Irish McCalla

IRISH McCALLA'S FILM CAREER

INTRO
When Irish found out that the Nassour brothers had no interest in continuing with the Sheena project she began exploring other avenues in the theatrical field. Irish hadn't gone to LA to become a starlet (see Page 1: California in the Modelling section) but was more interested in pursuing a career as an artist. However, pretty girls have a way of getting noticed in Tinsel Town. As described on the Modelling pages Irish managed to get noticed in a very big way! Within one month of making her national debut in Night and Day magazine she was on the cover of seven of the top ten men's magazines in the country.

One glamour photographer had the unique idea to make a film of gorgeous young women going down the Colorado River in a boat and Irish was chosen as one of the athletic nymphets (see River Goddesses link below). As a result, Irish made her film debut at 22-years-old. This was followed by a few walk-on roles on TV shows as the large dumb blonde that tonight show hosts made wise cracks about. A couple of years later she auditioned for the role of Sheena, the Queen of the Jungle, which she eventually won (read the full story on the Audition pages). The combination of the her naive delivery and stunning resemblance to the Fiction House character made her a truly believable jungle goddess and thrust her into the limelight nationally.

Her film and television career following Sheena was sporadic and undistinguished, but did include a few guest appearances on well known TV shows (see the Personal Appearances pages). When she began to gain some success as an artist, her lifelong passion, she didn't need a lot of convincing to abandon her mediocre film career. ("I still hadn't become much of an actress, but I was a very good artist.") The six films listed here are mostly of interest because Irish is in them. To her fans they are coveted treasures giving a rare glimpse of this obscure aspect of her remarkable life.

Click on the images below to read about Irish's films:

River Goddesses
(1952)


	The Queen of the Jungle (1956)


She Demons (1958)


	The Beat Generation (1959)


Five Gates To Hell (1959)


	Five Bold Women (1960)


Hands of a Stranger (1962)

SOURCES
• The photo of Irish on the set of Hands of a Stranger with (from left to right) Ted Otis, Michael du Pont & Paul Lukather is from my private collection
• The photo of Irish on the Colorado River is from Night and Day magazine, Apr 51
• The screenshot from Queen of the Jungle is from my DVD of this film
• The She Demons photo is from my private collection
• The Five Bold Women photo is from my private collection
• The screenshot from the final credits of The Beat Generation is from my DVD of this film
• The screenshot from Five Gates To Hell is from my DVD of this film
• The screenshot from Hands of a Stranger is from the Alpha Video DVD, 2003
LYNX
• Visit the Irish McCalla filmography at the Internet Movie Database