Review: Phyllis Coates: Not Just Lois Lane

Phyllis Coates: Not Just Lois Lane by Bill Cassara
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Event model

In April of 1948 while Phyllis was under contract to Warners, she was assigned with another starlet, Patricia Northrup, for a photo shoot at Toluca Lake. The occasion was for a demonstration of a surfboard powered by batteries, called "The Motorboard." The inventor was Mr. Joe C. Gilpin who invited a publicity crew to document the maiden voyage. What better way than to have two beautiful women showing how it's done? A film crew showed up and Life magazine came to record the occasion. Phyllis was prominently displayed standing and in prone position to navigate the rudderless surf board across the natural lake.

The event drew none other than Harpo Marx...

Phyllis said that the place was packed with service men on leave. They hooted and yelled when Ken Murray would banter with his star performer, Marie Wilson. There were "boob" jokes galore.

Also on the bill was an old-time vaudeville musical artist by the name of Fred Sanborn. He was famous for his eccentric xylophone playing and his mute character. He had originally been one of Ted Healy's Stooges on Broadway along with Larry Fine, Shemp and Moe Howard in the film, Soup to Nuts. "

In later years on TV, The Mary Tyler Moore show, also in a newsroom office setting, Ed Asner (boss to Mary) told Mary that she had a lot of "spunk." Mary took it as a compliment until Asner said, "I hate spunk." If he had worked with Phyllis Coates' "Lois Lane," he would have seen spunk in spades.

In the first year of Adventures of Superman, the Lois Lane character was no "damsel in distress." She got herself in jams, but considered herself self-reliant. Lois often shook off Clark Kent's journalism partnership and even mocked him. She would often ridicule Clark for scurrying away before Superman arrived to save the day.

When Lois Lane enacted her primal screams, it was reaching a decibel level designed to repel dangerous men. That may have been her first line of defense, but Phyllis' Lois Lane was not afraid...

Scream queen Phyllis has been recognized with her distinct shrieks by all discerning viewers of Superman. She has often been compared to Fay Wray (King Kong's reluctant girlfriend). Randy Sadewater compiled a list of Phyllis' screams....

Coates comes across as spunky at least

Death Valley Days (1964)
The Left Hand is Damned was the title of this episode. It had a double meaning harking back to some cultures that the left hand was perceived to be sinister or evil (defined, of course, by right-handed people).

The main antagonist in this is a right-handed cowboy that gets his hand shot up. Phyllis is a saloon girl that witnesses the out-of-town gambler who is shot by the proprietor of the establishment. She scolds him for being insensitive to the badly wounded boy, then helps him recover. The incident did little to quell his anger at the proprietor and instead swells more hate, announcing revenge on him. His right hand incapacitated, he starts practicing shooting with his left hand. The cowboy seeks retribution and thinks he sees his adversary's silhouette through the window. Instead of hitting his intended victim, he shoots Phyllis' character, Dora, in the back. She gives a surprise expression, and then drops down for one of her infrequent death scenes.

I actually viewed this one with Phyllis when it was first released on videotape. She told me, "A whore with a heart, those are the best kind of roles."

It was time for Phyllis' daughter, Christopher, to go to college and she chose the University of Oregon. She came back with a new sense of self-awareness and embraced the woman's liberation movement. Not impressed, Phyllis told her: "I've been liberated my whole life."

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