Caroline Ellis

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It has recently come to my attention that a childhood idol of mine, Caroline Ellis, was in “Confessions from a Holiday Camp” and I had not even recognized her when I watched it for my review! Granted, I wasn’t really paying attention to the girls, as my attention was mostly on Robin.

Caroline Ellis played “Joy” the sweet, happy, singing butterfly in Sid and Marty Krofft’s 1970 children’s show The Bugaloos.

I caught it in re-runs in 1977 when I was 8 and was enchanted by her and her pink outfit. I remember really REALLY wanting that costume for Halloween that year, but as I always seem to be a bit behind the times, it just wasn’t available. She was so sweet, so happy and so nice! You couldn’t ask for a better role model for a little girl, eh?



Little did I know that very year she was filming stuff like:

Ha ha. I watched Holiday Camp again and recognized her straight away, now that I was looking for her. Oh yes, that’s her all right. Wonder why I didn’t recognize her the first time. Probably the bad Birmingham accent threw me off. Her normal voice was like a sweet melody. So funny how all my childhood idols keep crossing paths. I would have never imagined a correlation between Robin Askwith and the Bugaloos! And here’s another I found while looking her up on Wikipedia – she shares his birthday of Oct 12, 1950!

I have shown my son all the Krofft shows and he wasn’t very impressed by the Bugaloos, unfortunately, although he liked the others like “Pufnstuf” and “Land of the Lost”. I can boast that I do have the Bugaloos record album and love their groovy music! Caroline Ellis should have gone on to have a singing career.

I see she also did another kids show called “Freewheelers” in 1972, that I’d not heard of:

I couldn’t find any photos of her as she looks today. All Wikipedia could offer was: “Ellis no longer acts. She is divorced and the mother of a daughter, Sasha. Today, Ellis is an estate agent and lives in Spain with her daughter.”

Anyway, viewing Holiday Camp again and watching the characters other than Robin this time had me thinking how nice young women looked back in the early 70s. Slim, natural, no orangey spray tans or black-and-blue tattoos covering their backs and arms. Why is trashy “in” these days? Don’t guys prefer a cleaner look on a girl?

Anyway, I also really liked this Bugaloo, he was hot. Can you see Robin in this role?

:)

Phoebe “Vanessa” Shaw

Last time I mentioned this co-star of Robin’s in “Horror Hospital” and that got me wondering if she had done any other movies. It turns out she was in just a few, and they were all during that same time period as HH. Guess HH was her biggest role, the others seem to be brief, no-character-name appearances. This one was the easiest to view:

The File of the Golden Goose – 1969
Yul Brynner stars as U.S. Secret Service agent Peter Novak in Sam Wanamaker's London-based thriller. Novak goes undercover with Scotland Yard officer Thompson (Edward Woodward) to halt a murderous gang of counterfeiters known as the Golden Goose. Although Peter is unsure about John's loyalties, the two infiltrate the gang and win the trust of thug Nick "The Owl" Harrison (Charles Gray) before enduring a series of double-crosses.

Netflix had it on its “Play instantly” list, so I quickly scanned through each frame on my computer until I spotted her playing a dancing hippie in some party scene which Yul Brynner bursts in and breaks up. No talking part, but she does do a good “Horror Hospital” esque scream!