Covers, covers... Linda Gray's relationships

Hello my dear readers,

It's been a while, I know. I apologize. It's been quite a summer and autumn, but now I feel it's time to get back to this blog business. So here we go!

Linda Gray's magazine covers definitely deserve their own post. As you know, I was a Pam-boy myself, but after Victoria Principal left Dallas, I began to see Dallas' other leading lady in a different light. Moreover, I thought that Linda Gray became more radiant and beautiful as she matured. She was also one of the best actresses on the show.

However, before Pamela's departure, I wasn't particularly fond of Gray's character.  When we used to play Dallas with the kids next door, we never had a JR, because nobody wanted to play him, and we also had to force my friend's little sister to be Sue Ellen. It was all about Pam, Bobby and occasional Lucy. We were a bit confused about Sue Ellen's name, though: was 'Sue' her first name and 'Ellen' her middle name, or was 'Ellen' her last name? Eventually we decided  it had to be her last name, after all, no one else on Dallas had two first names. So when the phone rang, our Sue Ellen, 7 years of age, answered accordingly: "Ellen residence, Sue speaking".

Those were the days.

It seems that Linda Gray had more cover stories in Finland than Victoria Principal, although I think it was the other way around globally. Linda seemed to be popular among certain kind of women's magazines, but she never appeared in rock magazines like Victoria, Charlene or even Priscilla.

Especially Linda's divorce seemed to be very popular topic, and particularly in 1983. Here's the first cover story of the year:

I think she looks particularly lovely on this cover. The title of Apu says "Success proved disastrous - Linda Gray gets divorced".

Inside, the magazine dives into Linda's bubbly life: "Nowadays Linda Gray enjoys her baths alone. Earlier she spent much of her free time sitting in the bubbles with her husband Ed".

"Linda caught the disease of Dallas - divorce is happening." Finnish press loved to talk about "the curse of Dallas" or "Dallas disease" when referring to miserable lives of Dallas' stars. I recall several other similar titles of the 1980s.

The story goes on saying Linda doesn't want to be a superwoman anymore. Now she wants peace and quiet. "Sue Ellen is so stupid", Linda is fed up with her. She wants her to be smarter, but obviously it doesn't fit for the story.

Next cover is from Anna later the same year. This is the first time the press hinted that Linda was having an affair with her co-star Larry Hagman:

"Scandalous romance of Dallas stars Linda and Larry!" This was also one of the favourite subjects of the Dallas stories during the 1980s. It used to make me frustrated, because no matter how I wanted it to happen, there were never articles about the scandalous romance of Victoria Principal and Patrick Duffy. It seemed so unfair. Sigh. However, in retrospect we know that these rumours weren't true. Linda and Larry were only good friends.

Next we have September's issue of Jaana telling us that "Linda Gray has fallen in love with a millionaire - even more passionate than on Dallas":

I wonder why they used this old photo of Linda. She already had her famous short look that year, so this old picture really doesn't do her justice.

The year goes on! October issue of Anna spills the T:

"Dallas' Linda Gray opens up about her divorce". Of course this was the time before internet, but it still seems a bit dated: Apu told us about her divorce in March and this is October. Well, inside the mag confesses that the rumours about Linda and Larry were false.

This is all for now. Enjoy and take care, my fellow Dallas fans!

Covers, covers... Victoria Principal Edition

Hello my friends!

Picture it. Northern Finland, 1982-83-ish. Dallas was the show among the 8-17-year-olds. Everyone was watching it and talking about it. 

Everyone except me. 

I couldn’t care less about those fictional characters on TV. After all, there were so much more interesting things to do on Friday nights! Like playing police and robbers outside. 

I don’t remember how I came to open the TV and actually watch Dallas for the first time, but it was all it took – I was completely hooked. Instantly.

I had heard about JR, of course, and I was eager to see what the bastard looked like. Then this gorgeous black-haired hunk appeared and I was like "who knew JR was such a piece of meat"? Of course, my dad told me that was not JR, but Bobby. What a relief!

However, when Victoria Principal appeared on my screen, I was stunned.

Stunned, I say!

