Patty Duke as "Billie": Role Model or Sell-out? The Cultural Controversy Explored

ALBANY, Ga. - July 6, 2015 - PRLog --
Billie, a 1965 sort-of-musical film directed by Don Weis, touched on topics that were daring for the Sandra Dee era. Looking back today, we have to wonder: was the fifteen-year-old tomboy with a passion for running track a role model or a sell out?

Albany, Ga. – BearManor Media announces the release of Patty Duke as “Billie” Role Model or Sell-Out? The Cultural Controversy Explored by Gary Gerani and Casey Bond. Commentary by Patty Duke.

Billie features Academy Award-winning actress Patty Duke, with Jim Backus (Mr. Magoo, Gilligan’s Island), Warren Berlinger, Bill De Wolfe, DickSargent (Bewitched), Richard Deacon (Hogan’s Heroes, Family Feud), and even Broadway veteran Donna McKechnie (A Chorus Line) in an unaccredited role as a dancer.

A  turgid drama of gossips, criticism, and a scandalous pregnancy, the film veers into semi-musical format when Patty, who had scored two chart-making hits, “Don’t Just Stand There” and “Say Something Funny,” sings several new songs. But what appears on the surface as a featherweight teenage romp is in reality a hotbed for social and political debate.

Patty Duke’s Billie is celebrating its 50th birthday as a pop culture oddity, and there’s no better time to explore this neo-musical’s unique thesis on social change, political activism, and gender identification disorder . . . all to the infectious beat of mid-1960s rock and roll.

Authors/debaters Gary Gerani and Casey Bond take readers through every stage of Billie, from its beginnings as Broadway’s celebrated Time Out for Ginger to its current status as a cult classic. Along the way, social experts and college professors weigh in with their views pertaining to this study’s central question: is super-athlete Billie a role model for feminism or, because of her final, fateful, give-up-sports-and-put-on-that-pink-dress decision, a betrayer of same? Even Billie herself, Patty Duke, shares her thoughts on the subject.

In addition to thematic analysis and behind-the-scenes revelations, many never before published photographs add to the overall fun of Patty Duke as Billie: Role Model or Sell-Out?  So, get in the game, readers, and take a stand!

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Available exclusively from BearManor Media in hardback, paperback, and e-book editions. 8 chapters filled with large-size illustrations from the author’s personal collection, including portraits, publicity photos, scene stills, lobby cards, posters, and notes about all 81 films. Indexed.

About BearManor Media: The award-winning and Pulitzer-nominated press publishes cutting-edge entertainment books, audio books, e-books, CDs, and DVDs on movies, television, radio, theater, animation, and more. Founded in 2001 by Publisher Ben Ohmart, the BearManor Media catalog now features more than 600 outstanding subjects from the obscure to the eminent. Visit www.bearmanormedia.com

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