Queen of the B-Movies and 50’s Pin Up – Jeanne Carmen, Book Signing by Brandon James

“Fascinating” – J. Randy Taraborrelli

“If you like your starlets sexy, spicy, and sassy – this is the story for you”

– E! Entertainment Television on Jeanne Carmen.

Click here for the press release

http://patch.com/california/hollywood/queen-b-movies-and-50s-pin-jeanne-carmen-book-signing-brandon-james-0

By SZMedia (Open Post)
November 25, 2014 at 8:54am

(HOLLYWOOD, CA. November 10, 2014) On Saturday December 6th at 3 pm, author Brandon James will be at the West Hollywood Library to discuss and sign “My Wild, Wild Life” the biography of legendary pin up, trick shot golfer, Sinatra girlfriend, and friend of Marilyn – the incomparable Jeanne Carmen.

Carmen, who passed in 2007, was one of the last great Hollywood broads, who was honored by being selected as the first subject of the long running E! True Hollywood Story series. She was a certified member of the Rat Pack – having dated Sinatra on and off for decades, and was a dangerously close friend of Marilyn Monroe.

“So many people think Jeanne’s story is all about Marilyn, it’s not. While I love Marilyn, I have to tell you – Jeanne’s life was far more interesting and eventful than Marilyn’s ever was.” – says Hollywood producer, Jeannine Madsen. “But the association is eternal because of their close friendship. You will never find an interview of Jeanne where she is not crying while speaking about Marilyn.”

“Jeanne was a captivating personality which is why so many greats were drawn to her,” says James, who is also the subject’s son. “I had no idea my mother had this wild life until one day, in my teens, I discovered boxes of photographs and she came clean about her storied past.” Carmen had left Hollywood after Marilyn’s untimely death, which she always, outspokenly, maintained was murder. Jeanne was forever indebted to Sinatra for protecting her. An intimate of Sinatra, and legendary mobster Johnny Roselli since the 40’s, many claim next to Ava Gabor – Carmen was the love of Sinatra’s life – and it is an oft spoken rumor that Sinatra is the one that ordered no one hurt her. “She was told if she didn’t leave town immediately, she would leave in a body bag” James continues “she left and started a whole new life and it wasn’t until the 80’s when biographers started to track her down did she put herself back in the spotlight.”

While her friendship with Marilyn may be the defining public perception of her, one shouldn’t forget her career as a top billed B-Movie Queen. “She is part of the Hollywood mythology – she is absolutely fascinating”, says celebrity biographer J. Randy Taraborelli (Call Her Miss Ross, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness).

Prior to the B-Movies, Sinatra, the Kennedy’s, and Marilyn there was golf, “she was the first female trick shot golfer” says Golf Central. Jimmy Demaret, legendary golfer and winner of 31 PGA titles, called her “amazing”, bred her as a trick shot golfer and that’s what led her to Hollywood – and history.

“She was the Queen of the B-Movies and worthy of having a movie made about her”, says James. “How fortunate am I, as an author and to have a woman like this for a mother. Even if she weren’t my mother I would have felt compelled to tell this story.”

My Wild, Wild Lifechronicles her entire, and indeed, wild life.

Copies of My Wild, Wild Life will be available for purchase at the event.

The West Hollywood Library, 625 North Vicente, West Hollywood, Ca. 90069/ 310-652-5340

Author Talk & Book Signing: Jeanne Carmen: My Wild, Wild Life

Pinup Icon JEANNE CARMEN

Click the link below to see the press release

http://www.prlog.org/12400386-author-talk-book-signing-jeanne-carmen-my-wild-wild-life.html

Meet Author BRANDON JAMES

At the West Hollywood Library, Saturday, December 6th at 3pm

Signing his book on Pinup Icon: JEANNE CARMEN

Brandon James will be giving out a free Jeanne Carmen poster to everyone who buys a book at the signing. The poster is the classic shot of Jeanne Carmen laying on top of a piano draped in a towel.

Please join us as author Brandon James discusses the bookJeanne Carmen: My Wild Wild Life as a New York Pin Up Queen, Trick Shot Golfer & Hollywood Actress. Brandon James documents Ms. Carmen’s encounters and friendships with the famous as well as the infamous, including: Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Lenny Bruce, Howard Hughes, Bob Hope, Joe DiMaggio, Sam Giancama, Johnny Rosselli and many more.

This program will take place in the library’s community meeting room and parking validation will be provided.

Brandon James will be signing copies of his book that are purchased at the program.

Sat, December 6, 2014
3:00 PM
–
4:30 PM

West Hollywood Library

625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Phone:
(310) 652-5340

Click the link below for official details:

http://www.colapublib.org/calendar/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=63514

Media Contact
Brandon James
949 322 5943
brandon.james@cox.net

New Article on JEANNE CARMEN and MARILYN MONROE in GERMANY – Part 1 of 2

This is part 1 of a new 2 part article published in MARILYN TODAY – The International Marilyn Monroe Fan Club newsletter published in Germany

Part 1 is in Issue no 25; September 2014

Part 2 is in issue no 26. December 2014

The entire article is published in both German and in English.

