Donna Loren’s resume isn’t super substantial but it does swing.
She was a regular on Shindig!, did
guest appearances on the sixties’ too coolest series—Batman and The Monkees—, sang
fun surf pop tunes, shimmied in goofy beach flicks, and shilled for delicious Dr.
Pepper. Her new book Pop Sixties: Shindig!,
Dick Clark, Beach Party, and Photographs from the Donna Loren Archives is
similarly slight and groovy. She contributes some quotations and photo
captions, but her biggest text load is a skimpy eight-page memoir. However, it
is a juicy one as she explains how her parents essentially forced her into show
business, forced her to get a nose job to look less “ethnic” (ugh), and wouldn’t
allow her out of the house without makeup. Loren discusses such semi-dark
material with the kind of cheerful you’d expect from a Pepper, though she
clearly realizes her upbringing was messed up. She did make the most of it
though, and the proof of that is in an abundance of fab B&W and color
photos that find her rubbing elbows with The Supremes, Teri Garr, Davy Jones,
Adam West, Burt Ward, The Dixie Cups, Brenda Holloway, La La Brooks, Dick Dale,
Tina Turner, The Righteous Brothers, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and a bunch
of other people cooler than anyone you or I will ever meet. Loren is groovy and
photogenic enough on her own to carry the book when she isn’t flanked by her
fellow pop stars. I can’t say this skinny 148-page volume exactly justifies its
heavy $34.95 cover price, especially since both her Batman and Monkees stints
are represented by mere two-page spreads, but it’s definitely fun to flip
through. Bobby Sherman contributes the foreword and ace Sunset Strip historian
Domenic Priore assists with the history and captions.
