford Television Theatre and Playhouse 90, things like that. I adapted to it all quite well I think.
GB: How long were you with Columbia?
Joanna Barnes: I had a one-year contract. While there I was publicized as a “Deb Star” [along with fellow starlets Venetia Stevenson and Dani Crayne] but I don’t remember how it all was put together. I do know that the various studios would nominate some up-and-coming actress, prop you up on a theatre stage and have people applaud you, but that’s about it. The usual kind of studio buildup, I guess, for a young newcomer.
GB: Your first full-length pictures were in bit roles. One was the union drama The Garment Jungle (1957) with Lee J. Cobb and Gia Scala, and the other was No Time to Be Young, a minor film noir with Robert Vaughn and Roger Smith. What do you remember about these films?
Joanna Barnes: Nothing, but I think they were for Columbia. I don’t even remember if I had any lines in them or not. I might have.
GB: It wasn’t until Warner Bros. signed you that your film and TV career started to take off. How did that come about?
Joanna Barnes: I had a wonderful agent by the name of Dick Clayton. He trotted me over to Warner Bros. one day and they decided to sign me! I made a few movies for them, but it was TV that got me the most work. I must have done every show they had … and sometimes twice! Whatever they gave me, I took.
GB: What was the Warner Bros. publicity mill like?
Joanna Barnes: No different. They got me into Life magazine as a debutante who “arrived in films.” I did interviews for everyone you can possibly imagine – for every person who ever lived it seemed. I was all over the gossip columns. I “dated” every leading male contract player there was until I was exhausted. The wonderful outcome of it all is that I met a lot of entertainment people that I grew to like and to have as friends. While it could be truly overwhelming at times, it remained a pleasant time. The studios sent you to every party and premiere under the sun. In this way you got to know everybody you went out with and that made it all much less uncomfortable.
GB: You also did comedy programs like The Bob Cummings Show and Bringing Up Buddy while you were with Warner Bros. Did you prefer comedy over drama?
Joanna Barnes: It really depended on the script. Actually, I think comedy is harder. You know the old saying, “Dying is easy but comedy is hard"? Comedy may be more challenging, but it’s more fun too I think. Back then I wanted to work and was quite willing to do anything. Just show me the script and I’ll be right there, thank you very much. Comedy could be especially difficult if they changed the lines on you at the last minute. Oh, boy!
GB: At Warners you had your first noticeable film part with the low-budget suspenser Violent Road (1958), a remake of the French film The Wages of Fear (1953).
Joanna Barnes: I have a funny story about that. I was living in New York many, many years ago. One time I happened to come out on business in Los Angeles and was staying with some friends. The television happened to be on in the house and at 4:00 they started playing this old film. At some point I saw myself on the screen! It was Violent Road. I had completely forgotten I was in it!
GB: It was directed by Howard W. Koch. Brian Keith, Merry Anders and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. starred in it. You had the second femme lead.
Joanna Barnes: You know, I am one of those people that once I’ve done something, I’ve done it and that’s it. It’s history. It’s very much like my own books. I have never reread my books! I tend to not recall a lot of my early projects very well for that reason. I don’t even keep pictures or stills of my work! I think it’s because I love being in the present and don’t need or have the desire to look back. I do it and then move on to the next exciting thing that comes along. That’s pretty much my style.
GB: I heard you were supposed to be a second lead in the Warner Bros. picture Darby’s Rangers (1958) with James Garner but somehow you lost the role of Wendy Hollister to a British newcomer by the name of Joan Eden. Do you remember what happened?
Joanna Barnes: Now that I DO recall. What happened was pretty strange. The director on that film was William Wellman. I think he didn’t like me because the studios cast me in the part without his approval or input. Wellman never even met me by the time we started shooting. I don’t think he liked that at all and decided to find a way to get rid of me. I was on the set for the first day of filming. My very first scene was a romantic scene with kissing involved. As it is going on, Wellman suddenly stops the scene, accuses me of kissing the actor with an open mouth, which I certainly did not, and storms out to the front office! Before I knew it, I was fired! The front office later sent me flowers because they felt so bad. I know they knew. (Laughs) I later found out that Wellman always had a scapegoat on the set of his pictures to vent his anger on.
