Her voice.. sounds like some cute animated Disney character. Doesn't it?

I know she is the only redeeming part of this film. She was a hottie!
Maybe there is some equal to her, but I can't think of a sweeter leading lady than her off the top of my head.
Very adorable.
No blah, blah, blah!

I know she is the only redeeming part of this film. She was a hottie!

I always knew she was a bender.

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Jim: Thanks for the update. As with others, I had a twinge of regret when I saw the erroneous info that she had died early.
Keep at it man. I tilted a supposed windmill in my search for the identity/fate of that blonde-pixie dancer in the 1955 "Oklahoma!" movie. The webpage I set up in her honor generated leads that led not only to her identification, but also her whereabouts and, mirable dictu, CONTACT. The website is at wawyckoff.com.

You can reach him at info@jimtushinski.com and see if he won't swing by and give everyone an answer.
tinyurl.com/arrestmeplz

I second that question. I love this movie and a well written book about it would be very cool.

It's been a while. Has the book been finished and published?

Dawn Bender is alive and well and recently retired from the LA Public School System where she has been a teacher since the early 1960s. She has no idea how the rumor of her death started and several requests to IMDB to eliminate her erroneous death date have gone unanswered. Remember: just because something is listed on IMDB doesn't mean it's accurate.
And to correct an earlier post, she and Warren Vanders (Vandershuit) were students at Pepperdine Unversity. Dawn was a child actor in movies and most famously on the radio in the hit series One Man's Family. By the time she made Teenagers in 1957 (the film was released in 1959), she had married Jerry Anderson and was ready to give up acting to raise a family. She agreed to play Betty because a number of actor friends were helping Tom Graeff get his low budget science fiction movie, originally called "Killers from Outer Space," made. Dawn thought Tom was a UCLA student making the film as his thesis, a falsehood that Graeff, five years out of college and the director of three previous films, did nothing to disspell in order to get actors and locations for free. Dawn used Anderson as her last name because she knew the film was non-union and she didn't want any trouble from SAG.
I've been researching Tom Graeff and the making of Teenagers from Outer Space for a while now and it's amazing to discover that almost everything written about Tom and Teenagers is completely wrong.
Guess anyone wanting the real story will have to wait until I finish writing my book.

I had read a long time ago that it was alcohol related
"Deliver the dawn to the Moulin Rouge on the horizon "
http://www.nancingpony.com

Well, I have no definite answers, but I have a few conjectures:

1. Anorexia-nervosa. She appeared extremely tiny and may have taken the Karen Carpenter route out of his world.
2. Drugs/alcohol. These seem to be very popular, especially among child stars, which she was.
3. Suicide. Her career wasn't exactly flourishing.
4. I'm totally wrong and she really did get eaten by a lobster.
   How sad that she should pass away at such a young age.
   jen
   "I super-mega-friggin' shun you!"

She was eaten by a giant lobster, I believe.