Gorgeous Gagster (of the Week)

A couple weeks ago, I saw a so-so comedy from 1967 called Divorce American Style. It starred Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds as a married couple on the skids who try breaking up and dating, only to find that other people make them even more miserable.

I could take or leave the flick, but halfway through, there's a showstopping number featuring "The Hip Hypnotist", Miss Pat Collins. She's got a giant pile of blonde hair and space-lady make-up and she's completely f**kin' awesome.

Who was this amazing creature?

Turns out she was a pretty well-known commodity in the 60's and 70's, appearing in several films and plenty of TV shows, including Honey West, Hollywood Squares, What's My Line, Playboy After Dark, and The Lucy Show.

She also ran her own club in Hollywood, where she would entertain rubes and royalty alike with her unique blend of laffs and hypno-hijinks.

Naturally, given the era, she also released a couple of vanity LPs: Turn On! and Sleep With Pat Collins.

Pat kept things rolling in the 80's, tossed a little self-help mumbo jumbo into the mix, and basically stayed groovy until she died from a stroke at the way-too-young age of 62 in 1997. Luckily, she left behind a sizable body of work, so we may gawk and giggle at her hypno-hokum for decades to come.

Download Turn on with Pat Collins at the always exciting PCL Linkdump!

- Ken