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CONWAY STRATFORD
Until March 2008 the only information available to the general public about the men Irish dated had come from Irish herself. Following the publication in February 2008, by Playboy magazine, of the long-lost Alberto Vargas nude photos of Irish, one of her old boyfriends wrote to the letters section of Playboy and identified himself by name and gave the name of the town where he lived. Frank Bonilla, the world's leading Irish McCalla and Sheena collector, took the opportunity to look him up in an online phone directory and wrote to him to see if he could provide any useful information about Irish. His name is Conway Stratford and he is now an 80-year-old retired doctor. He has been incredibly helpful in adding to the sketchy biographical details available to fans about this period of Irish's life. I would like to thank Dr Stratford for allowing me to publish some of the story of his time dating Irish as a 20-year-old in California.
Con, as he is called, met Irish at The Beach Club in Santa Monica in the the summer of 1949. He said that it took "more guts than guile" to get to know her because she was very defensive. Con was a tall, good-looking athletic beach volleyball player and was also studying medicine at the University of Southern California. He was just the kind of hunky, intelligent guy Irish was attracted to. They eventually worked through Irish's reservations and began dating exclusively until Con entered the US Air Force in February 1951. He said that Irish caught a taxi to Union Station to see him off, so all of his fellow recruits got to see the gorgeous doll he was leaving behind, and they were obviously all quite envious. Con said that it was Irish's habit to send him a small professional photograph of herself with her regular letters, so his buddies looked forward to his mail more than they looked forward to their own.
One of Con's funniest stories concerns his Tactical Air Command (TAC) officer, who saw the photo of Irish above his bed. The TAC officer was considered "God" by all new air force recruits so when the officer marched Con down to his own room Con wasn't sure what was afoot. The officer's walls, however, were covered with glamour photos of Irish and the superior politely asked if Con could arrange for Irish to send him an autographed photo. Irish generously obliged, but with the admonition that the
officer
"look after her guy". Con was promptly made an acting sergeant
and was therefore relieved of all of the onerous base chores that new recruits
were subjected to. The photo above, generously provided by Con, shows
him sporting those wonderful three stripes bestowed by Irish. He was
eventually discharged as a First Lieutenant.Con and Irish grew apart because of the enforced separation and each of them eventually began dating other partners. Con met his present wife in June 1951 and was fell in love immediately, and it appears Irish had begun dating other men earlier that same year (see below). In November 1951 she wrote to him and informed him that she had married Patrick McIntyre the previous June and was now pregnant with their first child.
Con resumed his studies when he was released from service and married his wife in 1954. They were living on a tract of land in the San Fernando Valley and during the 1950s Irish would sometimes drop by to visit as her sister lived nearby. On one occasion Con had walked his mother-in-law to the corner to use the phone as none had yet been installed in the residences. As he was waiting at the corner for his mother-in-law to use the phone he saw Irish drive by in her car with her pet ocelot and watched as she pulled up down the street at his house. Irish had brought an ocelot back from Mexico with her in June 1956 when she returned from filming the Sheena series. Con was embarrassed as he stumbled and grasped for an explanation for his mother-in-law but she was gracious about it and both his wife and mother-in-law had great fun teasing him about it afterwards. The photo at right supposedly shows Irish presenting the ocelot to her two sons.
It is fortunate that Dr Stratford stumbled upon those Playboy photos of Irish in his local barbershop and decided to write to their letters section. Otherwise these amusing tales would have been lost to fans forever. I am indebted to him for sharing them with us.
western
TV series, Range
Rider (1951-53). The curious thing about the photo is that
it was taken from an article in the January 1951 issue of Eve
magazine. As mentioned on Page 3: Success,
Eve was a short-lived offshoot of Night and Day magazine,
who had been featuring Irish's glamour photograph's heavily for several
years. They supposedly launched the magazine based on the popularity
of Irish and every issue featured a story about her. This one claimed
to feature a date between Irish and Mahoney and shows them out on the town
- dancing at the Macambo; seeing Frankie Lane perform at Ciro's nightclub;
riding the merry-go-round at Ocean Park Pier; and dining at Charlie Foy's
Supper Club.In light of the additional information provided by Con Stratford, it now appears that Irish's date with Mahoney was merely a publicity stunt concocted by publicity agents, as Irish was still dating Con "exclusively" at the time. The stories above confirm that they were both close for some time after Con entered the service in February 1951. The accompanying text of the Eve article claims that the date was an arranged event -
"It occurred to someone, probably the photographer who took these shots, that she should be displayed on a night life tour of Hollywood. Just to complicate matters, someone, probably the photographer's agent, decided to pair her with an Irishman (get it?) named incongruously enough, Jacques O'Mahoney."
