Leslie McRay

ACTOR

When you began your show business career, you appeared on everything from The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Green Acres and Love, American Style to such movies as Girl in Gold Boots, Coffy and The Long Goodbye. How did you come to play Ted Casablanca’s swimming pool playmate in Valley of the Dolls?

I just watched one of the trailers for Valley of the Dolls. It really is an amazing story, isn’t it?  It was before its time. When I got involved, I was just a teenager – 17 or something. It was my first part in a movie. I was a ‘Valley Girl’ and I knew Darilynn Zanuck and Richard Zanuck, who were Darryl F. Zanuck’s daughter and son.I went to school with Natalie Wood’s sister Lana, and I was a Valley girl. Someone involved in the movie – maybe the producer or a casting person at 20th -- saw me as a beauty contest winner and, I think, a Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode. I’d been Miss Fullerton, Miss Los Angeles, I’d been in the Miss Universe pageant. I started modeling for Max Factor and appeared on so many magazines covers and billboards. They told me they wanted me to play Ted Casablanca’s mistress, girlfriend, and that was it. 

Did the buzz about the novel and the movie make you want to say yes?

I didn’t do it for the money in those days. It was more of an education thing. I really liked modeling best of all and I became a cover girl internationally. I only did movies to boost my modeling career. They seemed to like me at Fox and asked me to join their New Talent Program. I was told that I was the last person to be considered for it. But they shut down the program exactly and I was never fortunate enough to have that experience. 

Who were you at the time of Valley …?

I was so terribly shy that, basically, the first few beauty titles that I won, I could barely walk across the stage, let alone even get out a thank you. For my first movie to be Valley of the Dolls was a complete turnaround. I didn’t even know if I wanted to be in this industry. But everybody else thought it was very exciting that I was going to be in this as my first movie. My whole feeling about the movie is clouded by Sharon Tate. She was a great loss. It was the last time in a film where she looked so young and beautiful. My ex had a barbershop on Melrose Avenue and was friends with the barber Jay Sebring who lost his life among the others in that terrible onslaught that took Sharon Tate’s life. 

What do you most recall about shooting your pool scene with Patty Duke and Alex Davion?

I was nervous – I mean, being my first film, everything was an education for me in those days. Of course, I’d heard the horror stories about Darryl Zanuck and I wondered if he might be on the set but I didn’t experience anything bad on that movie. Oh, I froze my chi-chis off. It was a cold night and the swimming pool was just freezing. I was probably paid SAG scale, with a bit more because of the nudity. Of course, movies didn’t have actually nudity then like they do now, so we wore rubber attachments to appear as if naked – the rubber covered the certain areas but, otherwise, we were bare. 

Had you and Alex Davion met before?

No, it was one of those situations where Alex Davion and I never met before – or after, for that matter. He was a really handsome, classy guy. As I say, it was my first feature and it was Valley of the Dolls! So, I was really scared about what we might be asked to do until they brought in those rubber body pieces that covered up the particular parts. For me, the rubber part on my upper torso was kind a strapless-type bra and a bikini bottom kind of thing. It looks like we’re naked but we’re not. Alex Davion and I just got in the pool and ad-libbed dialogue as we were being seen from Patty Duke’s point of view. [Davion] ad-libbed and paraphrased the dialogue, ‘Don’t worry, she’s so full of drugs and booze that she won’t even wake up’ and I’d say, ‘But don’t you think she’ll be able to hear us?’—that kind of silly stuff. 

How do you find working with director Mark Robson?

He was such a consummate professional. He knew what he wanted and he went after it. He was nice to everyone on the set so they wanted to please him. He’s the one who really made the picture. He didn’t ask us to do anything special – just ad-lib and get naked in the pool, covered in rubber. 

It was an adventure and it was exciting to be with Mark Robson. He was just the greatest gentleman. 

Did Robson or anyone else ask you to show more than you’d bargained for?

There was lots more shot of my backside and my behind getting out of the pool. I distinctly remember seeing all of that in one of the earlier cuts of the movie. There was much less of it in the movie as it was released. I was glad about that. 

Did you detect any friction between Mr. Robson and Patty Duke?

Really?  There was? Well, whatever he must have done got a really good performance out of her. First of all, what struck me about her was her baby face. First I thought that they maybe were wrong about casting her. Seeing her, I kept thinking, It’s going to be hard for her to play that type of role. But it came out OK. On the set, the nicest person to me was Patty Duke. It was freezing, it was in the middle of the night, and she knew that when I jumped out of the pool and ran, I was so cold. She ran right over and put a robe around me. She was so nice and sympathetic. 

Did you encounter much sexual harassment on TV and movie sets in those days?

You know, I worked a lot during those days and there was so much sexual harassment that some of today’s claims actually seem silly to me. I didn’t experience that on Valley of the Dolls at all. In 1965,I did the pilot for a big NBC sort of chase series that ran for years and had lots of well-known guest stars. The male star of the show was known from stage and movies and I was really harassed by him and by one of the directors . It was not a fun experience. They scared me really bad. I was traveling from Orange County to get to work and not expecting anything like that. They were bullyish. It was very frightening. Men expected to get their way in those days. In those days, they groomed people to become movie stars and covered-up their indiscretions because they had such a financial investment in them.

The opposite was meeting Cary Grant, who was such a gentleman. He told me, ‘You’re too nice. While you’re young, go back to Orange Country, get married, have children, and get out of this business.’

How do you view Valley of the Dolls today?

Watching recently was such a shock to me. I mean, it was made in 1967, the beginning of the drug generation. It was extremely courageous for them to put out this movie. It had such mixed reviews and there were so many warnings about not letting kids see it. I think it’s very important to let people know what happens to those who get hooked on drugs. Today, drugs are so commonplace among the young stars. It’s ruined a lot of lives and the press is no longer afraid of putting it out there. 

Did Valley of the Dolls reflect any realities you encountered in Hollywood?

Let’s start with drugs. I’ve been offered everything and, for some reason, God didn’t want me to do it. Every time I tried something, I got sick. I took angel dust and I thought I was walking through a plate glass window up in the Hollywood Hills. Who wants this?  I’m just too control-oriented and have always been that way. 

Everybody I met at Hollywood parties struck me as sad. Their self-esteem was always hanging on their next movie or their next big break. Nobody spoke kindly of each other because they saw everyone else as competition. That’s the farthest thing from the truth, of course, because you’re either right for the part or you’re not. I found so many young fellow actors needy and sad and that’s why some of them turned to drugs and alcohol. In my life, I’ve done everything every girl has ever wanted to do – and I just loved it. I used to shoot with photographers who’d sell my pictures all over the world. I never even knew where half of them were turning up. One day, I was walking by the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd and they had this huge poster in the front with a picture of me in a lizard skin advertising A Woman In a Lizard’s Skin. I was not even in the movie!  Back when Howard Hughes still lived at the Sands, I was in a divorce and I was bored. I’m a really good dancer so I went and auditioned at the Sands and became a dancer onstage. I was around the Rat Pack and everything. Come on, what girl hasn’t wanted to be a dancer at the Sands?  I didn’t become a showgirl, though, because I wouldn’t take my top off. But it’s been a wonderful, exciting career and it started with Valley of the Dolls.