18 Photos of a Very Young Connie Stevens in the late 1950s

In the late 1950s, Connie Stevens (born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingoglia; August 8, 1938) was a rising young actress and singer, transitioning from bit parts and vocal groups into feature films, a recording contract, and her breakthrough TV role. She had moved to Los Angeles around 1953 to live with her father and soon performed with groups such as the Three Debs and the Fourmost (whose male members later formed The Lettermen). By the mid-to-late 1950s she was doing extra and supporting work while building a singing career.

Feature debut in Young and Dangerous (1957), followed by Eighteen and Anxious (1957), Dragstrip Riot (1958), The Party Crashers (1958), and a supporting role as the love interest in Jerry Lewis’s Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958). The Lewis film was a significant early break after he spotted her in Dragstrip Riot.

Released her debut album Concetta in 1958 on Warner Bros. Records (she was among the early artists signed to the label). She recorded standards and other material; later in 1959 she scored a major novelty hit with the duet “Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)” alongside Edd “Kookie” Byrnes (tied to his character on 77 Sunset Strip). In 1959 she signed a multi-year contract with Warner Bros. and was cast as Cricket Blake (a photographer/singer) on the new detective series Hawaiian Eye, which premiered in October 1959 and quickly made her a teen idol.

By the end of the decade she was established as a pert, energetic blonde ingénue with a distinctive voice—working steadily in Hollywood’s teen-film and TV pipeline and on the cusp of wider pop success (her biggest solo hit, “Sixteen Reasons,” came in 1960–61). Her image mixed cute/tomboyish appeal with singing talent, and the Hawaiian Eye role cemented her early fame.