After years of relative inactivity, singer and actress Donna Loren - born March 7th, 1947 in Boston Masachusetts - returned to singing two years ago. Her 2010 album, Love it Away, was her first since the heady days of the early 1960s, when the talented young starlet was both the face of Dr. Pepper and a regular performer on the much-loved music show, Shindig.
Batman: The Joker Goes to School and He Meets His Match, The Grisly Ghoul
Having sung professionally and been involved in showbusiness from a very early age, Donna was still only a teenager when, following the cancellation of Shindig, she landed the role of the impressionable head cheerleader, Susie, in one of the biggest TV programmes of the day, Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward.
The two-parter in which she appeared alongside the two actors mentioned above - as well as Hollywood heartthrob, Cesar Romero who played The Joker - was called The Joker Goes to School and He Meets His Match, The Grisly Ghoul. In the two episodes, first broadcast in 1966, Donna memorably played an innocent young girl willing to take part in criminal activity in exchange for material possessions.
Donna Loren: Susie in Batman
"Shindig ended and Batman, I think, took the same time slot," remembers Donna today. "So I just went from one to the other; it was really smooth for me. I went in for an interview, read a little bit, boom, got it. I really didn’t know the consequences of the show at all because I appeared in…I think it was the fourth show that they were filming and all I remember is being driven up to the gate at Desilu Studios and there were kids climbing up the chain-link fence trying to get in.
"I really didn’t know that the show I was going to be working on was that successful because the same thing was happening at Shindig where there were kids hanging out waiting to meet the Stones and anybody that showed up. It felt pretty effortless, that’s all I can say…"
Suite 101: So you never thought about how iconic the show would go on to become?
"None of it, no. I think if you ask anyone...If you talked to Paul McCartney today and asked him how he felt in Hamburg or something, you just don’t know. All you know is either you’re enjoying what you’re doing or you’re not enjoying what you’re doing or who you’re with or where you are. I just absolutely feel so fortunate to be part of it and that it has the longevity and the relevance that it still has. No, I couldn’t have imagined in a million years."
Suite 101: What were the actors like?
"Well, I can tell you that Adam West was a darling and Cesar Romero – totally professional. The rest of the cast, very amicable. We were all very professional – you know, 'time is money' kind of thing, so there wasn't too much time to play.
"Actually, in about a month, I’ll be going to a celebrity gathering where I’m going to be reunited with Adam West and Burt Ward and a couple of the women that played Catwomen – Julie Newmar and Lee Merriwether and Batgirl, Yvonne Craig. They’ll be two Catwomen, Batgirl, Batman and Robin and me!"
Donna Loren: "Good gravy!"
One of the most unforgettable aspects of Donna's endearing portrayal of a good girl led astray was the exclamation, " Good gravy! " - a fine example of kitsch '60s dialogue - used by her to express shock or dismay. Having never been used before or since - not to this writer's knowledge at least - Donna Loren must surely be responsible for introducing it to the English language.
Suite 101: Do people ever shout, “Good gravy!” at you in the street?
"No darling! But I have to tell you that recently, I got a comment on my Facebook from Quentin Tarantino saying, 'Holy Moly!' But I’ll have to remember that when I meet Adam West after all these years because he’s what, in his 80s? I’m sure 'Good Gravy' is in his vocabulary!"
Donna Loren in The Monkees
Following her role in Batman, Donna guested on another of the most fondly-remembered shows of the 1960s, a year later. The Monkees, a comedy series interspersed with musical performances, documented the crazy lives and wacky early-Beatles-esque antics of four young musicians living in a Californian beach house.
In Everywhere a Sheik-Sheik, the third episode of the second series, first broadcast in September 1967, Donna played a Nehudian princess forced into marriage by her domineering father. As was often the case, English actor, Davy Jones, was the Monkee doing the falling in love.
"Same thing – very very smooth," says Donna, comparing the experience to working on Batman. "I was just invited in for a reading and got the part and showed up on set and met the guys. Well, actually I’d met Davy Jones because he was on Shindig.
"I would say, because I had known Davy before – just business-wise – that we got along very well. I think Peter and Mike were sort of reclusive, quiet, stayed to themselves until it was time to be on set and Mickey was a little bit more gregarious, fun-loving and outgoing. But it was really mostly Davy and I having lunch together or whatever."
Donna Loren: '60s Star
Though both Batman and The Monkees would pass into entertainment history as classic examples of 1960s television at its colourful, creative best, the young Donna Loren had no idea at the time just how popular this glorious escapism, representative of a more innocent time, would go onto become. For Donna, already used to the limelight, it was all in a day's work.
Adrian Peel - Adrian is an English freelance writer and journalist currently living in Mexico. Over the past eight years, he has had articles, features ...
