Sheena on TV - Pt 2: Filming in Mexico Page 12

IRISH McCALLA ON TV

Part 2 - Filming In Mexico
Page 12 - Conclusion

Irish McCalla continued to appear in glamour magazines on into the early Sixties, and by this time she had been transformed into what we would today call a "megastar". She was no longer just a well-known good looking model. She was now the star of a high-rating television series and her face was very well-known, from Tokyo to Buenos Aires. The transition wasn't an easy one. Irish once said that things just seemed to happen to her without really trying. At the time she was commenting on how she easily found success in the three major phases of her life - as a glamour model, as a television star and as a successful artist. These pages clearly demonstrates that Irish "paid her dues" on that journey from reasonably successful glamour model to phenomenally successful television star. The inexperienced actress bore the humiliations and criticisms of an intolerant and unsympathetic director in the early days of the project; she suffered from debilitating amoebic dysentery the whole seven-and-a-half months she was in Mexico and for several years after; she and her colleagues endured primitive living and working conditions in an isolated and undeveloped part of Mexico; they were also subjected to extreme climactic conditions ranging from monsoonal rain storms to stifling tropical heat; and Irish sustained serious injuries to her left arm and left knee that continued to bother her for the rest of her life. This sequence of events would have been enough to crush the average tender starlet.

But Irish McCalla wasn't one of those. The word most commonly attributed to Irish by those who knew her was "feisty". Her tomboy background in a large Irish family from rural America had endowed her with a lot of spirit and tenacity. She had pluck. She had spunk. She had courage. These of course were some of the characteristics that had led to her being chosen to play Sheena in the first place. The other attributes were, of course, athleticism and stunning good looks. Her co-star, Christian Drake, said it best when he commented, "Irish was absolutely perfect for the role... she epitomized Sheena from the very start." (Ultra Filmfax)

In his 1998 Ultra Filmfax interview Drake also said that he felt that Sheena was a great property that could play for another generation if someone invested in colourising the episodes. I think he has missed the point somewhat here. Society has moved on and tastes have changed. Young people who have grown up on fast-paced adventures like Star Wars and Jurassic Park aren't interested in tame jungle adventures with Mexicans playing Africans and the only interaction with wild animals is via inserted stock footage or a mechanical crocodile. I personally find most of Irish's action scenes involving fights and spears to be rather clumsy and contrived. I also find the pacing of many of the stories quite laboured and many of the characterisations of the guest stars are stereotypical caricatures. Some fans maintain that the Irish McCalla Sheena series closely approximates the jungle goddesses' adventures as portrayed in Fiction House comics. A perusal of the Jumbo Comics Cover Gallery page should reveal the absurdity of this claim. Those vibrant covers abound with savage gorilla fights; murderous slave traders; lion, leopard and hyena attacks; charging rhinos and elephants; numerous ferocious battles with crocodiles; and even a few dinosaurs. Those making this claim seem to confuse the nostalgia of the comics with the nostalgia of the series and conclude that the content is similar. It isn't!

What then is the appeal and why are there legions of Sheena and Irish McCalla fans out there? Throughout these pages I have frequently written that Irish McCalla is still the definitive Sheena, and please don't conclude from my critical comments in the previous paragraph that I don't enjoy watching the episodes. Those who own the series on video know that magic happens every time the camera falls on Irish. The screen just lights up whenever Sheena appears in her exotic costume and the close-ups of Irish's stunningly beautiful Amazonian features almost take your breath away (see the examples above). She does bear a remarkable resemblance to some of the images on the Jumbo Comics covers, which was why photographer Tom Kelly recommended her to the Nassours (see Audition page). In the apple-pie era of Fifties television women were portrayed as loyal housewives a la Leave It To Beaver, The Donna Reed Show and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. The strong and physical Sheena changed all that and paved the way for other exotic female heroines on television like Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Le Femme Nikita and Emma Peel of The Avengers. Xena: The Warrior Princess, whose name is even similar, would never have existed if Sheena Queen of the Jungle hadn't kicked down a few doors. She was truly the mother of TV heroines!

IRISH ON TELEVISION INTRO

TOP OF PAGE

FILMING IN MEXICO INTRO

OTHER SHEENA PAGES
Please don't forget to visit my pages devoted to the twenty-six episodes of Sheena Queen of the Jungle, if you haven't done so already. You will find plot summaries, numerous comments about the individual episodes and video captures from all of the surviving episodes. There are also large-sized copies of a many of the photos used on these pages available to download on the Sheena Gallery page.

SOURCES
• Ultra Filmfax magazine, Apr/May 98
PHOTOS
• The video captures of Irish looking gorgeous as Sheena are from my DVD-Rs of the Sheena Queen of the Jungle series
CAPTURE
• Bag yourself Sheena Queen of the Jungle on VHS at Moviecraft

IRISH BIOGRAPHY INTRO

SHEENA INTRO

HOME