Carol Lynley.

The Poseidon Adventure is one of those movies that is easy to mock and over time becomes sort of the sum of the jokes about it and nobody really remembers, or cares to remember, the actual film. But I think it’s a great movie. Nonnie, the ship’s singer, is the character I identified with as a kid, and still do if I’m being honest. I used to refuse to believe that she didn’t actually sing The Morning After. I was convinced that there were two versions of the song, the radio hit sung by Maureen McGovern and then the recording in the film.

I didn’t know until later that Lynley had appeared many years earlier in the film adaptation of Blue Denim. (She had originated the role on Broadway.) I think Blue Denim must have been the first “serious” play I saw, at 13, a community theater production in Greencastle, Indiana, where my family had just moved. (Looking back it’s kind of astounding that they did this play, about teen pregnancy and abortion, in rural Indiana at that time. I don’t think they could do it there now without it becoming a big political shit show.)

I’m not sure why Carol Lynley’s career sort of trailed off, at such a young age, into guest spots on Fantasy Island. I think she was wonderful.

And I still can’t dislodge her from the song in my mind, despite how gorgeous Maureen McGovern sounds singing it.