- published: 03 May 2007
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Joi Lansing (April 6, 1928 – August 7, 1972) was an American model, film and television actress, as well as a nightclub singer. She was noted for her pin-up photos and minor roles in B-movies.
Lansing was born Joy Brown in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1928 to Jack Glenn Brown, a shoe salesman, and Virginia Grace (née Shupe) Brown, a housewife. She would later be known as Joyce Wassmansdorff, which was the surname of her stepfather. In 1940, the family moved to Los Angeles. She began modeling in her teens, and, aged 14, was signed to a contract at MGM. She completed high school on the studio lot.
A model and actress, Lansing was often cast in roles similar to those played by her contemporaries, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. She was frequently clad in skimpy costumes and bikinis that accentuated her attractive figure, but never posed nude. Lansing practiced yoga for relaxation. A Mormon, she did not drink or smoke.
Lansing's film career began in 1948, and, in 1952, she played an uncredited role in MGM's Singin' in the Rain. She received top billing in Hot Cars (1956). In the opening sequence of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958), she appeared as Zita, the dancer who dies at the end of the famous first tracking shot, during which her character exclaims to a border guard, "I keep hearing this ticking noise inside my head!" Lansing had a brief role as an astronaut's girlfriend in the 1958 sci-fi classic Queen of Outer Space. During the 1960s, she starred in short musical films for the Scopitone video-jukebox system. Her songs included "The Web of Love" and "The Silencers".
Hey Girl
It's a pity that you went this way
So full of doubt and the chemicals they filled you with
You sacrificed with the vices that preyed on your trust
And who was with you when the bottom fell?
It was not for her... Julianna Sang
Now she'll trade it in
Time to turn off the lights
Were you desperate darling
When you smiled and said goodbye?
It could'a been so different if you just held on
But who am I to say that you were wrong
It only seems that at 19, it wasn't your time
But no warning lable spelt suicide.
~It was not for her, but her mind was made, blazing chariots, Julianna Sang~
It's no secret, you're not to blame, alone.
For what it matters, you're not to blame, alone.
When you're sick and tired of being fed up....