The final photo in the article bears this caption -
"A goodnight kiss was supervised by the photographer who went along to record this evening for posterity. Despite the faintly commercial note, Jacques and Irish discovered they had more in common than the rather healthy ambition to get to the top of their respective careers. Next date they have will be in privacy and cost somewhat less."
It is likely that that Irish was already dating Mahoney at the time and they agreed to pose for photos together. The attraction between the two participants is certainly tangible in the photos. See also the photo on Page 2: Irish's Contract in the Filming in Mexico section.
In a letter that Irish wrote to Con she expressed concern about the other girlfriends Con was seeing and indicated she had begun to date "all the big handsome men who had lately been knocking on my door". It appears that Jock Mahoney was one of those men. In an interview Irish said that one night after a date with Mahoney he walked her up the outside stairs of her two-story, corner apartment in Santa Monica to bid her goodnight on the upstairs landing on the outside of the building. They exchanged a good night kiss, and Mahoney, apparently overcome by the experience, fainted and toppled backwards over the landing to the ground below. Irish, stricken with shock and apprehension, peered over the railing to find him sitting behind the wheel of his convertible, smiling and waving up at her. Mahoney, a very experienced stuntman, had parked his car in just the right place in order to impress his beautiful date with this remarkable stunt (Black). Con doubted the veracity of this story when he read it on this site. He too had kissed Irish goodnight on that landing and felt it was unlikely a stuntman could have achieved that without injuring himself. He, however, is not a stuntman and it is Irish's personal account of events, which supposedly left an indelible impression on her mind.
| A story that Irish frequently told in interviews
was that when she married Pat McIntyre in June 1951 she was temporarily
separated from Ben Chapman. She said she had quite a crush
on Ben and they were engaged to be married but were spending time
apart because of an argument (Prevue)(see also Page
7: First Husband). Chapman was one of her Malibu Beach
acquaintances (see Page 2: Discovery
for more about that scene). He was a friend of the man who owned
the place where they used to go skin diving and Irish described him
as "a tall Tahitian fella" (he was 6' 5"/196 cm tall)
(Femme Fatales). He was also the nephew of Jon
Hall, one-time leading man of Maria
Montez and 1950's TV star of Ramar
of the Jungle. Chapman's greatest claim to fame was
as the actor inside the gill-man suit in The
Creature From the Black Lagoon. Considering the sequence of events recounted by Con Stratford, it is difficult to comprehend the speed of events of this whirlwind romance. Either these events took place back in 1949 before Irish met Con, or Irish was a very impulsive individual (see also Page 3: Those Three Husbands in the Final Years section). The photo at right was taken at Ray Court's Hollywood convention in 1992 where they were both making personal appearances. |
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| IRISH
McCALLA MAGAZINE GALLERIES To see what all of the fuss was about and the reason for her popularity, click on the image at right to explore an extensive collection of glamour and television magazines that Irish McCalla appeared in between 1950 and 2008. |
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SOURCES
• Irish of the Jungle magazine by
Bill Black, Paragon Publications 2003
• Femme Fatales magazine, Jan 99
• Prevue Pinup Special 2 magazine 1994
PHOTOS
• The photo of DR Conway Stratford in his air force uniform was generously
donated by him
• The photo of Irish dancing with Jock Mahoney is from Eve
magazine, Jan 51 - personal collection
• The photo of Irish and Ben Chapman is from TV's Original Sheena
- Irish McCalla by Bill Black & Bill Feret, Paragon Publications
1992
LYNX
• Read a Jock Mahoney filmography
at the Internet Movie Database
(IMDb)
• Read a Ben Chapman filmography at the Internet
Movie Database (IMDb)
• Click on the banner below to explore the late Ben Chapman's wonderfully
informative web site:
| IRISH BIOGRAPHY INTRO |
SHEENA
© is the property of Sony Pictures Corporation
This independent, fan-based analysis of the Sheena material is copyright © 2005-2009 Paul Wickham
This page was updated May 2009
This independent, fan-based analysis of the Sheena material is copyright © 2005-2009 Paul Wickham
This page was updated May 2009