Barbara ann thompson murder
Barbara ann thompson murder
Justice Story: Mickey Rooney’s wife Barbara Thomason slain by ......
Carolyn Mitchell was one of those girls who seemed destined to make headlines. And did she ever.
Born with stars in her eyes in Phoenix in 1937, she moved to Los Angeles as a teenager.
While still in high school in Inglewood, the curvy teen adopted a new name, Barbara Thomason, and began entering bathing suit beauty contests from Hermosa Beach to Palisades Park.
She got her first headline after a Santa Monica pageant in June 1954: “Blonde, 17, Chosen Muscle Beach Queen.” She was described as “a bouncy, blue-eyed blonde in a white bathing suit,” with hourglass measurements recorded down to the half-inch.
Thomason won a roomful of beach beauty trophies, and that led to pin-up modeling.
But she dreamed of acting.
In 1955, she made her screen debut (as Carolyn Mitchell) in an episode of “Crossroads,” an ABC morality-play series.
A few years later, she won a small part in the biker flick “Dragstrip Riot,” with Fay Wray.
Next came a ma