JUNE IN MARCH

What better way to close out the month of March with some big Macumba Love from the lovely June Wilkinson? At 82 years young, Miss Wilkinson is still wooing audiences with occasional personal appearances.

Born March 27, 1940 in Eastbourne, UK, she grew up poor. While watching a group of dancers train, she was invited by the instructor to join in for a free class. She was invited back and soon she was the best dancer in the group.

With an already-large bosom and blooming body, she took her new-found talent to a club called The Windmill and became a topless dancer at the age of 15 (!). A Hollywood movie producer saw a picture of her, contacted her, and fed her the famous line, "I'm going to make you a star!".

She took him up on his offer and the rest is history. While she was only in two genre films, MACUMBA LOVE (1960) and FRANKENSTEIN'S GREAT AUNT TILLY (1984) and a guest spot on the BATMAN TV series, June still qualifies as a horror hottie for obvious reasons.

Wilkinson was all the rage being compared in looks to Marilyn Monroe and caught the eye of Hugh Hefner who featured her in his magazine. She also appeared in countless men's magazines, including the one shown here (MR. COOL, Vol. 1 No. 1, 1960).

The article is followed by a recent post from the Branson, Missouri Tri Lakes News where Wilkinson looks back on her career.

June Wilkinson: Model & actress reflects back on photo, stage, screen career

By Tim Church | February 3, 2023 | Bransontrilakesnews.com

A model, an actress, a dancer: the American entertainment industry didn’t know what hit it when June Wilkinson arrived on the scene in the late 1950s.

However, before she took the world’s breath away with her beauty and talent, Wilkinson found herself entering into a world at war. Born in Eastbourne, England on March 27, 1940, Wilkinson said she recalls the bombs coming down from Germany as a child during World War II.

“Our house was right next door to the bomb site,” Wilkinson said. “Everybody had a table, which was steel, so that when they blew the horn you got underneath; so if the house crashed down maybe they could get you out. So we all had tables like that. I was too young to know that was a bad thing. I didn’t know it.”

A few years after the war came to an end, Wilkinson was living next door to a dancing school, a place which would completely change her life.

“I would get up on a chair to look over the wall and I did that for probably about two weeks looking at the dancing teachers,” Wilkinson said. “At the end of one class a lady comes over and goes, ‘Why don’t you come in and have a class’ and I said, ‘My parents can’t afford your class.’ We were poor. So she said, ‘Well, be my guest tomorrow.’ So I went over there and then she said, ‘Why, don’t you come back tomorrow,’ which she kept on saying and pretty soon I was the best dancer she had.”

Being the best dancer, Wilkinson said she began to receive opportunities, for which she credits the teacher who invited her to that first day of dancing class.

“Anytime anyone had to audition for a role at a theater or in a movie, I always got the part. So (my teacher) started my career and that started my life really,” Wilkinson said. “I was 12 when that happened. Otherwise, I would have just been a poor little girl working in a little store somewhere not making much to live on.”

With a love for dancing and a rapidly developing body, Wilkinson said at the age of 15 she became a topless dancer at the Windmill Theatre, which was a well known and famous venue in London.

“My body grew so much, I wasn’t going to be a ballerina. I would knock the guys out,” Wilkinson said with a laugh. “The Windmill is very famous and it has nudity with people not doing anything (just posing) and they have one dancer doing the fan dance at the end of the show and I got that job.”

Wilkinson shared after working at the Windmill for nearly a year, she was invited to appear on a television show.

“I don’t even remember the name, but it was a famous comedian, a big one that always had a TV show and he said, ‘I want to do a skit with you.’ So I said okay and I did the skit,” Wilkinson said. “Then I went back and did the shows I had to do for the Windmill Theatre and they went ballistic because I’d done a show for somebody else. I said, ‘What difference does it make? It wasn’t on your time.’ And I said, ‘It was a very classy show. The guy’s the No.1 comedian in this country.’ They said, ‘No, we don’t allow it,’ so I said, ‘I quit.’ They couldn’t believe I was quitting. I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m quitting.’ And I did. I walked out.”

Wilkinson’s departure from the Windmill took place just before she turned 16 and she soon got herself an agent. When asked if it was at that point when she had ambitions to become famous and come to America, she shared her desires were actually slightly larger.

“I wanted to come to the world. I wanted to be a star. If you want to be a star, you want the world,” Wilkinson said as she flashed a smile. “I couldn’t do anything wrong.”

As her career began to grow, Wilkinson said her career in America was due in part to an invitation she received from Producer Maurice Duke.