GB: I heard that same thing about Alfred Hitchcock.
Joanna Barnes: Well, I was Wellman’s on Darby’s Rangers.
GB: Around the same time as this you appeared in a bit part as a snobby girl in the Andy Griffith comedy film Onionhead (1958). Did that have anything to do with you being cast as the definitive snob, Gloria Upson, in Auntie Mame (1958)?
Joanna Barnes: Not at all. I don’t remember filming Onionhead at all but here’s what happened with Auntie Mame. I was making a movie with Mervyn LeRoy called Home Before Dark (1958). I was playing the “nice girl” part of Jean Simmons’ good friend who accidentally slips out information that leads to Jean’s learning of her husband’s adultery. At the very same time we were shooting Home Before Dark, the studio was trying to cast the role of the debutante in Auntie Mame. It seems they were having a great deal of trouble finding the right girl. I had heard that they decided not to use the actress from the Broadway show because she had grown too old for the part. Alexis Smith, who had been a major star at Warners but was someone I had never met, happened to tell the director, Morton DaCosta, that she knew of a girl at the studio who was an actual debutante. She suggested that he check me out. I was called up and told to report to Mr. DaCosta on my lunch hour from the LeRoy picture. I had never seen the Broadway show, so I wasn’t prepared when I met with the director. Morton simply told me, “Just be as snobby as you can!” So, I made up that ridiculous accent and I guess they loved it because I was immediately signed for the picture! Many years later, I finally got to meet Alexis Smith and I thanked her profusely for what she had done. Getting the role of Gloria Upson changed the course of my career.
GB: I’ll have you know I recently attended a Los Angeles screening of Auntie Mame presented by the Outfest/American Cinematheque organizations and as soon as you first appeared in the movie arm in arm with Roger Smith at Mame’s doorway, there was this huge, thunderous applause for you! I mean it was just as big and enthusiastic as the one given for Rosalind Russell at the beginning!
Joanna Barnes: Wow, isn’t that nice? I had a heck of a good time filming Auntie Mame. Everyone in that film remained close for the most part. Roz was absolutely darling. She even sent me to her bone doctor when I was having problems. Peggy Cass and dear Coral Browne became good friends of mine as well, and I still consider Pippa Scott a good friend although we haven’t been in touch lately. It will always remain a lovely memory.
GB: You were nominated for a Golden Globe for “Best Newcomer” for your role of Gloria.
Joanna Barnes: I wasn’t even aware of that until well after the fact.
GB: So how did you find that incredible accent for Gloria? I had never heard anything like it before.
Joanna Barnes: You can hear it in some quarters on the East coast among people who are well placed or people who want to pretend they are well placed. It’s a veeeeery affected accent, you see. I describe it as “Long Island Lockjaw.” It’s so nice to know that 60 years later people are still enjoying this film so much.
GB: The following year, you played the role of Jane Parker opposite a brand-new film Tarzan. You were the 14th actress, according to my references, to play Jane on film. In the MGM-released Technicolor film Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959) you co-starred with Denny Miller. How did that whole experience come about?
Joanna Barnes: Quite funny about that film. At the time I was cast, I was still doing Spartacus although that film would be released after Tarzan. In Spartacus they had dyed my hair dark so that Nina Foch and I wouldn’t look like the Gold Dust Twins. That meant I would be going into Tarzan as a dark-haired Jane. At first, I told my agent I didn’t think I wanted to do it because I had had no break in filming at all. He said, “Okay, we’ll ask for more money than they are willing to pay, and you will be able to get out of it.” I said, “Great idea!” They agreed to our price! So, I left Spartacus on a Friday afternoon and Monday morning I was on the Tarzan set and working with the apes … with dark hair!
GB: Speaking of apes, how were Cheetah and the others to work with?
Joanna Barnes: Lovely, unless they got tired. At that point they would get crabby and want to bite you.
