By J.R. TaylorThere used to be Gable & Lombard, Tracy & Hepburn, and Bogart & Bacall. Now we've got Britney & Whoever She Got Drunk With Last Night. Fortunately, admirers of classic couples can take comfort as of this past 4th of July. Four acres of beachfront property in Malibu hosted one of the great showbiz marriages of all time -- specifically, the nuptials of Frank Gorshin (Picture: - ) and Haji (Picture: 1).
These two would be legends just for their respective roles in Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965). Of course, both went on to even more amazing work. Gorshin's appearances as The Riddler on TV's Batman launched a continuing career as a respected actor and nightclub performer. Haji would further her legendary appeal by continuing to work with Russ Meyer in Good Morning... and Goodbye! (1967) (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) (Picture: 1 - 2), and Supervixens (1975) (Picture: ).
Her amazing presence would also grace unforgettable features including Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman (1975), Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976), and John Cassavete's The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) -- in addition to her recent comeback in films such as The Double-D Avenger (2001) and Killer Drag Queens On Dope (2003).
"I wanted to get married on the 4th of July," Haji explains, "so my friends who couldn't be at the wedding would still be celebrating." All of Haji's fans should also be raising a glass to the happy couple -- if only to honor how the relationship survived Gorshin's Broadway stint as George Burns in the one-man show Say Goodnight, Gracie.
"We've been together for four years," Haji recalls, "and I had no idea things would go this far. When he was in New York for a year, I was flying in and out, and it was a little rocky. It reminded me of why I'd never dated actors. Directors and producers tended to be my favorites. I always thought that dating actors was looking for trouble."
The national tour of Say Goodnight, Gracie is working out much better. Haji's talking to us from the couple's suite in Denver, Colorado. They'll be flying to Malibu on a rare day off from the road. It's a storybook ending to a romance that began with a little girl watching Gorshin on The Ed Sullivan Show -- "There was a lot of sex appeal there" -- and leading to the two meeting during an autograph show. "All of the Faster, Pussycat! girls were invited," recalls Haji. "I had been engaged to a very wealthy man in California, and he passed away with cancer. I was so devastated, I hadn't dated anyone for five years. But Frank was there, and I guess he's at the age where he knows what he likes. I liked that he was an older man, and I figured he had been there and done that."
Not that Haji was in a rush to get seriously involved with a traveling man: "I was more nervous about being seriously involved. I'm a homebody. I love to cook, and keep a beautiful home, and my beautiful garden. I love to bodysurf and water-ski and boogie board, too. He liked those qualities. I think he also liked that most of my music collection is from the '40s and '50s."
The happy couple also understand their own cultural importance. "We call ourselves 'The Riddler & The Cat,' because I used to be a dancer, you know, and my billing's been 'Haji Cat.' And there's Faster, Pussycat!, too. We get teased a lot about that."More importantly, Haji is also a big fan of her man, and his generation: "Frank should be working more. His reviews for Say Goodnight, Gracie are unbelievable. He has so much talent. He sings, he plays piano, he's even a very talented artist -- but it's like pulling teeth to get him to draw nowadays. I'm actually disappointed in how legends are treated in this business. We went to Sid Caesar's house for lunch. He doesn't walk so well, but he's so brilliant, and I have so much love and respect for that man. We let these legends fade away, and then we wait until they die to talk about how great they were."
And as a legend herself, Haji can cast a jaundiced eye on today's starlets. "I like to see women know how to use their beauty," she explains. "I remember watching Angelina Jolie on a talk show about two years ago, and she was wearing jeans and chewing gum and scraping her shoes like she was walking the halls in high school. She didn't know how beautiful she was. Now I see her after she broke up with Billy Bob Thornton, and she's blossomed into this beautiful rose. Someone got hold of her and said, 'Listen, kid, get out of those clothes.'"
And speaking of getting out of clothes -- the really big question is how much time Gorshin himself spent gushing over young Haji's own sense of style. As it turns out, the lucky Mr. Haji missed out on his lady's incredible early career.
"He learned quickly," Haji adds. "There's a book called, oh, something like The 200 Most Glamorous Women In The World. When he saw me in that, he went wild. I said to him, 'You're going with one of the world's greatest pin-up girls.' I don't even know what that means, but I wanted to keep him on his toes. I always remind him that I'm his pin-up girl."
