Donna Loren

Los Angeles, CA

Biography

On March 7, 1947, in Boston, Massachusetts, a 1960’s icon was born. A multi-dimensional star, excelling at the 3M’s of Hollywood--music, movies, and modeling--Donna Loren’s name is synonymous with the Swinging 60’s era of music, motion pictures, television, and fashion. Donna began her singing career at the early age of five, when she won second prize on an amateur show. This began the momentum for the next eleven years, when she appeared on shows including Playhouse 90 and a radio program, Squeakin’ Deacon. At age 8, she sang her first commercial for Meadow Gold Ice Cream. By nine, she had cut her first record, “I Think It’s Almost Christmas Time,” and by the age of ten, she appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club TV Show. Donna’s popularity heightened in 1963 when, at the age of sixteen, she was selected to be the first and only “Dr Pepper Girl.” She promoted the soft-drink company for five years on TV, radio, in a huge billboard campaign, magazines and personal appearances. One could not pass through any city without seeing the captivating image of the young beauty gracing the streets. Her big break catapulted her to bigger screens, namely five prominent singing/acting roles in popular teen motion pictures including Bikini Beach, Muscle Beach Party, Pajama Party, Sergeant Deadhead, and Beach Blanket Bingo alongside Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley and many other popular stars. Each year, only ten of Hollywood’s most promising young actresses were dubbed Deb Stars by the Hollywood Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Guild and were presented with the coveted “Debbie” at the Guild’s annual ball. In 1965 Donna was among the ten young women chosen as “the likeliest candidates for motion picture and television stardom in the coming years.” That year she was also a nominee for the Photoplay Gold Medal Awards’ Most Promising New Star (Female) and a recipient of a Teen Screen Award. Donna also appeared on numerous iconic television shows throughout the sixties, including roles in Batman, The Monkees, The Red Skelton Show, Gomer Pyle, Dr. Kildare and Hollywood Squares. She was also the featured female vocalist on the wildly popular weekly ABC show Shindig!. After Shindig, Donna appeared with Bobby Rydell as a regular on The Milton Berle Show. By the end of the swinging decade, Donna had released 20 singles and the LP soundtrack from “Beach Blanket Bingo”. A CD entitled “The Very Best of Donna Loren: Beach Blanket Bingo” was released by Collectables Records in 2000. In 1968, she was chosen by Danny Thomas and Aaron Spelling to have her own television series entitled, Two for Penny. However, at the height of her career, Donna decided to retire from show business, get married, and devote her energies to raising a family. Throughout her entire Hollywood career, Donna Loren designed and created her own clothing. In 1963 she did a commercial for the Simplicity Pattern Company, a premonition of her successful future as a celebrity fashion designer. From 1997 to 2007, her “passion for fashion” resulted in her own line of clothing and three successful boutiques in Hawaii. Reintroducing the 1960’s fun style of clothing, Donna married French imported textiles with a fashionable tropical flair. A new CD of 11 previously unreleased tracks (MAGIC-The 80s Collection) Donna recorded in the 80’s with James Burton and the TCB (Elvis) Band was released in August, 2009. "Love It Away", her first all-new album in decades, was released in 2010 and is a tasty collection of original compositions as well as rock classics. The title song, Love It Away (Remix) charted at #15 on the FMQB AC chart for the week of 7/13/10 and finished at #52 on the 2010 Year-End chart. For Holiday, Donna released an EP entitled "Donna Does Elvis in Hawaii" consisting of four songs previously recorded by Elvis including her Holiday single, "Merry Christmas Baby", which charted at #41 on the FMQB AC chart for week of 12/7/10.