GB: Denny Miller was a former UCLA basketball player quite new to film. Tarzan was his big break. How was he as a co-star?
Joanna Barnes: Very professional and a very nice young gentleman to work with. He died several years ago. I also enjoyed working with Cesare Danova. He was just terrific. He had that wonderful foreign charm going for him. He didn’t do all that well here in Hollywood and I don’t quite understand it because he was very talented and enjoyable to be around. He just wasn’t given the right parts, so he went back to Italy and enjoyed some success there.
GB: I read somewhere that young director Stanley Kubrick caught your performance in the film Auntie Mame and thought that you would be perfect for the cold, cruel-edged role of Claudia Marius in Spartacus (1960). Is that true?
Joanna Barnes: Really? I don’t know anything about that. All I remember is that I did audition for it.
GB: It must have been exciting to be a part of a $12 million-dollar epic for executive producer Kirk Douglas and Universal. What was it like to film the seven-minute death sport scene between Douglas and Woody Strode?
Joanna Barnes: Breathtaking. Amazing! The sets were incredible. But I must admit there was one very difficult moment for me that occurred while shooting that gladiator scene where I am asked to choose a gladiator to fight Kirk Douglas to the death. I look over all these men coldly and then my eyes fix directly on Woody Strode. I nonchalantly say, “I’ll take the big black one.” As you can imagine, I did not like that line they gave me one bit! I went to Woody and expressed my distress. I told him, “Look, I’m more than a little concerned about saying this line.” And what did he say? He pretty much dismissed it and told me, “I don’t know why. It’s a color picture. They will know I am black!” (Laughs) Woody certainly put me more at ease, which I greatly appreciated, but it still was a difficult line for me to get out.
GB: You were reunited with Jean Simmons.
Joanna Barnes: Oh, yes! We had such fun on Spartacus and spent a lot of time together. Jean and I were stuck on that blessed balcony for what seemed like weeks with Larry Olivier and Peter Ustinov. All of us were playing spectators, of course. To pass the time those two men wound up telling Jean and me the most wonderful and amazing stories about their life and career! It certainly helped pass the time. The movie was a wonderful experience all around and working for Kubrick and that caliber of acting talent was deeply inspiring.
GB: Do you remember filming the low-budget film The Purple Hills (1961) for Associated Pictures? A non-dancing Gene Nelson played a bounty hunter in it.
Joanna Barnes: A little, yes. It was a western and it was filmed on location in different areas of New Mexico or Arizona. I can’t remember which. [It was Arizona]. It was a good part for me and my first female lead in a film although I had no romantic scenes.
GB: There was quite a bit of horseback riding for you in that film. Were you, as they say, studio-trained?
Joanna Barnes: No. I learned how to ride English saddle when I was young, although I rode western saddle for the film.
GB: There is another character you are strongly identified with in film, that of the scheming fiancée in The Parent Trap (1961) for Disney. David Swift was a favorite of Disney’s and wrote and directed it.
Joanna Barnes: David asked me to do the part. It was quite fun being so nefarious and the cast was great. I adored Hayley Mills. She was just a darling girl and very, very capable. She had no problem playing the two different characters at all. She took the work she did for Disney very seriously, but she never took herself seriously. A lot of responsibility was placed on her young shoulders. She remained very unaffected thanks to her parents, I think, who kept her grounded and were frequently on the set. I knew David before filming. He had originally directed a lot of the Mister Peepers TV shows with Wally Cox. He was one terrific gentleman. I knew him through Wally and Marlon Brando, who were both good friends of David.
GB: How were the other cast members to work with?
Joanna Barnes: Maureen O’Hara was simply lovely and a real charmer. And Linda Watkins, who played my conniving mother, was very pleasant to work with as well. Brian Keith, at the time, had an alcohol problem and it was difficult, but it never affected us on the set. The only one from the movie I’ve seen over the years is Hayley. About a decade ago I saw her by accident in New York City. I heard her calling out my name right there on Madison Avenue and she ran up to my husband and me and we had a wonderful mini reunion!
GB: How was the filming itself?
