INTRODUCTION
In his introduction to an interview with Irish McCalla for Femme Fatales magazine Dan Scapperotti wrote the following: "America, 1955: the age of chastity.  Howdy Doody reminded us to attend church, the hottest pair in Hollywood was Martin and Lewis, Father Knows Best was one of the country's most popular sitcoms and The Mickey Mouse Club was making it's debut.  Then she came along.  Cast as Sheena Queen of the Jungle, Irish McCalla, a voluptuous blonde clad in a makeshift, leopard skin swimsuit, fried adolescent hormones.  In a jab at 'togetherness'dads sat with their teenage offspring during each episode, but communication was limited to the male coterie silently ogling McCalla's physique until the final credit crawl, when Pop would ritualistically say, 'Don't forget to wash up for dinner.'  McCalla corrupted the whole Mickey Mouse morality.  She was the catalyst for impure thoughts." (Femme Fatales)

On my introductory page to Irish McCalla I mentioned that the image of Irish as Sheena had haunted me for many years while growing up and on into adulthood, and how I had come to realise that she had been responsible for the seminal awakenings of my sexuality and an appreciation of the female gender.  In his essay Sheena, Queen of the Jungle: White Goddess of the Dumont Era, David B Broad, a lecturer in sociology at Tennesee State University, claims that his research shows that Sheena is the one of the most remembered television shows amongst males aged 45 to 55 today (written in 1997). Powerful females were a rare item in the homely suburban world of 1950s television, where Donna Reed and June Cleaver portrayed wholesome motherhood with tireless devotion.  The only competition for Sheena was Annie Oakley, played by Gail Davis, who we all knew was just everybody's feisty sister - reliable but sexless.  That buxom, scantily-clad Amazonian Sheena was a whole other kettle of fish.  "The catalyst for impure thoughts" indeed.