I had never seen a woman so beautiful! I quickly learned that she was Pam and she was in a mental institute, because she couldn’t have children. Oh no! I only hoped that Pam and Bobby would be together so that those beautiful people could live happily ever after. I was devastated to learn that Bobby was in love with that Pamela-woman and therefore couldn’t be with Pam. You can imagine my embarrasment when I realized that Pam and Pamela were the same person. 

(Come on, I was only 10 and English wasn’t my first language! It was like those Tsekhov plays where every character has Russian nicknames and you never know who are they referring to... oh, well.)

Since those days Victoria Principal has been my absolutely favourite Dallas star and therefore the topic of this post, as well. J

It’s surprising how few Finnish magazine covers there are featuring her, given that she was probably the most popular cast member after Larry Hagman. I have already published a couple of her covers earlier, but here are a few more for your pleasure! (If you have more Finnish VP covers that I don’t know about, please let me know and we’ll be BFFs forever.)

The first cover from 1982 Seura has rather small picture of VP, however, it is the classic photo of her with Linda and Charlene. "The girls of Dallas return to our screens." This issue also has a complete family tree inside, however, they have Gary Ewing and Mitch Cooper mixed up. After all, they are both... well, men. Therefore, identical.  

The next one is 1984 cover of Apu declaring that ”Happy Victoria Principal wants to be a mom soon”. Nevertheless, this was not meant to be. 

The other cover from 1984 is from OK magazine. It says that "Victoria Principal destroyed Andy Gibb!" Oh dear. OK magazine was like a National Enquirer of the rock magazines. 

Funny thing about this cover though: it has a red heart over the pic of VP saying "Hundreds of pen pals". I always thought that it was Victoria Principal who had hundreds of pen pals and wanted desperately to be one of them. 

Another thing: Hanoi Rocks was a quite famous band from Finland, but I used to think that heavy rock and hanoi rocks mean the same thing. That's how much I cared about rock music.  

Fast forward to 2002: Victoria is on the cover of Katso magazine's Soap opera special. It was during the time she was on the short-lived Titans. It says "Age only makes a woman better" or something like that. 

Well, that's all for now, darlings.  #stillwaitingforthenextvictoriacoverinafinnishmagazine

Yet more covers!

Here we go again! Some summery covers while waiting for winter. For winter is coming. I hope.

So, first one from 1983 is featuring sexy Audrey Landers a.k.a Afton Cooper.
"What Does JR See in Her? Dallas' who what and why" states the cover quite harshly. Well, duh.
The main story inside also introduces us her brother Mitch.

The next one is from 1982. Something called "video" seems quite relevant during 1982-83 in Finland, since both these magazines have the word on the cover. "Top 10 of the Video Movies", intriguing!

However, Victoria Principal is looking hot in red and couldn't care less about the "Video School" or "Why news anchors stare at the viewer" in this issue. She is "innocent seductress as Pamela on Dallas". Indeed.

Covers, covers everywhere!

1980s was very exciting time for Dallas collectors like me. Hardly a week went by without a magazine featuring a story of my favourite tv show. I almost passed out every time I saw Dallas made it to the cover as well! Here are some scanned covers of my collection. 

First one is from 1983 Seura. It features lovely Charlene Tilton on the cover.
In this exclusive story we learn that she has been forced to use welfare services to make a living. 

By the way, ”Seura” means company. The magazine still exists, however, I don't even remember when was the last time it had Dallas stars on the cover. Perhaps in the 1990s. 

Second Seura from 1985 has beautiful Priscilla Presley on the cover. Seura is starting to publish her revealing memoirs and states here that Elvis made an ideal woman out of a child bride. Good stuff!

Next cover is one of my all time favorites. Suosikki from 1983 has gorgeous Victoria Principal on the cover. "Dallas-extra! All the scandalous events of '83!"

Suosikki means a favorite in English. It was a very popular pop/rock magazine which featured Dallas quite regularly in the 1980s. Last Suosikki came out December 2012.

Another Suosikki from 1984. It says that Priscilla Presley is now the number one star of Dallas. I must say the article was probably originally from National Enquirer given how "scandalous" it was. Oh, well.