Raquel Welch

We’ve had a few comments asking for a post on the passing of Raquel Welch, so here you go.

Welch was Hollywood’s It Girl from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, deviating from the stereotypical blonde template for that unofficial position (Her maiden name was Tejada, as her father was a Bolivian of Spanish descent).

The first and only pinup poster I ever bought in my life was of Welch draped in an American flag; this must have been around 1972 when I was 12, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t interested in her in the most obvious way at that point; I just thought it was a cool-looking poster (I remember my mother considered it rather inappropriate). I bought it at a place next to the University of Michigan’s central campus called Middle Earth, which I suspect was what back in the day was known as a head shop (I didn’t get the Tolkien reference at the time, either).

Anyway . . . It’s interesting that for a long time Raquel Welch was a go-to cultural reference for classic Hollywood bombshell, given that she really didn’t make very many movies, and as far as I can tell none of them were particularly successful, either critically or commercially. In fact in looking over her filmography I’m struck by the fact that I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a film she was in, although I may have seen bits and pieces of Fantastic Voyage on TV way back when.

My final bit of arcana regarding this topic is that Welch tested for the role of Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island, but didn’t get it, probably because wholesome farm girl really wasn’t her vibe.

RIP