Donna Loren

Biography

Donna Loren enjoyed a brief career as a pop/rock singer, doing girl group type material during the mid-'60s. Born Donna Zukor in Boston in 1947, she made her professional singing debut at age seven with a commercial jingle. From there, she moved on to other commercial work and a guest appearance on The Mickey Mouse Club. She made recordings intermittently for a variety of labels over the next eight years, but most of her success was as a vocalist for commercials, culminating in 1963 when she won a talent contest to become the official representative of Dr. Pepper. Known as the "Dr. Pepper Girl," she made regular appearances at record hops, concerts, and on television variety shows aimed at teenagers — most notably American Bandstand — on behalf of the soft drink. This led to her appearance in the first of the Beach Party movies, in what was supposed to be a little spot plugging the drink (whose makers had helped finance the movie). Instead, the producers gave Loren a song to do and she was featured in supporting roles in most of the subsequent films in the series, the most popular of which, Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), was so successful that a soundtrack featuring Loren was rushed out. That LP, which was similar in nature to the work of such contemporary girl group singers as Diane Renay or Lesley Gore, didn't break any sales records, but Loren was well enough established to justify another year's worth of singles. She left the music business in the late '60s, making one attempt at success in a country music vein in the early '70s. She has also been a very successful clothes designer based in Hawaii.