“I’ll never forget that first day in the studios, it was so exciting,” says Rita, now 90 and speaking to The Weekly from her home in Berkeley, California. “I practically moved in there. I visited the sets, visited the commissary where they served food to the big stars. They had a steam table with real food, things like apple pie and Boston baked beans and roast beef with gravy. Stuff I never had at home – we had rice and beans. It was lunchtime when I was taken there and in walks Lana Turner and Elizabeth Taylor. I thought I would wet my knickers. Can you imagine?”
With that, Rita emits a hoot, clearly still tickled that “this 16-year-old girl from the ghetto” could have ever found herself in such a situation.
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