The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 158

A ILroimg, Tall, C1 (Dune By HARVEY PACK NEW YORK Tall, beautiful girls have been a show business staple since Ziegfeld's day, and if the doll can act she'll never have to make an appearance at the unemployment office. Hollywood casting directors are currently filling the demand for such roles with a 5'10" redhead who was raised (and we mean raised) in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and actually went west because some desperate producer sent out -a call for a "big, beautiful girl who is smart and can act dumb." That was three years ago and Barbara Rhoades has been a luscious filmland decoration ever since. Barbara began studying dancing at age seven before she discovered she would zoom up and be a bit large for a prima ballerina. By the time she was eleven and looking down on classmates of both sexes, Miss Rhoades was an accomplished dancer who knew she could make it professionally even without ballet She left Poughkeepsie as soon as she finished high school, came to New York to look for work, and was immediately accepted as a TV. showgirl.

There were no broken hearts back home because the local boys had always been in awe of the statuesque redhead. Dates were so tough to come by that she had to ask the boy. next door to take her to the senior prom. This social condition has been more than corrected since her arrival in New York. Her first regular job was in Ann Corio's "This Was Burlesque," where, for $185 a week, she did burlesque sketches.

"We did shows from Friday to she recalled. "If we got a one hour break, the entire cast fell exhausted to the theater's floor and slept. But sixty minutes later we were smiling, undressing and dancing whatever our contract called for." An opening for a tall showgirl in "Funny Girl" landed Barbara her first "legit" show, and she figures her year in that musical plus the Corio troupe qualifies her as a veteran. Between shows she landed a spot on just about every TV chorus line which could accommodate a tall beauty. "There was another girl in town my height and if one worked so did the other," she explained.

"You know how lines always scale -down with the tall girls in the middle. Well, if both of us were cast the dance director was able to use us as center posts. In Sammy Davis' TV program, they used the two of us to -flank Sammy because he's short." Then came the summons from Hollywood to play the "big, dumb girl" opposite Robert Wagner in "Don't Just Stand There," which resulted in a contract with Universal. While in bondage, she appeared in "Shakiest Gun in the West" with Don Knotts plus many Universal TV productions. "The problem is you gel fat and lazy under contract.

If there's no call you can stay in bed all day and I did." Now that she's out from Although some actors feel dwarfed by Barbara Rhodes, the five-foot-ten redhead will be no threat to Raymond Burr on "Ironside" since he plays the series in a wheelchair. "Ironside" is aired on Thursdays on NBC-TV at 8:30 p.m. under the contract, we cannot testify as to her laziness, but if she's still fat the flesh is very well placed. She carries her height beautifully, and when she swept out of the restaurant after lunch, male heads swiveled attentively, following her every move. Barbara admits that some leading men balk at appearing on screen with her because they feel audiences might assume they are short because the leading lady is the same height.

But in spite of this drawback, Barbara Rhoades is very much in demand and has been accepted by Actor's Studio West for this January's session. Her biggest film to date, "There Was a Crooked Man," starring Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda, will be released in the spring. In that flick Barbara, educated in parochial schools, does a nude scene. "It's primarily played for comedy, and at, the end of it, when I run across the desert bare, they used a double. When I told my mother that I think it eased the shock." Copyright by TV Key Distributed by King Features Syndicate a at a.