YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL

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    JUDY TYLER - A Life Cut Short

She appeared opposite Elvis Presley, as "Peggy Van Alden, in the movie "Jailhouse Rock." Flipping through the channels, I ended up watching a bit of this 1957 movie today. Judy was 25 at the time. Elvis was 22. And as I often do, I looked her up on IMDB for further information. What I discovered was both inestimably sad and equally shocking. I have posted a short bio of Ms. Tyler's life, below. I think no one can account for such tragedies in a life, especially a life so young as hers.

Her father was a trumpeter with bands such as Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman, and her mother was a former Ziegfeld Follies dancer. Judy studied ballet, music, and acting, won a "Miss Stardust" beauty contest in 1949, danced with the Copacabana chorus line. and was making bit appearances on television while still in high school. At age 17, she landed the part of Princess Summerfall Winterspring on the The Howdy Doody Show (1947) children's TV show, where she stayed for two years before resigning.

She returned to stage work and was "rediscovered" in a play in 1956, "Pipe Dream", which landed her on the cover of "Life" magazine. She made two films, the last as Elvis Presley's co-star, Jailhouse Rock (1957). Three days after shooting completed, she and her second husband were driving home from Los Angeles to New York when he swerved to avoid hitting a truck and collided with another vehicle; she was dead at the scene. (Of course, Elvis followed her twenty years later).

Ironically, the closing song in the movie "Jailhouse Rock" has Presley singing to Judy Tyler. The song... "Young and Beautiful."

You're so young and beautiful and I love you so

Your lips so red, your eyes that shine

Shame the stars that glow

So fill these lonely arms of mine

And kiss me tenderly

Then you'll be forever young

And beautiful to me

She is forever young and beautiful.