“He was a big producer in New York. They sent me a ticket to come down and meet them,” Wilkinson said. “As soon as I got down there, he said, ‘I’m going to make you a star.’”

When she was starting out in the United States, Wilkinson said she was performing quite a bit on stage.

“Mainly plays and sometimes musicals. They became very successful, my shows. I’m sure it was in part due to my body,” Wilkinson said. “That was before bust jobs, and at that time I had large breasts and if I say so myself a very good body. Then my career just went on and on and on.”

Alongside the efforts of Duke on the producing side of things, Wilkinson’s career as a model was also elevated after being discovered by a man known as Hugh Hefner.

“He saw me in a photograph. He had the Playboy Mansion at that time in Chicago. He called me up and said, ‘I would like you to come and visit me.’ So I went over there and he said, ‘I want to put your picture in the magazine.’ But I was only 17 years old. That’s illegal. You had to be 18,” Wilkinson said. “So he said, ‘I’m going to put it in’ and he said, ‘I can get it in right now. I’ll just make it into the publisher and it will be in, in three days.’ So, in three days I would have been 18, but it was a 17 year old me picture. And that picture went wild. From then on, it was easy for me.”

When asked if she recalled any favorite moments from her career, Wilkinson confirmed she never had a favorite, as she loved it all.

“I was in seventh heaven making what I thought was a lot of money, which for me was a lot of money. My parents certainly didn’t make that kind of money. I was having a good time,” Wilkinson said. “I really didn’t do many movies. I did more TV and stage shows. When you do a stage show, you do the show from one town to another, so that one show could last a year touring all over the country.”

Though her career was mostly devoted to playbills and Playboys, Wilkinson does have more than 20 film and television credits to her name. In her career she had movie roles in films such as: “The Private Lives of Adam and Eve” (1960), “Career Girl” (1960), “Twist All Night” (1961), “The Bellboy and the Playgirls” (1962), “The Candidate” (1964), and “Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie” (1984). She also appeared in television series such as “77 Sunset Strip” (1961), “Batman” (1968), and “The Doris Day Show.”

In 1973, Wilkinson married former NFL player Dan Pastorini after they met on set of her 1972 film “The Rage.” Together, they had one daughter, Brahna, before divorcing in 1982. Wilkinson said she is very proud of her daughter.

“She’s a fabulous tennis player and if you want to learn tennis, I’ll give you her address,” Wilkinson said with a chuckle. “She goes out and she competes and everything, but she also teaches when she’s in town.”

Wilkinson said when her daughter was growing up, she joined her on her travels. The duo was joined by Wilkinson’s mother who volunteered to travel with them to help take care of her granddaughter. 

“I made sure (Brahna) got all the teaching she needed. I had somebody travel with me that got all her grades up. She was always smart,” Wilkinson said. “My daughter turned out to be fabulous and then my mother was in seventh heaven traveling with me and looking after my daughter. Everything worked out fine.”

Fast forwarding to 2023, the Branson community had the honor of playing host to Wilkinson on Sunday, Jan. 29. Wilkinson appeared in person for a special showing of her film “Twist All Night” at the Historic Owen Theatre in downtown Branson, where she visited with fans ahead of the screening and answered questions afterward.

While visiting the area, which she does often, Wilkinson stays with her longtime friends Rich and Susan Spoley of Lampe. The recent screening of Wilkinson’s 1961 film came to be after the Spoleys previewed the film for Branson Regional Arts Council Executive Director Jim Barber, who pitched the screening to the BRAC board, who loved the idea.

When asked if she was going to be watching the audience at the showing to see what they think of her film, Wilkinson once again showcased her comedic chops to answer.

“I’m not going to watch their reactions. If they don’t like it, sorry, bad taste. If they like it. Interesting, but also bad taste,” Wilkinson said with a big laugh. “It was a fun movie and people know what it is. It’s not like we’re doing something that’s going to be up there in the academy awards next year.”

When the film came about, Wilkinson said she was approached to appear in the production alongside Louis Prima and Sam Butera.

“They came to me, because I made it famous: the twist. I did it in a show and that’s how it started,” Wilkinson said. “It didn’t start as a movie. I did it in a show and then everybody started doing the twist and I was the one that started it.”

Even though she has officially retired from the entertainment industry, Wilkinson shared she does still enjoy making appearances here and there for those who request nicely. However, for the most part Wilkinson said these days she enjoys traveling, visiting with old friends and making new ones.

With a career in entertainment spanning decades and many continents, it’s safe to say, June Wilkinson achieved her dreams of becoming a star and receiving the attention, adoration and affection of the world.