E.J. Peaker

[Nick Danger]

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0668855/

E.J. Peaker was born 22 February 1944, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the inimitably Okie name Edra Jean Peaker.
She's probably best remembered for playing Minnie Fay in the motion picture Hello, Dolly! (1969). E.J. also starred with Robert Morse in the cult musical series, "That's Life" (1968).

When I was a wee laddie at the end of the 60s, E.J. Peaker was a throwback to the peaches and cream girls next door of the 1940s. She did a lot of family-oriented sitcoms and variety shows during that turbulent period. She seemed almost anachronistic to me, even if I was too young to understand why. Her wholesome image couldn't last, and her time in the spotlight was brief.




Considering how I'd always thought of her as a kind of Disney girl, you can imagine my shock to learn 2 decades later (thanks to the Bare Facts Video Guide) that at the height of her wholesome career she'd done a nude scene!

I suppose she was trying to change her image. But the film (The All American Boy --an ironic title considerin E.J.'s All American image) was so bad -- it was released 3 years after it was shot -- it had no impact at all.