(1957)
Born in Taylorville, Illinois as
Joyce Crowder. Most online sources
indicates a year of birth in 1932, but 1936 is the most probable year. Joyce looked and acted older than she was. A coal miner's daughter [
or according to another source, her father was a singer with his own radio show in St. Louis] she attended public schools in Taylorville and was the top baton twirler at Taylorville High School. Her performance in a school talent show led to a recording contract with Mercury Records in 1953.
Roy Rodde, one-time manager of Joni James, was her personal agent.
Her first record, “
You’ve Got Something” for
Mercury Records, was written by Joyce while sitting at a table in her
mother’s restaurant called Pauline’s Place on South Washington Street.
Mercury Records issued four singles on Joyce Taylor in 1953-1954 :
53 Mercury 70243 : If I Cry / You've Got Something
54 Mercury 70317 : Babe In The Woods / Take My Love
54 Mercury 70345 : Sealed With A Kiss / If You Only Knew
54 Mercury 70461 : Your Mind, Your Lips, Your Heart /No Happiness For Me
She is also rumored to have recorded as Joyce Bradley (not confirmed)
55 Mercury 70769 : A Dangerous Age / Take Your Time With Me Lover (as Joyce Bradley)
55 Mercury 70716 : Why Don't You Write Me / Love Is A Many Splendored Thing as Joyce Bradley)
Under contract to Howard Hughes' RKO Pictures in the 1950s she was only allowed by the eccentric and enigmatic tycoon to act in one picture, a small part in "
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" in 1956. After seven frustrating years being “bottled up” by the eccentric and enigmatic Howard Hughes, she became a regular on the TV sci-fi/adventure series, “Men into Space” (1959) and acted in many other TV shows in the late fifties and early sixties including “Sea Hunt,” “Bonanza,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “77 Sunset Strip” and “The Untouchables.” Joyce’s movie titles include: “Atlantis the Lost Continent,” “Ring of Fire,” “Thirteen Frightened Girls,” “F.B.I. Story,” “Windsplitter,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Rappacinni’s Daughter.” In addition, she made numerous television commercials, some of which were for VO5 hair spray and cream, Rambler, Ford, Coke, Spic and Span, and Folgers Coffee.
She later married a stockbroker and left the business. Now makes her home in Colorado where she writes poetry.
Several paragraphs in "
Howard Hughes: The Untold Story" book by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske describes the Joyce Taylor's RKO years:
