Somewhere in the desert of Southern California in the late 1950s, Mynx Devlin, left, star of They Came in Outer Space, questioning the obvious conflicting direction she’s been given by director Fredward D. Woodcock and producer Herbert W. Zoozman, right. Miss Devlin was notorious for coming out of her dressing room or trailer naked just to get what she called “a rise out of the guys”. A live interview with Mynx.
Hear Mynx Devlin for the first time in a live interview behind-the-scenes on the set of “They Came in Outer Space!” Herbert W. Zoozman did not want this interview released to the public. Click Here!
Mynx’s remarkable career has spanned almost six decades, and her own memory of her work (especially the early work) is a bit dim. Here are some highlights:
Born October 19, 1929. Mother a member of the “Kansas City Rockets” (later Rockettes) dance troupe. Father unknown (possibly Franklin “Doc” Hazzard, adventurer-filmmaker)
1931 — Mother quits stage, moves to Hollywood. Mynx makes movie debut in “The Sodbuster Foundling,” a Tom Mix western.
1932 — Mother in bizarre murder/suicide with lover (Comedian “Slatz” Randall) Mynx taken in by cowboy extra “Rootin’ Tootin‘” Hooten, raised by a group of “Gower Gulch Godfathers” — cowboy extras also known as the “Hollywood Posse“
1934 – Becomes a member of the “Reg’lar Kids“, a cheesy “Our Gang” rip-off. Makes approximately 32 short films in one year, when Producer goes bankrupt.
1939 — Plays a munchkin in “Wizard of Oz“
1942-45 — The “SPIDER GAL” movies. Mynx stars as “Spider Gal“, a kind of bad girl/vampire. 8 films total. The last, “Spider Gal’s Tokyo Adventure!” features a rehabilitated Spider Gal sent to Tokyo to inject Tojo with an “atomic peace serum.”
1946-52 — THE FILM NOIR YEARS. Mynx stars in a series of unforgettable black and white “noir” epics that re-defined the genre, and burned her visage into the subconscious minds of a generation of embittered war vets. Films include: “Jive Crazy!”, “A Bullet for Peggy,” “Thrill Queen!”, “Home Wrecker!”, “Hell is a Female!”, “The Other Woman,” “The Big Heist,” and “My Gun is Big.”
In 1952, Mynx was an unfriendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Blacklisted, she moved to Mexico, where she made two movies in five years — “Wrestling Girls of Skull Island,” and “Planet of Love,” a 3-D “Catwomen of the Moon” clone masterminded by other blacklisted expatriate Americans.
In 1958, Mynx meets Herbert W. Zoozman, the only Producer with the courage to use her, despite of the blacklist. (It helped that he was madly in love with her, and that his films flew so far under the “radar-screen” of the mainstream movie business that no one could hurt him)
She married and divorced from Zoozman three times from 1958-69. Some of their films from this period include:
1958 — “Jungle Vixen” (also released as “The Bamboo Bimbo”, “Tramp of the Tropics” “Safari She-Devil”, “Gorilla My Dreams” and “Forbidden Lust”)
1959 — “Destroy All Teenagers” (Zoozman’s attempt to make Lounge Legend Frank “Fling-A-Ding” Diamond a rock and roll star)
1961 — “They Came In Outer Space”
1962 — “THE SWINGIN’ ASTRONAUT!” — Frank Diamond as “Elvis’s Long Lost Twin” Features “Do the Turkey Jerky!”, other non-hits.
1965 — “THE GLORY WANTERS!” — Thinly veiled bio-pic of Zoozman, starring Zoozman as himself.
1967 — “Tinseltown Confidential” (re-release of “The Glory Wanters”) 1967 — “FREAK-OUT ON HAIGHT-ASHBURY STREET!” — Written, produced, edited, and released in two and a half weeks during the “Summer of Love.”
1969 — “Lusty Love-In”
1969 — “Wife-Swappers On Pot!”
1969 — “Hot Harley Honeys” (re-released as “Hells Belles” and “Lesbo Motor Mamas”)
1969 saw a final, 10 day, catastrophic divorce from Mr. Zoozman, and what Mynx herself calls her “dark night of the soul.” She gave up alcohol, got into A.A., and bought a tavern in Hollywood, …where Zoozman still runs his film business from a back booth on Tuesdays and alternate Thursdays.
When she wasn’t filming a movie, Mynx Devlin, pictured here, enjoyed sitting at home in her backyard, smoking. In an early 1960′s game show appearance, she listed her interests as “sewing my own clothes, coming up with new hair-do’s for myself, and trying to remember how many cats I have and all of their names.” Miss Devlin rarely spoke publicly about her three separate marriages to Herbert W. Zoozman, but it is generally conceded that the marriage had more bad days than good days, not counting, of course, the days spent in court.
