Lada Edmund Jr.
Not Your Grandma’s Hullaballoo Gal!
I learned about Lada when I recently put together a post on the short-lived Hullaballoo TV program, I came across the appearance of Lada Edmund Jr. She was one of the original Hullaballoo go-go dancers before she returned to recording and then returned again to Hullaballoo during the 2nd season in 1966 to sing, not dance.
Lada was born in 1947 Lada Michele Perkins in Minneapolis, MN. By the time that Hullaballoo was cancelled in 1966 and replaced by those zany Monkees, Lada was already trying to find a spot in Hollywood thinking that acting could be her calling.
After all, at the age of just 12, Lada made her debut on Broadway in New York City playing the part of “Penelope Ann” in “Bye, Bye Birdie”. Roles in other Broadway productions would follow including “West Side Story” and “Promises, Promises”.
In ‘tinsel town’, Edmund would get roles in some less than memorable films including “The Devil’s 8”, “Out of It” both from 1969, then “Jump” (1971), “Savage” (1973) and “Act of Vengeance” (1974). None of the roles were memorable, and often she was selected for her dancing prowess.
The movies weren’t cutting it for Lada but her fortunes would take a turn after meeting up with primo movie stuntman Hal Neeham. Soon Lada would put her athletic prowess to work performing stunts for films including “Smokie and the Bandit”. One of her first “stunts” was a gig for Allstate Insurance where she accompanied Neeham in a test car and was paid a hefty twenty five grand to crash into a brick wall to test air bags!. She collected her hefty check.
She also would take a motorcycle sky bound hurling over an automobile to promote an Evel Knievel TV special. That one cost her a compression fracture. The bumps and bruises of stunt work paid off, with Lada becoming the highest paid stunt woman in the world!
Lada would eventually make her way back to the East Coast and would take up boxing – a sport she had always been fascinated with when she was growing up.
Along with boxing, Lada became a personal trainer and then a boxing referee. Today (2024) Lada runs a youth training program in New Jersey. She is 77 years old.
April 4th, 1965 – The Portland Press Herald
August 2nd, 1965 – The Canonsburg Daily Notes
August 4th, 1965 – The Kenosha News
January 8th, 1966 – The Longview Daily News
March 13th, 1966 – Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 5th, 1969 – Cedar Rapids Gazette
June 6th, 1969 – The Waterloo Daily Courier
January 29th, 1970 – The San Francisco Examiner
April 15th, 1973 – The Atlanta Constitution
July 12th, 1974 – The Madison Capital Times
December 27th, 1974 – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Interesting that this ad refers to the film as “Rape Squad” while the title generally appears as “Acts of Violence”. Thinking the original title must have been revised.
Lada Edmund Jr. Discography
45 – “The Answer” b/w “Foxy” – October 1961
45 – “I Want a Man” b/w “This Time” – September 1962
45 – “Tear Drop Shop” b/w “Little Heart” – January 1963
45 – “I Know Something” b/w “Once Upon a Time” – April 1966
45 – “The Larue” b/w “Soul Au Go Go” – August 1966
45 – “Trouble (Is His Middle Name)” b/w “Boopsie” – August 1967
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