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO READ THIS AMAZING DOUBLE ARTICLE IN A PDF FILE

SLIH REPORT – INTERVIEW WITH BRANDON JAMES

Here is a transcript of the introduction in part 1 of the article:

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EXCLUSIVE!

AN INTERVIEW WITH MY LONGTIME FRIEND BRANDON JAMES, SON OF JEANNE CARMEN AND AUTHOR OF THE BOOK “JEANNE CARMEN: MY WILD WILD LIFE AS A NEW YORK PIN UP QUEEN”: HOLLYWOOD, THE MAFIA & MARILYN…
by Gianandrea Colombo

Dear Brandon, in first thanks for your kindness and your time. I’d like to start this with a question about your mother, JEANNE CARMEN. Jeanne was a beautiful woman, a popular pin-up of Hollywood and a good actress. Could you tell us something about her, for example, how she was in the private life?

My Mom JEANNE CARMEN was an amazing woman. She was very dedicated to her children. She was the best Mom I could have ever hoped for. She lived her life taking care of us and encouraging us and supporting us in everything that we did. The strange thing is that we didn’t know much about her film career or modeling career or Hollywood friendships when we were growing up. When we were little kids we lived in Scottsdale, Arizona which was a tiny little town out in the middle of the desert in the state of Arizona in the United States. Today, Scottsdale has become a very big city, but back in the 1970’s it was a small little cow town. There were dirt roads, cows, horses and cowboys walking around with horsepoo on their boots. In the summer, there were sandstorms that would cause giant tumbleweeds to blow down the street and bounce off our car. In the winter, there were thunder storms that would cause flash floods and lightning storms that would light up the desert sky. During this time, my Mom worked as a cocktail waitress at a cowboy saloon and restaurant. She was very popular. I remember as a kid my Mom was so pretty that every time we walked into a restaurant or a store people would stop and stare. She always had that effect on people. People were mesmerized and hypnotized by her. Even when she was trying to be incognito with brown hair.

The first time I remember thinking she was different was when she took me to Las Vegas one weekend to meet with a friend of hers named JOHNNY ROSELLI. I didn’t know it at the time but I later learned that JOHNNY ROSELLI was in the Mafia and he worked for SAM GIANCANA who was the head of the Chicago Mafia. The Mafia had deep ties to Las Vegas and Hollywood and JOHNNY ROSELLI was a very handsome, dapper man. Johnny’s nickname in the Mob was “Handsome Johnny.” Johnny set us up at the Sands Hotel and he seemed to know everyone in Las Vegas. I remember one night he took us to dinner at the Dunes Hotel at a restaurant called The Dome of The Sea. It was a spectacular Vegas style restaurant. It had a clover leaf pool in the middle of the restaurant and there was a beautiful mermaid girl playing a harp on a floating lily pad in the middle of the pool and the lily pad would float back and forth across the restaurant. The mermaid girl had a fish tail and long blond hair that hung down and covered her beautiful breasts. The tables were set up around the pool so that the guest could get a good look at the mermaid girl. I remember I was fascinated with the girl and couldn’t take my eyes off her. Johnny noticed that I was staring at her and he said to my Mom “Hey Jeanne, I think the kid likes the broad with the fish tail,” and started laughing. Then Johnny said to me “Hey kid, you want the mermaid girl to visit you in your room tonight?” My Mom slapped him on the shoulder and said “Johnny, don’t say that, he’s just a kid.” I remember being a little pissed off at my Mom that night because I wanted to see more of the mermaid girl. LOL

New Article on JEANNE CARMEN and ELVIS PRESLEY in SWEDEN

This is a new 2 part article published in ELVIS: The Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of Sweden

The first part is in Issue 173: August and September 2014

The second part is in Issue 174: October and November 2014

The entire article is in Swedish.

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO READ THIS AMAZING DOUBLE ARTICLE IN A PDF FILE

Elvis – Jeanne Carmen – Sweden mag – part 1

Elvis – Jeanne Carmen – Sweden mag – part 2

Here is a translation of a few paragraphs in part 1 and part 2

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Initiated with a few outspoken quotes from Jeanne Carmen

JEANNE: “My skirt rides up in the air, all of a sudden he jumps on me and gets all excited and we’re doing pretty well, he pulls up my shirt and suddenly …” JEANNE sees some men outside the window. ELVIS: “It’s just my guys, honey.” JEANNE: “I would prefer that your guys are not watching.”

JEANNE: “I was at a party and I had this Indian costume on, no bra underneath and ELVIS comes in and “ah, hello “. The photographers are taking pictures of us when suddenly his manager took him away because he thought that ELVIS had some other things to do which made me angry.. that ELVIS would leave me like that. “(Halloween Party October 31, 1957).

