Marriage To Newsman Aids Pamela Tiffin's Press Relations

Another interesting interview with Ms. Tiffin, circa 1966:

Pamela Tiffin’s relations with the press have improved in the last three years. In 1962 the pretty young actress married, Clay Felker, a newspaperman.

            Pamela, currently starring with Paul Newman and Robert Wagner in “The Moving Target” at Warner Bros., admits that when she made her motion picture debut in “Summer and Smoke” she was ill at ease during interviews and bridled at the sound of the word “publicity”.

“At the time I pushed reticence,” she now confesses. “I felt that my personal thoughts and actions were my own and the concern of no one else. It wasn’t my idea to appear aloof, but I’m afraid that was the way I struck many people.”

            Her marriage to Felker, a working member of the Fourth Estate, changed all that.

            “But slowly,” admits Pamela, with a smile. “I found out from Clay that a certain part of an actress’ life belongs to the people who buy tickets to see her in the theatre. When I learned about ‘news’, what makes a ‘story’, I lost much of my self-consciousness. I still may not be the perfect interview but I really try to co-operate.

            Publicity, Pamela now feels, is an integral part of a player’s life.

            “Unless, of course, one is Garbo,” she adds with a smile. “But there are areas which I feel are closed as far as I am concerned. These include details of my home life. And, positively, no art for the play-play magazines for jaded males.

            When a screen role demands that Pamela wear brief attire, she goes along with it.

            “But the wardrobe – or lack of it – must be in context with the part I’m playing and the dramatic action,” she continued.

            In “The Moving Target” Pamela is seen as a wayward socialite, out to entrap the personable males she encounters.

            I go after Robert Wagner and Paul Newman while wearing a brief bikini. The girl is shameless,” Pamela admits. “To convey her character I could hardly play her in an outfit that would cover me from ankles to ears.”

Notes: "The Moving Target" was re-titled "Harper" for U.S. release.