PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
Actress Sandra Dee was most famous for her roles in “Gidget" and
“Tammy and the Doctor." Dee died Sunday from kidney disease.
‘Gidget’ actress
Sandra Dee dies
By BOB THOMAS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Actress Sandra
Dee, the blond beauty who attracted a
large teen audience in the 1960s with
films such as “Gidget” and “Tammy
and the Doctor” and had a headlined
marriage to pop singer Bobby Darin,
died Sunday. She was 63
Dee died at 5:57 a.m. at the Los
Robles Hospital & Medical Center in
Thousand Oaks, said Cynthia Mead,
nursing supervisor.
She died of complications from
kidney disease after nearly two weeks
in the hospital, said Steve Blauner, a
longtime family friend who represents
Darin’s estate. Blauner said Dee had
been on dialysis for about four years.
“She didn’t have a bad bone in her
body,” he told The Associated Press
in a phone interview. “When she was
a big star in the pictures and a top five
at the box office, she treated the grip
the exact same way she treated the
head of the studio. She meant it. She
wasn’t phony.”.
The family expected to hold
private funeral services.
At Universal Studios, Dee was cast
mostly in teen movies such as “The
Reluctant Debutante,”l“The Restless
Years,” “Tammy Tell Me True” and
“Take Her She’s Mine.”
Occasionally, she was able to do
secondary roles in other films, such as
“Imitation of Life,” “A Portrait In
Black” and “Romanoff and Juliet.”
After a one-month courtship, Dee
married Darin in Elizabeth, N.J., in
1960. A son, Dodd Mitchell, was
born to the couple the following year.
In 1965, with her divorce from
Darin dampening her teen appeal,
Dee was dropped by Universal.
“I thought they were my friends,”
she said in an interview that year with
The Associated Press, referring to her
former bosses. “But I found out on
the last picture (‘A Man Could Get
Killed’) that I was simply a piece of
property to them. I begged them not
to make me do the picture, but they
insisted.”
Born Alexandra Zuck on April 23,
1941, in Bayonne, N.J., Dee became
a model while in grade school.
In a mid-career interview with Tht
Associated Press, she explained her
name change: “I used to sign
vouchers and sign-out sheets with
‘Alexandra Dee.’ Somehow it stuck.”
When she was signed to her first film,
she said, “‘Sandra Dee’ was the name
they gave me.”
CD REVIEW
Trio’s ‘Sunrise1 packs precision, punch
“Sunrise Over Sea”
John Butler Trio
★★★out of ☆☆☆☆☆
By chas McCarthy
THE GAMECOCK
On “Sunrise Over Sea,” the
John Butler Trio showcases its
musical prowess with the
captivating command of
instruments and landscape of
musical styles that seems to be
missing from the majority of
today’s mainstream music scene.
Widely known in the jam-band
circuit, the Trio has established
itself in the music industry with a
healthy grassroots following By
touring heavily, performing before
huge audiences at the Bonnaroo
Music Festival and receiving
critical acclaim for previous
albums like “Three.”
“Sunrise Over Sea” harnesses
multiple influences, from blues and
zydeco to folk, funk and the
aboriginal music of Australia to
create a hybrid form of rock ‘n’ roil.
Butler’s guitar playing, as polished
and precision-tuned as ever on
tracks like “Damned To Hell,”
“Zebra” and “Mist,” is responsible
for distinguishing sounds and
styles, but the power behind the
band’s music lies within the
drumming of Michael Barker and
bass playing of Shannon Birchall.
“Sunrise” should serve as the
foundation for much promising
music to come from the John
BuderTrio.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu
■ CHOCOLATE
Continued from page 5
research, Harold Schmitz,
insisted that Mars has invested
tens of millions of dollars into
cocoa and flavanol studies to
“make sure the story is right in a
sustainable way,” noting that all
of Mars’ studies have been peer
reviewed and are replicable.
“We really get concerned
when we see the truncated
headline 'health chocolate,’” he
said. “We’re concerned because
the science does not support
chocolate as ‘healthy.’ The
science supports the claims that
certain types of cocoa or certain
types of chocolate can make a
contribution to cardiovascular
health.
“Most cardiologists would
agree that nitric oxide is the
central paradigm and we can .
quantify that. So we at least have
a starting point to do dose
response studies (in humans).
The world of science will be
hearing from Mars and our
research collaborators on studies
directly addressing this over the
next two years,” Schmitz said.
GO AHEAD, ENJOY
The bottom line is, chocolate
is not a necessity, but it is
certainly an enjoyable part of
our diet. The universal advice,
everything in moderation,
applies quite well to this
delicious food.”
There always will be those
willing to give their right
ventricle for a sublime truffle that
tickles their taste buds. In the
future, however, the rest of us
might not have to compromise
taste for health benefits.
New Music for the week of February 21
%
“The Beekeeper”
Tori Amos
“The Cosmic Game”
Thievery Corporation
“Aha Shake Heartbreak”
Kings of Leon
Metropolitan Hotel
Cliely Wright
lvasnville
Tosh Rouse
‘Praying Time”
Blind Boys of Alabama
lAtzm mm ♦ mzzy Bom
Layzie Bone & Bizzy Bone
“Awake is the New Sleep”
Ben Lee
“Fast Car Danger Fire & Knives”
Aesop Rock