Who's the New Girl? Episode 109: Project Moonbase

the babes of MST3K

Having both an unhealthy obsession with classic pin-up style, which is coming back, and Mystery Science Theater 3000, which lives on forever, I've decided to combine my two lusts and create yet another series, this one based around pin-ups of the lovely ladies that starred in the b-movies MST3K skewered so hilariously. I will be taking on every single one of the relevant episodes, in order, because I have problems. Enjoy!

The series begins here. 

Episode 109: Project Moonbase (1953)

Donna Martell

"She's absolutely ballistic!"

Donna Martell was better known for her TV roles than her movie career. Indeed, the incredibly, incredibly sexist Project Moonbase -- actually based on a short story by Robert Heinlein but badly mangled as it made its way to the screen -- was supposed to be a pilot for a TV series. Martell thought so, too, and only found out differently when the cameras started to roll. She puts in a near-heroic performance by just showing up, though; she's supposedly a colonel in a dorky American orbit rocket space team crew thingy, yet she's constantly belittled as if she were a spoiled child. Her immediate superior threatens to spank her at one point. But hey, you let women into the armed forces, you gotta expect that kind of thing. She probably had her period right there.

Martell (born Irene DeMario) was best known for her Westerns, having gotten her first gig in a Roy Rogers film at the tender age of 17. Hooking up with Universal, she navigated through several b-movies, also serving as the fresh-faced sweetheart in Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer before quitting the "studio system" and  graduating to TV. In 1963, the Los Angeles native married Hollywood soundman Gene Corso and never looked back, ending her career and raising a family with him. The two are still married in the San Fernando Valley, and Donna, now 84, can still be seen guesting at various Western and sci-fi conventions. MST3K fans may be interested to know that she also appeared on an episode of Rocky Jones: Space Ranger. No word on whether Winky tried anything.