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Carolyn Jones had her own Wednesday Addams vibe as a little girl
The Addams Family star blamed her asthma on being a sullen young girl.
In The Addams Family episode "Morticia, the Breadwinner," we get to see actor Carolyn Jones do what she does best: take charge of a situation.
For the episode, Morticia believes that Gomez has bankrupt the family and rises to step in as a breadwinner, trying to find ways to raise money for the family.
In her career, Jones took similar charge as a newcomer, refusing to have her individuality buffed out by directors, hairstylists or makeup artists.
She was the one calling the shots from day one.
"Every time I did a movie or a telefilm, makeup men wanted to fill in my hollow cheeks and hairdressers wanted to restyle my hair," Jones told the Newspaper Enterprise Association in 1957. "But I kept yelling ‘No, no, no.’ Finally, when I’d go on a casting interview, I made a brief announcement before anyone said anything. My announcement was, ‘How do you do. My hair stays as it is.’"
Jones hated how studios "insist on making interesting faces look dull," she said. "They want all girls to look alike."
Jones’ obsession with her image likely sparked when she was a young child.
In interviews, Jones describes herself as a child who had a Wednesday Addams-like vibe: sweet and odd, a little sullen, and very serious.
"I was not very happy as a child and was asthmatic," Jones told the Standard-Speaker in 1980.
Because the asthma kept her indoors as a child — her health becoming so bad that she couldn’t even go to see the movies that she loved so much — she wound up spending a lot of time looking at celebrity magazines and imagining movies.
Paging through photos of glamorous actors, Jones decided that’s what she wanted to be when she grew up: a great actor.
So when she finally got a chance to make a go at becoming a star, Jones had studied the magazines and she was ready to stand out.
To help herself get past the asthma, Jones took up yoga, which she joked that she also hoped would help with her "bad temper."
"I took it up to cure my asthma and bad temper," Jones told The Minneapolis Star in 1961. "My asthma is better, but I guess I’m stuck with my bad temper. However, I have learned to count up to 10 before I fly off the handle."
On The Addams Family, we watch Wednesday Addams, a.k.a. "the child of woe," as she expresses her dislike of school and doodles off-putting drawings, like human heads adorning a tree.
Wednesday is the perfect blend of sweet and sullen, and it seems that Jones shared that vibe in common with her onscreen daughter when she was a young girl.
Later in life, Jones found happiness in fame and fortune, living decadently as a celebrity and staying firmly in control of her image. She said this vibe shift is what cured her of asthma, not the yoga.
"I am happy as an adult, and I haven’t had a touch of asthma for years," Jones said.
13 Comments
Young kids especially back in the day can have asthma triggered by dairy products, which parents are always shoving down their throat. Certain (but not all) kinds of pet dander can affect it. And when those triggers go away, it gives the lungs a chance to heal. But what you're diagnosed, you always have it.
Even at just the right age for TAF, I thought she was fascinating. And stole so many scenes, watch her eyes!! In the day, every other little girl wanted to go in a Morticia Addams costume for Halloween.