I'm afraid I don't have a great Yvonne DeCarlo anecdote to toss up here today. The one time I ever saw her in person was around 1965, the first time I took the Universal Studio Tour. Today, that experience is like an amusement park ride with stunts and effects, but back then, they used to actually take you where movies and TV shows had been or were currently being filmed. At one point, we all got off the tram and were led through "an actual star's dressing room." In this case, it was allegedly Yvonne DeCarlo's…and it was a nice little room but there was really nothing of interest to see in it. There was certainly nothing that indicated Yvonne DeCarlo had ever set foot in the place and I got the feeling that the next tour group to shlep through would have been told it was where Gene Barry or Doug McClure got dressed.
A little later, we were back on the tram and it was ambling past the stage where The Munsters was filming. We didn't get to go in but Al "Grandpa" Lewis was dawdling outside in full make-up, fiddling with script pages. He acted like he was trying to memorize lines but it was obvious that he was trolling for attention, waiting to be spotted by the tourists so he could feign annoyance…but still come over and sign autographs for his adoring public. I mean, if you're dressed up as Dracula and your skin's painted blue-green, you don't loiter where the trams go by unless you want to be noticed.
Anyway, Mr. Lewis signed and bantered with us…and then someone spotted her. Yvonne DeCarlo, partially but not fully made-up as Lily Munster, was rushing towards the stage door. In contrast to Grandpa, she was trying to not be recognized. The people on our tram started calling to her, yelling "Lily" and "Miss DeCarlo," hoping she'd come by and scribble out a few autographs, too. But she gestured and waved as if to say, "I'm really sorry but I can't" and disappeared inside. Grandpa Al waited until he had everyone's attention back and then announced, "They haven't finished turning her into a monster yet. She doesn't like people to see her at her best."
Big laugh. I'll bet it wasn't the first or last time he used that line.
I'm sorry I don't have a better Yvonne DeCarlo story than that because she was, at least on-screen, a classy lady who had an incredible career. I hope the reason they hadn't finished her make-up wasn't because we'd thrown her out of her dressing room. She deserved better than that.