Joanna Barnes: Messy as you can imagine with the pranks the twins pulled on me. But it was fun. We filmed up in Carmel and Big Bear and at Walt Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch where the outside of the house was built.
GB: Did you ever get to meet Walt himself?
Joanna Barnes: Yes, I did. His ranch was located way, way out in the valley. At the time we were shooting Parent Trap he had a herd of bison on the property. Yes, bison! The cameraman had to shoot around the bison, so they didn’t get into the frame. One day “Uncle Walt” … everybody called him “Uncle Walt” … came out to the ranch and joined us for lunch. I wound up sitting right next to him at the table. I had to ask him why on earth he had a whole herd of bison out here. He simply said, “Because I like bison!” (Laughs) Go figure! I guess if you are Walt Disney and you like bison, you just go and get a herd of bison!
GB: Around this time, you were still doing a lot of TV, many in association with producer Martin Ransohoff.
Joanna Barnes: Yes, and Marty just died a few days ago [at age 90 on December 13, 2017]. He gave me my very first TV series, 21 Beacon Street (1959). It was HIS first TV series too. Prior to that, Filmways had just done commercials. Some years later Marty handed me another TV series called The Trials of O’Brien (1965-66) with Peter Falk in which I played his ex-wife. I adored working with Peter. He was wonderful and wonderful actors are always easy to work with. Marty also produced Don’t Make Waves (1967) that I did with Tony Curtis. He employed me a lot. It was a very good professional relationship. Marty went on to produce one of my favorite films of all time, The Americanization of Emily (1964).
GB: You had the second lead in the Debbie Reynolds/Tony Curtis comedy Goodbye Charlie (1964).
Joanna Barnes: Marvelous Vincente Minnelli directed that. I certainly recall that Debbie Reynolds worked harder than anyone I have ever seen. Tireless and so proficient, not to mention a very sweet lady. I played a catty friend of Charlie’s in it.
GB: Tell me about your involvement with the game show What’s My Line? You were a panelist on both the original and syndicated versions.
Joanna Barnes: I truly enjoyed my time doing What’s My Line? Dorothy Kilgallen had died suddenly [in November 1965]. Kitty Carlisle took her place on the first show that was taped as sort of a tribute. After that I was used as a replacement. I remember the very first time I appeared as a panelist. All of us were blindfolded of course, when the mystery guest was brought in. And who should the mystery guest be? Hayley Mills! I do remember thinking that the voice was familiar and that it just might be her voice, but I thought to myself, “You have never done this show before so don’t try to be a smart ass in front of the other panelists. You are new to this job and you want to keep it.” Someone else guessed her identity. It was such a nice surprise to see Hayley again! The show was taped on Sunday nights and afterwards Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf and I would go over and have dinner at P.J. Clark’s. They were very kind and gracious. When What’s My Line? later went into syndication, I appeared on a semi-regular basis with Larry Blyden and [later] Wally Bruner taking over the hosting duties from John Daly.
GB: Game shows were a helpful tool in keeping an actor’s name and face in the public.
Joanna Barnes: I wasn’t so much conscious of it being a way for me to keep my name out there as I was just having pure fun and getting a pay check at the same time!
GB: You were the host of a talk show called Dateline: Hollywood in 1967.
Joanna Barnes: Yup. It ran on ABC between 12:00 to 12:30 on weekdays. For some reason it wasn’t a success. The time slot might have been a factor because I thought we really did a good job. It was very relaxing for the most part. I would interview two people each day in 15-minute installments. We had great personalities on the show and the most popular TV series stars of the day made appearances. We had people like Sally Field, Robert Conrad, Ernest Borgnine and Barbara Bain on it. We interviewed quite a variety of celebrities and famous stars … everybody from Beatrice Lillie and Gloria Swanson to Tony Bennett and Phyllis Diller. I even had John Wayne on the show! I had just done a picture, The War Wagon (1967), with him and Kirk Douglas. In truth, John invited himself to be on my talk show. I mean I would never have had the temerity to ask him! He said, “Would you like me to do your show?” I did not hesitate to tell him, “Yes!” So, he took his boat, The Wild Goose, out of mothballs and we did a whole week of shows on his boat! We also taped a Jayne Mansfield interview literally days before she died.
