The Celebrity Collector: Lynn Borden

Lynn Borden’s frogs, elephants and a chicken-and-egg question

Lynn Borden’s collection of frog and elephant figures raised an obvious question: which came first, the frogs or the movie Frogs? Borden, who was Miss Arizona in 1957 and a finalist in the Miss America pageant the following year, had a lead role in the 1972 shocker Frogs and toured the country on a publicity junket for it, frog in tow.

The answer is that the movie came first. The elephant collection, though, was older than both, and it started with her father.

Bill Freyse, Major Hoople and the first elephants

Borden’s father was the cartoonist Bill Freyse. From the 1930s through the 1960s he drew the daily and Sunday panels of “Our Boarding House with Major Hoople,” a strip syndicated to hundreds of newspapers across the country. He also created the cartoon version of “The Lone Ranger” and co-created “The Green Hornet.” Drawing was his life’s work, but elephants fascinated him, and he drew them to amuse himself and his young daughter.

“My father instilled in me a great sense of wonder and respect for the elephant,” Borden said in 2007. “Elephants are great, majestic creatures, very gentle by nature, and it’s true they never do forget!” The first pieces in her collection came from him: a bronze elephant about 8 inches tall and a pair of bronze elephants sitting back to back with their legs in the air.

Borden did not decide on her own that she was a collector. The actress Mala Powers, who played the next-door neighbor on “Hazel” and remained her friend for years, was admiring the bronzes during a visit. “She was admiring the elephants my father had left me and said, ‘You’re collecting elephants!’” Borden recalled. “I said, ‘No I’m not.’ And she said, ‘Oh, yes you are!’” That settled it.

Inside the elephant collection

Powers went on to give Borden several elephants. One is jade. Another, bought on a trip to India, is studded with stones. There is also a large purse with a big elephant on it. On a wall hangs a large original sculpture of an elephant’s head by the Mexican sculptor Bustamante. “It’s very light, almost like papier-mâché,” Borden said. “It’s just this big, gray head. Very pretty.” In 2007 she owned about 35 elephants in all.

She did not keep them behind glass. “I don’t have curio cabinets,” she said. “I find a spot for something, and that’s where I’ll put it. It might be on a table or a nightstand or a wall or window sill, but wherever it is, some thought went into it.” One elephant was a gift from a childhood friend who thought they would never see each other again after Borden moved away. “It has great sentimental value to me. I want to be able to hold it.”

Her interest grew after she saw “Ashes and Snow,” a show by Gregory Colbert in which he appears on three large video screens swimming underwater with elephants. The traveling museum, built from box cars, pillars and aisles of light, opened in Venice, Italy, in 2002, went to New York in 2005 and came to Los Angeles in 2007.

How the movie Frogs started a frog collection

In 2007 Borden estimated she had about 25 frogs. Her favorite was the first one she was given, a present from a representative of the Rialto Theatre in Atlanta, where Frogs had its premiere. “This very nice man gave me a wonderful, plaster of Paris gold frog on a pillow,” she said. “He is just so cute. I’ve got him right by the fireplace. I’d have to say he’s my favorite frog of all.”

On the promotional tour, people kept handing her frogs. “I didn’t have to go out and buy any frogs, that’s for sure,” she said, laughing. “They were coming at me from all sides.” She even grew fond of the live frog the studio had her pose with for publicity photos. “His name was Thumper. I took him to frog-jumping championships,” she said. “I saw so many different kinds of frogs. Some were really quite beautiful.”

She kept an eye out for frogs whenever she was out. “I love frogs,” she said. “They’re cute, they won’t harm you, and they’re good luck. You know, kiss the frog and marry a prince, that kind of thing.” A friend collected frogs too, and the two liked to compare what each had added.

The collection included a crystal frog with gold legs from her husband (“The legs keep falling off and we keep gluing them back on”), a clay frog on a lily pad, a jade frog from a friend to go with her jade elephant and a bean bag frog. Some pieces were demoted to a drawer until she chose to bring them out again. “Sometimes I’ll mix it up by putting some pieces away, then bring them out again later on,” she said.

Lynn Borden’s early life and start in acting

Lynn Borden was born Lynn Freyse in Detroit on March 24, 1939. The family moved to Cleveland and later to Tucson. She was very shy as a child, and her mother enrolled her in acting classes to help. She went on to win parts in class plays throughout grade school and high school, and picked up small parts in Western films, which were often shot in Arizona.

Scholarships from the Miss Arizona and Miss America pageants paid her way to the University of Arizona, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater. She married Chris Borden, and although the marriage did not last she kept his surname for her whole career. After college she moved to San Francisco and won a contest for a small non-speaking movie role, which led to a speaking, credited part on the TV series “Hawaiian Eye.”

Hazel, Shirley Booth and a career in film and television

With an agent, Borden worked through 1960s television, including “General Hospital,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The F.B.I.,” “Get Smart,” “Ironside” and “The Mod Squad.” Her biggest role was in “Hazel,” the comedy based on Ted Key’s comic strip and starring Shirley Booth. The show ran five seasons, 1962 to 1967, the first four on NBC and the last on CBS with a partly new cast.

Key worked as an adviser on the show. When he learned that Borden’s father was Bill Freyse, he was astounded: the two men had once worked together on a proposed movie of “Major Hoople,” with W.C. Fields set to play the lead. The project died with Fields. Freyse had been Key’s hero, and now his daughter was acting in Key’s strip.

For the first four years the Baxters were played by Don DeFore and Whitney Blake. When the show moved to CBS for 1966 and 1967 they were dropped, written out as transferred to the Middle East, and Hazel went to work for George Baxter’s younger brother Steve, played by Ray Fulmer. Booth, who owned the series, cast Borden as Steve’s wife, Barbara. Booth ended the show in 1967 because of failing health, though its ratings were still high.

In 1964 Borden had been set for a lead in the Elvis Presley film Roustabout but lost it to the producer’s girlfriend. “That was a rude wake-up call to just how things can happen in Hollywood,” she said. “But I did get a part in the film, so it worked out okay.” She later appeared in Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice and The Wrecking Crew (both 1969), Walking Tall (1973) and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974), and on 1970s shows such as “McMillan and Wife,” “Starsky and Hutch” and “Fantasy Island.” In 2006 she was cast in an episode of “CSI: New York,” and in 2007 she signed autographs at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, N.C. Fellow television actresses with collections of their own include Catherine Hicks, Joan van Ark and Lana Wood.