Cynthia Myers – BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS Star Dead at 61

“There’s juice freaks, and pill freaks, and then everybody’s a freak! What you need is grass or a downer or something!”….Cynthia Myers (as Casey Anderson) in BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

Voted “10th most popular Playmate of the Century” by Playboy Magazine, Miss December 1968 was always number one to the many fans of Russ Meyer’s 1970 cult epic BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. Cynthia Myers was just 17 when she shot her Playboy spread. Hef’s policy at the time was that a model had to be 18 for his magazine, so they didn’t publish the photos until after her birthday. She was still a Catholic high school girl when the issue came out and the nuns were so upset at her baring her substantial assets, they refused to let her graduate with the rest of her class. Though originally from Toledo Ohio, her pictorial was titled “Holy Toledo!” for different reasons. Her role as Casey Anderson, member of the girl band The Carrie Nations in BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS was her only substantial film role but it was enough to cement her cult film immortality. Originally intended as a sequel to the 1967 film VALLEY OF THE DOLLS – “dolls” being a slang term for anti-depressant pills – BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, written by Roger Ebert, was instead revised as a parody of the commercially successful but critically reviled original. Ms Myers can be heard on the BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS DVD as an optional audio commentary along with with co-star “dolls” Dolly Reid and Marcia McBroom. Myers also had small roles in the Hammer adventure LOST CONTINENT, as well as THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’T THEY and MOLLY AND LAWLESS JOHN. I met Ms Myer here in St. Louis about two years ago at the Atomic Cowboy where she was promoting Schlitz Beer on their nostalgic Summer of ’69 tour. She looked fantastic and seemed healthy, so her death comes as a big surprise, at least to me.

There’s not much on the web at this time and nothing about the cause of her death at such a young age, but there’s a nice bio of her by Steve Sullivan (author of Glamour Girls: Then and Now) HERE