GB: Speaking of The War Wagon, did you enjoy your time on that?
Joanna Barnes: We had an absolute ball filming in Mexico City. Truly fun. Both Kirk Douglas and John Wayne had a lot of friends in Mexico City, so we were entertained very nicely throughout the filming of it.
GB: We’ve covered much of your film and TV career so far but have not referenced any stage credits. Did you ever appear under the theatre lights?
Joanna Barnes: Only once. For John Houseman and his group of players at UCLA. I did Antigone and played Antigone’s sister [Ismene]. I really preferred the intimacy of the camera.
GB: You later appeared in the films B.S. I Love You (1971) and I Wonder Who’s Killing Her Now? Great titles!
Joanna Barnes: (Laughs) Yes, well. The first one was directed by Steven Stern. It was about the advertising business. I played sort of a heavy in that one. The second movie was intended for comedy, not horror. I played Bob Dishy’s wealthy but estranged wife. Hence, the title.
GB: You turned your focus to writing in the 1970s as opposed to acting. What was your reason for that?
Joanna Barnes: I was writing long before I ever got into acting. But I never stopped. In the early 1960s I wrote a decorating column called “Touching Home” for the Chicago Tribune–New York News Syndicate right at the height of my acting career. I also wrote a weekly book review for the Los Angeles Times. (Laughs) Maybe I didn’t think I had enough to do. Then I went back East after getting hired to do The Trials of O’Brien in New York and I swiftly realized I could not write book reviews, a syndicated column AND do a TV show at the same time, so I stopped the writing chores. After the series ended, I was contacted by a publisher who wanted me to do a decorating book and so I did. That was called Starting from Scratch and it was my first book. That took about a year to write. From there I started writing novels.
GB: You once told newspaper columnist Dick Kliner in a 1973 article that you enjoyed writing because “it is something you do yourself. With acting, if you win an Oscar or an Emmy, you must thank everybody. If you write a book it is completely your own.”
Joanna Barnes: I do love the sole accomplishment of writing a novel. The Deceivers was my first and it was about Hollywood. I took the initial goal of writing something big and splashy and marketable so that I could later write what I really wanted to write. I got to do that with my favorite novel, Pastora. That was a historical novel based on the history of California from 1844 to 1869. It took four years of research and writing. Not easy. I think I truly stopped focusing on acting when I married my husband Jack Warner and moved to Santa Barbara in 1980.
GB: Your husband was Jack Lionel Warner, the well-known architect.
Joanna Barnes: Yes. Jack and his firm designed homes, country clubs and museums. When he retired, we gave up our home in Montecito and built one here at The Sea Ranch. He passed away in 2012.
GB: Your last film role is notable in that it was the remake of The Parent Trap.
Joanna Barnes: I got to play the mother of my original character in the new version! I believe I was the only cast member to take a part in the remake. My agent called and said that Nancy [director Meyers] wanted to meet with me. Nancy confided to me that her children loved the original so much and had begged her to redo it. So, she did and cast Lindsay Lohan to play the twins. I was living up north in Montecito then and hadn’t done a film in quite some time. I thought it would be a real treat to do it. Although I thoroughly enjoyed myself, it did not trigger any desire to return to the camera. At this point, I much preferred the privacy of writing.
GB: Tell me about some of your civic endeavors.
Joanna Barnes: Well, I served on the Board of Trustees of the Chamber Symphony of California and was on the board of the Camarata Pacifica which brings together the finest chamber music talent from all over the world. I was also the editor of the magazine of the Junior League of Los Angeles. Nancy Reagan and I were the only “show people” in the Junior League.
GB: How do you spend your time now?
Joanna Barnes: Reading and writing short stories. Smaller “stuff.” Owen Laster and Irving Lazar were the last two agents for my last two novels, but I am now looking for an agent to work with me on my new material. Until then, I’m enjoying each day as it comes!