June Kenney. Scream Queen?

Mountain Music? “She starred in B Grade Movies!!!” “Like Bert and Roger used to make!!!” “She sailed with her sister!!!” “On a Viking Holiday!!!” “Her dad went missing!!!” “And died alone!!!” “A spider ate him!!!” “And she has to hunt it down!!!” A child of Boston Massachusetts, she began singing and dancing at age 4. Her presence on Boston Radio brought the notice of talent agents searching for the next Shirley Temple. She featured in a couple musical shorts for Warner Brothers and the studio wanted her to move to Hollywood and her father refused. Relocating to California in 1949, she acted in stage plays and studied at the Meglin School of Dance. As a teen, June went to the Hollywood Professional School mornings and worked at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater afternoons. At Grauman’s, she was spotted and signed to a talent agency.

Almost breaking out on a soap opera that lost its sponsor, Kenney grabbed some screen time on The Loretta Young Show and Public Defender. She followed that with supporting parts on Fireside Theater, TV’s Reader’s Digest, Whirlybirds, The Millionaire, commercials for Coppertone and Vaseline, and voice work for Austin-Healey. She met with Roger Corman and was cast as the lead in Teenage Doll (1957). So taken by her, he hired her as the girl blackmailing her lover in Sorority Girl (1957) and the sister of Abby Dalton in The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1958). Bert I. Gordon next had her star in Attack of the Puppet People (1958) and Earth vs. the Spider (1958). Roger’s brother Gene gave her co-billing in Hot Car Girl (1958). Her prospects dried up right after that. Uncredited in Jerry Lewis’ The Ladies Man (1961), Betty in Bloodlust! (1961), and Nan in The Cat Burglar (1961), June quit acting in 1962 and spent the rest of her life in voiceover work resulting in her being inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1997. Three of her films are MSTs. Viking Women and the Sea Serpent, Earth vs. the Spider, and Bloodlust! She’s so innocent. What Range or Fire Away?

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Note: Three Kenney pictures washed ashore on MST. Earth vs. the Spider (1958), Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1957), and Bloodlust! (1961). Conversations on those episodes are linked to below.

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Summary

313. Earth vs. The Spider (1958)

317. Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1958)

607. Bloodlust! (1961)

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Trailer of Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1957).

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Trailer of Earth vs. the Spider (1958).

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Trailer of Bloodlust! (1961).

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Trailer of Attack of the Puppet People (1958).

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Trailer of Sorority Girl (1957).

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Trailer of Teenage Doll (1957).

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Trailer of The Ladies Man (1961).

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Bloodlust! (1961). Full Movie.

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She definitely was a scream queen! And adorably cute also! Funny how she got taller in Bloodlust in the scenes she did with Robert Reed. :thinking: She was at her cutest when mourning her father in Earth vs. The Spider. The pouting and crying was June at her most vulnerable, and adorable. A tiny, (and fiesty) beauty!

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The Cat Burglar (1961). Full Movie.

Attack of the Puppet People (1958). Full Movie.