Alabama Boogie
SORRY, GUYS, SHE'S TAKEN We've gone from Bogart & Bacall to Britney & Whoever She Got Drunk with Last Night. Fortunately, admirers of classic couples can take comfort in this 4th of July. The beaches of Malibu will host one of the great showbiz marriages of all timespecifically, the nuptials of Frank Gorshin and Haji.
These two would be legends just for their respective roles in Invasion of the Saucer Men and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Of course, both went on to even more amazing work: Gorshin's appearances as the Riddler on Batman launched a continuing career as an actor and nightclub performer, while Haji kept at it in Russ Meyer productions while also gracing unforgettable films ranging from Demonoid to John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
"I wanted to get married on the 4th of July," Haji explains, "so my friends who couldn't be at the wedding would still be celebrating." New Yorkers should also be raising a glass, if only because the relationship survived Gorshin's stint as George Burns in the Broadway production of Say Goodnight, Gracie.
"We've been together for four years," Haji recalls, "and I had no idea things would go this far. When he was in New York for a year, I was flying in and out, and it was a little rocky. It reminded me of why I'd never dated actors. Directors and producers tended to be my favorites. I always thought that dating actors was looking for trouble."
It's a storybook ending to a romance that began with a little girl watching Gorshin on The Ed Sullivan Show"There was a lot of sex appeal there"and leading to the two meeting during an autograph show.
"Frank was there," recalls Haji, "and I think he's at the age where he knows what he likes. I was more nervous about being seriously involved. I'm a homebody. I love to cook, and keep a beautiful home, and bodysurf and water-ski and boogie board. He liked those qualities. I think he liked that most of my music collection is from the 40s and 50s."
It was also likely that Gorshin had once drooled over young Haji. As it turns out, though, the future Mr. Haji had missed out on his lady's work. "He learned quickly," Haji adds. "There's a book called oh, something like The 200 Most Glamorous Women in the World. When he saw me in that, he went wild. I said to him, 'You're going with one of the world's greatest pin-up girls.' I don't even know what that means, but I wanted to keep him on his toes. I always remind him that I'm his pin-up girl." o