The V-Neck belonged to Morticia Addams in the Sixties

Studios refused to let anyone copy Carolyn Jones' style. Including Lily Munster.

Everyone knows Gomez Addams is absolutely wild about Morticia, and part of her allure is her dramatic style. The long black gowns that hug her form right down to her ankles were made extra dramatic by the deep-V cut of the neckline, a feature replicated from the original Charles Addams cartoon character.

Behind the scenes, just as The Addams Family was getting going, Carolyn Jones saw her marriage crumbling.

In 1964, Jones was divorcing her husband Aaron Spelling, who still knew how special she was, despite their split. They remained friends, growing even closer after the divorce. Spelling, a television visionary, urged Jones to do the sitcom. He and many others saw the Morticia role exclusively for her.

"I was in New York last January, and Aaron called me to ask, 'Would you like to do a series?'" Jones told The North American Newspaper Alliance in 1965.

"No," she replied.

But then he asked, "Would you like to do a series based on the Charles Addams New Yorker cartoons?"

"I promptly said yes," Jones said. "It seems that someone had said casually to Aaron, 'We're going to do this show and we need someone like Carolyn Jones.'"

Spelling's instincts were spot on, of course. Why get someone like Carolyn Jones when you know Carolyn Jones herself? There is no imitation that can rival.

From that moment, Jones took the image of the role seriously, hoping to look as if her spidery cartoon character had stepped right of of the page of a New Yorker magazine.

It turned out that she needed not fret for one moment because audiences instantly accepted her as Morticia. For studios, that included seeing the V-neck of Morticia's signature dresses as an exclusive style for Carolyn Jones.

That meant, in 1965, when The Munsters star Yvonne De Carlo, who played Lily Munster, requested to change the neckline on Lily's dresses from Frankenstein bride's square cut to a V-line like Morticia's, the studio said no.

According to Dick Kleiner's Hollywood Today! column, "The Munsters turned Yvonne DeCarlo down — she wanted to change necklines. She felt the square neckline accented her broad shoulders and that the V-neck would be sexier. But the brass said that Carolyn Jones (of the rival Addams clan) had appropriated the V-neck for her own, and it might look like copying."

There could be no copying Jones, a unique beauty of Sixties TV.

Occasionally, Jones allowed her image as Morticia to meld with her real life.

In 1965, she told the Philadelphia Daily News that she threw a backyard Halloween party for about 150 guests, transforming her home into a funeral parlor. For dinner, she served prime rib, but she called it "side of salamander." Beside it, she set a bowl of tapioca pudding that dubbed "eyes of salamander." The dishes were served by waiters dressed as famous Hollywood ghouls, and when asked what inspired the night, Carolyn simply said, "Fun, darling."

In the same interview, Jones explained that while it was fun to bring creepy elements of her Addams Family life into her real world, when doing appearances on talk shows, she prefers to leave Morticia's V-neck dress in the dressing room.

"I refuse to appear just as Morticia," Jones said. "Right now, in my career, it is important to step out of character and just be Carolyn Jones. After all, I was Carolyn long before I became Morticia."

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33 Comments

JanMartin 29 months ago
the cast of The Addams Family and the cast for The Munsters is as exactly how it should be . That was Morticia's look cannot recreate it not even on Lilly Munster . I would stay in Addam's house anytime it is a lot more cleaner than The Munsters .
JHP 33 months ago
that V neck could lead to V action - YUM

tish could speak Mongolian I wouldnt care
Kenner 33 months ago
On a totally unrelated note: sad to report ‘Herb Tarlik’ has passed away at age 79. R.I.P. frank bonner.
MikefromJersey 33 months ago
I am not sure I buy the premise that all the studios somehow refused to steal "Jone's style".
What, she had a patent on showing cleavage? Yvonne Craig may have had the best figure
ever, she showed plenty on shows of the 1960s. Check out the women on Star Trek.
The Munsters producers would not have cared a whit what the Addam's series did to
build an audience, if more cleavage equals ratings so be it, ticking off the Addams
people would not be a consideration.
As I understand it from some one's post on MeTV awhile ago, a lot of the - religious - people
behind Leave It To Beaver were part of the Munsters and could have had moral objections to
overtly displaying Yvonne's bodacious charms.
I think when discussing Morticia people ignore the elephant in the room. She was incredibly
sexy, she had "it". Every man over a certain age would put her on his top 5 hottest women
of TV list. Oddly though, when she wasn't dressed in the Morticia outfit, Jone's didn't have
anywhere near the allure of that character. I guess thats a credit to her acting the part?

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lynngdance texasluva 33 months ago
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texasluva lynngdance 33 months ago
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lynngdance texasluva 33 months ago
Thank you! 😄 and yeah there are some bizarre ones lol
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Happy 4th Of July everyone.

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https://archive.org/details/apmom-1997
TheDavBow3 33 months ago
Yvonne DeCarlo would have been absolutely stunning in V-neck gowns.
harlow1313 TheDavBow3 33 months ago
Al Lewis, not so much...
TheDavBow3 harlow1313 33 months ago
😂🤣😂🤣
MikefromJersey TheDavBow3 33 months ago
I agree about Yvonne in a V-neck, she had a stunning figure. In her scenes with Maureen O'Hara,
in McLintock, she stole the focus from the legendary curves of O'Hara, must have been the
first time that ever happened.
TheDavBow3 MikefromJersey 33 months ago
Oh I agree with you 1000% on that. Just a couple years before The Munsters.
BrittReid TheDavBow3 33 months ago
That's putting it mildly!
Pacificsun TheDavBow3 33 months ago
Ms. DeCarlo was another stunning beauty of Hollywood! In fact, she didn't "need" any help at all in the appearance category.

But Munsters and Addams were two different types (style) shows back then. Sorry, but Addams won the trophy for satire and dead-on-delivery of supporting effects! Munsters had a cartoon feel to it, and it was thanks to the caliber of acting talent, from Al Lewis to Fred Gwynne to Ms. DeCarlo (of course) who kept that show afloat, based on both adult and kid appeal! Makeup (by necessity and purpose) was heavy handed and theatrical, obviously. And didn't do justice to Ms. DeCarlo's outstanding, natural beauty.
MrsPhilHarris 33 months ago
I would have killed to go to that Hallowe’een party. 💀👻🎃
DethBiz 33 months ago
I always thought it was ironic that Gomez was notorious for saying Capital and Carolyn Jones ended her career on a soap opera of the same name.
madvincent 33 months ago
Go to eBay and punch in Lily Munster photo
I don’t know how to post it on this page but check out Yvonne Dicarlo
PortelaJ 33 months ago
Ay querida! Always enjoyed her in my fav Elvis movie “King Creole”. Cara mia
Spitz 33 months ago
Morticia Addams/Carolyn Jones will always be, “The Halloween Cat’s Meow”!! Love the series and the many stories behind it. Keep talking french Morticia 😘
JHP 33 months ago
Didnt like her in Batman

BUT - as morticia she was smokin and she could sing me to sleep:)

"CAROOOOOOOOO!"
JHP Pacificsun 33 months ago
I mean I did sorta liked her on Batman

but it was a step down from Morticia

TY! for the pic:) and BTW John Astin was one lucky cooky guy - (I think I could even learn to like french)
Pacificsun JHP 33 months ago
I like the individuality of a lot of these actors! That's why I posted the picture. Glad you enjoyed it!! 😉
LoveMETV22 33 months ago
An attractive and talented actress.
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