At a later date JEANNE meets ELVIS at a hotel where ELVIS is sitting and playing guitar. Suddenly he says: “Do you have any panties on?” “It was his favorite question to the girls he was with. And there I was, of course not …”

I fried Southern Fried Chicken for him just as his mother used to make, and on another occasion when I fried chicken, I got a gift from him. It was an apron so I put it on myself right there and it was all I had on me and everything went fine until I bent forward to see if the chicken was done. The chicken was burnt that night, hehe. ”

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In 1998 Carmen was portrayed in the TV biography Jeanne Carmen: Queen of the B-Movies, as part of the series E! True Hollywood Story. The film was alleged that CARMEN had a “dangerously close friendship with MARILYN MONROE and the KENNEDY family” and after MARILYN’s death, the Chicago Mobster JOHNNY ROSELLI said that she should leave town and CARMEN who believed that her life was in danger fled to Scottsdale, Arizona, where she stayed incognito for more than a decade.

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Click the link below to view JEANNE CARMEN’s E! True Hollywood Story

JEANNE CARMEN: SURF GODDESS in WENG’S CHOP Beach Party Mayhem

WENG’S CHOP magazine [Volume 2: Issue 2: Number 6: September 2014: pages 234-239] has published an amazing new pictorial of Pinup Icon JEANNE CARMEN along with an introduction by her son BRANDON JAMES.

To see the magazine, click on the link below:

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO READ THIS AMAZING ARTICLE IN A PDF FILE

Wengs Chop #6 Beach Party Mayhem

And here is a transcript:
=========================
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST DEPT.: They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so we figured we’d let the voluptuous MS. CARMEN have the final 10,000 or so by presenting these ten saucy shots taken back in her heydays as a Hollywood glamour
queen. All these photographs of the blonde (sometimes brunette!) bombshell date from the 1950s. With grateful acknowledgements
to Jeanne’s son and biographer Brandon James — author of the book JEANNE CARMEN: MY WILD, WILD LIFE As a New York
Pin-Up Queen, Trick Shot Golfer and Hollywood Actress — for kindly providing us with all the images seen here.

To find out more about this lovely lady, check out her E! Channel biography, entitled Jeanne Carmen: Queen of the B-Movies (1998); which is viewable on YouTube at: Click the link at the bottom of the page (Numerous other clips of her are also at Youtube.)

Page 238
In her son Brandon James’ own words:

“My Mom, JEANNE CARMEN, was without a doubt an extraordinarily beautiful and special woman who was pre-destined to be a famous pinup girl and actress, who inhabited the glamorous world of show business. There is no other way to explain it. She was born into poverty on a small farm in Paragould, Arkansas, yet she managed to overcome all the odds at a young age. Every step of her journey could have ended in tragedy, yet her journey seemed to be preordained, as if she was getting guidance from above. She managed to land in NYC as a teenager and become a famous pinup girl almost overnight, and then she had the good fortune to meet world-renowned trick-shot golfer JACK REDMOND, who trained her to become his golfing sidekick and the world’s only female trick-shot golfer. Then she had an interesting rendezvous with a Chicago mobster named JOHNNY ROSELLI, who took her to Las Vegas to fleece wealthy old golfers who didn’t believe a sexy young girl could beat them on the links. While in Las Vegas she hooked up with FRANK SINATRA, who took an immediate liking to her, and then Hollywood came calling next with movie appearances and a starring role in the classic 1959 horror flick THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS.

As if this wasn’t enough, she also became a close personal friend of MARILYN MONROE and had naked encounters with JOHN F. KENNEDY and his brother ROBERT F. KENNEDY. She also had flings with ELVIS PRESLEY, ERROL FLYNN, BOB HOPE, HOWARD HUGHES, LEX BARKER and numerous other Hollywood legends. After Marilyn Monroe was killed in 1962, my Mom, fearing for her own safety, went into exile in the little town of Scottsdale, Arizona, abandoned her platinum blonde locks and raised a family. Years
later, she was called back to Las Vegas for a meeting with JOHNNY ROSELLI, who told her that mob boss SAM GIANCANA had been killed at his home in Chicago and that my Mom didn’t have to live in fear anymore. From there, my Mom moved back to
California and settled down in the sleepy little town of Newport Beach.

Then, all of a sudden, fame came back to my Mom all over again—much like BETTIE PAGE, who suddenly found herself the object of devotion years after she left NYC. My Mom was a guest on numerous talk shows, was interviewed by magazines around the world and attended conventions where she regaled her fans with all her stories about her wild, wild life in show business. So yes, this is all true. My Mom JEANNE CARMEN was all these things: a pinup icon, an amazing golfer, a Hollywood actress and a friend and confidant of some really famous people. But most importantly, she was my Mom. She was the best Mom I could have ever asked for. We were great friends and I knew all her secrets. If she wasn’t a model or a golfer or an actress and she didn’t know any famous people, I would still love her just the same because she was funny and she was beautiful and she was enchanting and she touched everyone who ever met her in a special way that made them remember her forever.”