Barbara Eden has one wish for how she’d like to be remembered by fans.
“That I made them laugh, made them happy, took them to another place,” the actress, who famously starred in “I Dream of Jeannie,” recently told People magazine.
“I have so many people that come up to me and tell me that they had an awful childhood, and that the only thing that helped them out was to go in their room and pretend it was a bottle,” said the 94-year-old, referring to the character’s home.
“It makes me sad and happy at the same time,” the star admitted.
Eden has enjoyed a decades-long career in Hollywood, though many best remember her from the beloved 1960s sitcom celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. The series tells the tale of astronaut Major Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman), who finds a magic bottle with a 2,000-year-old genie (Eden) inside. The two fall in love and build a life together.
The series premiered on Sept. 18, 1965, catapulting Eden to superstardom. It aired for five seasons before ending in 1970.
“I didn’t realize how popular ‘Jeannie’ was until several years after, and it still amazes me,” Eden said. “I can’t believe it. I have mail from Russia. Can you imagine? I have fan mail from Russia, China, Japan, Poland, Italy, Germany, South America and the U.K. If you had told me that when we were shooting, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
Eden told the outlet that fans often ask her to make Jeannie’s signature arm-folding motion to “cast a spell” for them — and sometimes, they do it back.
“It’s magic,” she said. “They always want magic. Magic is good.”
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These days, Eden enjoys a quieter life with her husband, Jon Eicholtz, and their dog, Bentley.
“We’re just happy to be together,” she told the outlet. “We really enjoy each other.”
When Fox News Digital recently asked Eden about being labeled a sex symbol, she replied, “I had no idea.”
“I never thought of [Jeannie] as sexual,” she said. “She was lovable because she was so honest and forthright and obviously devoted to her master. And she was learning. I enjoyed playing that part of it. She was learning everything about this time. She was 2,000 years old, which people seem to forget.”
“She was an entity — she wasn’t a real woman,” Eden added. “She was female, of course, but an entity, not a human. And that’s your comedy right there. She felt she could be human, and of course, he knew she wasn’t.”
But one thing Eden couldn’t have anticipated was the public’s fascination with her belly button — or lack of one. The actress famously wore a pink two-piece with high-waisted, billowing pants and a crop top that concealed her navel.
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“Mike Connolly [a columnist for The Hollywood Reporter] would come down to the set,” Eden recalled. “He would tease me about how I didn’t have a belly button because it never showed. Well, it did, because I’d raise my arms and do all kinds of physical things, and of course, my belly button would peek out.
“But he enjoyed teasing me. He would poke me in the middle and say, ‘I don’t believe you have one!’ And then he started to write about it. And then guys all across the United States began to write about it.”
“I thought it was funny, but strange,” she chuckled. “Suddenly, the standards and practices, or whatever they called it in the film industry, realized I had a belly button. Even the studio realized I had a belly button! But before that, no problem.”
Eden said no one at the studio initially insisted she cover her navel until the playful rumors spread like wildfire.
“They said I had to have the waist come up high,” she explained. “But not only that — I wore dancer’s pantyhose, which are pretty thick, plus a pair of underwear over that, and then the chiffon. And then there was silk inside. It was so funny. All I could do was laugh at the whole thing. And men would come down to the set just to stare at my belly. It was a lot of foolishness, but fun.”
Eden gave input on one thing about her midriff-baring costume.
“The color,” she said. “Gwen Wakeling, an Oscar-winning costume designer, came to me and showed me her sketches. And of course, I loved them. Then she said, ‘What’s your favorite color?’ I said, ‘Well, it depends. Right now, it’s hot pink.’ And she went with pink. I’m still so happy she did that.”
The star said that over the years, she never felt Jeannie’s powerful presence overshadowed her Hollywood career.
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“I was always content and happy with her,” she explained. “Even when I was doing ‘Jeannie,’ I was lucky enough to still be doing other things. I opened the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I went back to singing again.”
“When we had breaks shooting ‘Jeannie,’ I would do another film in between and then go back. It was a long ping-pong. … And I’m so pleased that people still like her. I had no idea that the show would have the impact that it’s had all over the world.”
“Back then, I didn’t think about being famous,” she reflected. “I was just working. I didn’t have time to sit back and say, ‘I made it.’ I just didn’t. You can’t do that when you’re working hard.”
