Barbara Feldon Articles
Quick, Feldon!
The Needlepoint: Would You Believe That The 'Tiger Girl' of 'Get
Smart!' Sits Home With Her Knitting?
TV News August 6, 1966
Would you believe that Barbara Feldon, super-spy Agent 99 on Get Smart, seen Saturday nights on Channels 2, 6, 14, 24 and 49, and girl of that well-known commercial in which she urges men of all ages to "sic 'em, tiger," sits at home with her needlepoint and sews?
Whatever you care to believe, Barbara Feldon does indeed sit in her New York apartment and work at her needlepoint. When she tires of that chore, she dons a smock and paints - a new Feldon creative endeavor. She paints flowers, joyous-looking arrays of all types of flora.
She is not quite alone in her residence. First, there is Sasha, Barbara's "fun kid" of a dog who thinks he's Lawrence Welk as his tail incessantly thumps out a middle-age bounce on the hard-wood floors. And that's not so strange because Barbara's cat, Yang, a temperamental Siamese, thinks she's Maria Callas. From the moment one climbs the six floors to Barbara's lair, the cat raises its voice in song. Actually, it's not so much of a song as a loud screech. Between Sasha's thumping and Yang's screeching, add a bass and there's fodder there for a hit rock 'n' roll record.
Every five minutes, her phone rings, adding more sound to the room. She is akin to an answering-service for her husband, Lucien Feldon, a representative for artists and photographers. And on the Feldon wall is ample proof of his representation. Abstracts and impressionist works close in upon you from every angle. There's nowhere to turn as Sasha, a rather large dog, seems to be everywhere at once - particularly at your shoes, which he loves to nibble.
If life in the Feldon house seems somewhat bizarre to outsiders, it certainly appears normal to its occupant. Agent 99, Barbara, comes to New York for its "man-made cultural beauty" and then flees to the coast for "the visual, spiritual God-like beauty." She has, she says, the best of both worlds and she's glad she doesn't have to choose between them.
Her Hollywood existence is, according to Barbara, just that - an existence. She arises before the dawn to be at the studio by six. "And this is beautiful," she says. "When I drive to work, I can still see the remains of the moon and some still-twinkling stars on one side of me and the rising dawn on the other." She doesn't return to her apartment on the Sunset Strip till after eight p.m. Then, she tosses together some vegetables, opens a can of tuna fish and calls it a dinner.
But her existence on the Get Smart set is something else. "Breakfast and lunch are served in our cast dining room, and served rather grandly," she says. "My dressing room is like my New York apartment. The set is always busy, even when I'm not. It's when I'm not, that I work at my needlepoint. Recently, Don (series star Don Adams) gave me a transistor radio, and so I sit in my little canvas chair, needlepoint in hand, and transistor plugged into my ear and have a marvelous time.
"Well, would you believe I have a good time?" asks Miss Feldon. "In that case, would you believe the needlepoint and the transistor have preserved my sanity? Forget the whole thing. I withdraw the question as the answer might tend to incriminate me."
Barbara, so our spy reports tell us, is going to go more "camp" in her role of Agent 99 next season.
Now, we have never been quite sure what camp is, except that we think it's something that is so bad that it is good. That is, the horribleness of it (if we may borrow a phrase from another tv spy, Bill Cosby) makes it funny. Batman is supposed to have made camp a big, widespread thing.
Also, we think, pop art and op art - that is, wild colors and wilder designs - are mixed up in there somewhere. Are you all clear on what camp is, now? Good. Will you explain it to us.
Anyway, to get back to where we started out (and where did we start out?), Barbara is supposedly going more "camp" on Get Smart! next season. Now, ye editors cannot possibly believe that Barbara would make anything bad, let alone so bad that it's good.
Our reports tell us she'll be wearing shorter skirts. This could be bad?
Anyway, it is apparently in these shorter skirts, and wilder colors, that she'll be "going to camp" - and we don't mean Camp Runamuck!
Prior to Get Smart!, Barbara's chief endeavors were lolling about in bath towels, sitting in bubble baths, and gracing tiger skins, all for various commercials. Along the way, she also essayed brief roles in such shows as Profiles In Courage, East Side/West Side, The Nurses, Show Of The Week, Flipper, Slattery's People, Mr. Broadway, The Reporter, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Twelve O'Clock High.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (where there are no tigers, at least of the jungle variety) claims the honor of being her home town. She is the youngest daughter of Ray and Julia Hall.
She was graduated from Bethel High School, and attended Carnegie Institute Of Technology. During her school days, she appeared in local productions at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, the William Penn Playhouse, the Little Lake Arena, and White Barn Theatre.
Thus, it appears, her extra-curricular activities were chiefly responsible for laying the groundwork for her future thespic career.
Following her graduation from Carnegie Tech, she followed the route of many aspiring actors and actresses, and went to New York City, the Mecca of show business. Along the way, there were stops at such "little" theaters and summer stock theaters as the John Drew Theater, Long Island, and the Bucks County Playhouse.
She also followed the course of many aspiring young actresses, and quit acting to get married. She was wed in 1958 to Belgian-born Lucien Feldon.
The Feldons opened an art gallery in Greenwich Village. Her husband had been representing artists, but switched to representing photographers instead. Some of these photographers thought that Barbara would make a good model, and so the future "Tiger Girl" became a fashion model.
Her work in this line of endeavor led her into tv commercials and to "sic 'em, tiger!"
We wonder if this super spy-tiger girl could claim any kinship
to the Catwoman of Batman fame?
