By Dave Weekley
News over the weekend broke that filmmaker Tim Burton‘s has found a star for his remake of the 1958 B-movie classic “Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman” in Margo Robbie. According to Variety, Robbie is in early conversations to join the movie that will be produced for Warner Brothers.
The plot line of “Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman” involves an heiress who, after an alien encounter, suddenly becomes large and in charge and eventually exacts revenge on her cheating husband and new girlfriend. Not exactly Oscar material.
So, why is this story of interest to West Virginians?
Well, I’m guessing that there’s a very good chance you may not be aware that the star of the original 1958 film was from our state.
Allison Hayes, was born Mary Jane Hayes, in Charleston in 1930. She appeared in twenty-six movies and 32 different TV shows.
Allison’s dad was in the Navy and her mom was a homemaker. She took piano lessons in Charleston at the age of five and was winning contests soon after.
The Hayes family relocated to Washington DC when she was a teenager and she won the Miss District of Columbia title in the summer of 1949 and was considered to be the favorite to win the Miss America pageant.
She was modeling in Miami in 1952, when she was spotted by a talent agent for Warner Brothers, that led to a screen test and while Warner was deciding what to do about her, Universal-International swooped in and signed Hayes to a seven-year contract.
With the ink still wet on the deal with Universal, Hayes, who had never been inside a movie studio or met a real movie director, found herself playing one of the wives of ‘Attila the Hun’ starring Jack Palance, one of the first entertainment celebrities she would be romantically linked to in her career. Universal also changed her name for some reason, so Mary Jane Hayes became Alllison Hayes from that first film forward.
Hayes’ career arc took a turn when her agent, Jack Pomeroy, got her a meeting with the legendary Cecil B. deMille at Paramount. deMille was amazed that Hayes looked so much like a drawing he made for the character of ‘Saphorah’ the wife of Moses for in his upcoming movie “The Ten Commandments.” But when deMille found out that Hayes was under contract with Universal – International, talks broke off and her agent was temporarily barred from the Paramount lot. Yvonne DeCarlo eventually got the part in “The Ten Commandments” and Hayes never really was able to break out of the B-move world.
“Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman” was made for only $88,000 and while the effects are cheesy, the acting is pretty good. Allison Hayes’ last movie appearance was in Elvis Presley’s“Tickle Me” in 1965.
Her TV credits are impressive. Hayes had a recurring role on Bat Masterson, multiple appearances on Perry Mason, Raymond Burr was one of her close friends, two years on General Hospital and she did a pair of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.’s, where she was Sgt. Carter’s former girlfriend, Rose. Her second appearance on Gomer Pyle would be her last time on television in 1967.
A Charleston native, Allison Hayes died in 1977, at the young age of 46, following complications involving health supplements she had been taking since the early sixties that were eventually found to have extremely dangerous levels of lead.
Allison Hayes, who’s beauty and acting skills made her seem larger than life on the big screen. That seems appropriate for the West Virginian who was the original star of “Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman.”