Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Another Side of "Honey West" Actress, Anne Francis








“The Seed of each of us takes different form as we, millions of fragments of the One, respond to Its warmth. Though our experiences be different, I salute you in that Oneness that embraces us all.” ~Anne Francis, from the Introduction to her book, Voices From Home, An Inner Journey.

Anne Francis, known for her acting roles in classic movies such as Bad Day at Black Rock, Forbidden Planet, Blackboard Jungle, and star of the TV program Honey West died Sunday at the age of 80. She won the Golden Globe in 1965 as the Most Popular Female Personality for her role as Honey West, the first female PI in a TV series. The TV series was based a series of detective novels written by G. G. Fickling, pseudonym for Forrest and Gloria Fickling, a husband and wife writing team of the 1950s-60s.

I’ve not read the novels but I thought of the type of sexy detective novels such as those written by my friend Richard S. Prather and his Shell Scott PI series of best selling books of the ’50-60s. And apparently the Ficklings were friends of Prather.

The Honey West character was sexy, and Anne had a sultry look and a distinctive beauty mark she was known for, but she also took on the bad guys with her expertise with a gun and karate. She also had a pet ocelot. The TV series was on for 30 episodes, 1965-66, with Aaron Spelling as Executive Producer.

In 1983, I had the opportunity of seeing Anne Francis at the Santa Barbara’s Writer Conference. It was there that I discovered she had also written a book, a book a lot of people do not know of. I had found her book very interesting, and when I heard of her death Sunday, I pulled the book from my bookshelf. It is called Voices From Home, An Inner Journey and was published in 1982 by Celestial Arts.




Anne Francis writes that her book is not a book about hidden skeletons, and name revealing dalliances but is far more intimate and she calls the book her spiritual expose. On the cover flap she wrote: “It is about our essence of being, the inexplicable reality of mysticism, psychic phenomena, and the inner workings of mind and spirit which contribute to the growth of the invisible and the most important part of us; hidden from the glare of lights and the camera’s eye.”

It really is a fascinating book of unexpected subjects: spirituality, love, contact with the other side, life and death, the mind and energy, creating our lives, and spiritual growth and enlightenment.

I very much enjoyed reading her book, and obviously I still remember the book as it immediately came to mind when I heard of her death.

I do hope her daughters, Jane and Margaret, will consider putting their mother’s book back in print and ebook format so it can be shared again.

~Linda




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