Irish McCalla - The Final Years

IRISH McCALLA - THE FINAL YEARS
Page 5: Conclusion

I began my introduction on the Irish McCalla Biography Intro page by saying that Irish appeared to have led a charmed life because she seemed to have a knack for succeeding at things without really trying. After writing this account of her recurring illnesses and her numerous operations I feel tempted to revise that passage.

On balance, however, I would have to say that Irish McCalla was an extremely fortunate individual. Firstly, the looks that she was blessed with opened numerous doors for her throughout her life. She once said of her amazing form, "Honey, a figure like mine is like having too much money." (Glamour Girls) This is a fairly uncharacteristic comment for Irish, who normally adopted a modest and unostentatious disposition when discussing her attributes. I think the point that she was trying to make was that having a lot of money, or stunning good looks, are similar in that many of the obstacles faced by the average person are diminished because of their presence.

In an editorial she wrote for one of the AC Comics publications in 1994 she said: "And of course, if I have a bad day, I just open the biography on me (written by Black and Feret) to any page at all and say, 'Hot darn! I was good!' Instantly I feel better." In this statement she sounds a little like an old musician or actor reminiscing about their heyday - saddened by the loss of their distinctive endowments, but proudly thankful for the opportunity to have affected the lives of other people.

It would be very easy to dismiss Irish as "just another pretty face", but nothing could be further from the truth.

Her upbringing in a large rural family endowed her with many traits that distinguished her from other good-looking girls - she was assertive, confident, resourceful, and persevering. These down-to-earth characteristics, however, were balanced by others that were obviously developed in an environment where sharing and caring were emphasised, for she was also tolerant, compassionate, empathetic and generous of spirit. One recurring comment that you frequently encounter from people who knew Irish well was that she never said a bad word about anybody. Growing up in a household with three brothers and four sisters had taught her much about accepting the idiosyncrasies and imperfections of others (see the Childhood page).

But Irish's personality was endowed with another unusual feature, and that was her artistic temperament. This made her observant, sensitive, imaginative and discriminating, and these traits impacted on most of the enterprises she tackled.

We don't normally think of glamour models as being endowed with a strong aesthetic sense, but a perusal of Irish's work as a glamour model suggests that she had an innate ability to pose. Like Bettie Page, the famous pin-up queen who could do no wrong in front of a lens, Irish was relaxed, confident, and completely aware of what she was doing and what was required of her. She exuded sexuality without resorting to little-girl cutesiness or bawdy vulgarity. And this is an interesting paradox. Irish McCalla, one of the most beautiful and sexy women of the Twentieth Century, was also a role model for chaste decorum. She lived her life by strong moral principles, and those principles included a knowledge of exactly where the dividing line was between sexual magnetism and crass exploitation (see the Modelling page and the Magazine Galleries).

Irish also applied her artistic sensibilities to the role of Sheena, as discussed on the Filming in Mexico page. She objected to the hackneyed portrayal of the African tribesmen in the series and instituted the use of Swahili phrases into the scripts, instead of comic-book style ooga booga language. As discussed on Page 2: The Personal Appearances Circuit - Again, of this section, she also drew on her sense of aesthetics to match people with property in her real estate career.

I embarked on this project to create a tribute to Irish because her beauty haunted me for many years, as explained on the Sheena Queen of the Jungle Intro page. It was her physical appearance that made me seek out more information about her, but I was unprepared for what I found. As I read interview after interview with Irish I realised that she was not just a dumb, large-breasted blonde. This was a description I was ready to accept when she was merely a sexy cypher floating around in my indistinct childhood memories. The fact that she was a kind, witty, intelligent, unpretentious and scrupulous woman impressed me immensely. My childhood dream girl was also a person of substance. So to say that beauty inspired this tribute is not completely accurate, for it was really the combination of beauty and character. My "fantasy figure" turned out to be someone solidly grounded in the world of benevolent humanity.

But there is really only one person responsible for that revelation, and that is Irish herself. She was truly a unique individual. Some of her photographs still take my breath away, but now my appreciation is tempered by respect and admiration. Thank you Irish.

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FINAL YEARS INTRO

SOURCES
• Wikipedia online encyclopedia
• Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
• Irish of the Jungle magazine, written and edited by Bill Black, Paragon Publications 2003
IMAGES
• The photo of Irish at a fan convention holding an early photo of herself as Sheena is from my private collection
• The photo of Irish as Sheena was generously donated by Frank Bonilla
LYNX
• Read a comprehensive filmography of Dick Simmons at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

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