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Janis Paige Profile
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Photo gallery |
| (Donna Mae Tjaden / Jaden) |
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| 16 September 22 | is born in Tacoma, Washington, of Swedish descent, one of two girls |
| c. 27 | her parents separate when she’s four years old |
| ? | studies typing and shorthand while attending Stadium High School in Tacoma |
| ? | sings with the Tacoma Opera Company |
| ? | after graduating from high school, she works as a secretary at a plumbing supply store in Seattle for $15 a week |
| ? | her mother takes her to Los Angeles, where she works evenings at the Hollywood Canteen serving sandwiches and coffee. There she’s discovered and given a contract at MGM for $150 a week |
| 44 | is renamed Janis Paige for her debut in Bathing Beauty |
| War Years | is the holder of several beauty titles like "Miss Atomic Energy" and "Miss Delicious Apple" |
| December 45 | Rod Cameron announces his engagement to her but shows up the same day with Yvonne De Carlo |
| she and Captain Billy Bakewell are interested in each other |
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| June 46 | breaks out all over with poison oak after the Cheyenne location filming |
| October 46 | she and Rod Cameron are nothing other than the players in Love and Learn |
| November 46 | she and Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli are reported engaged. They had a tiff but kissed and made o.k. |
| December 46 | has Art Ford, the disc jockey, spinning like a Woody Herman platter |
| 47 | is named "A Star of Tomorrow" |
| January 47 | she and Jack Carson discover each other. His romance with Chili Williams is chilly. |
| February 47 | in a dark corner at Billy Berg’s, she helps Keenan Wynn forget |
| April 47 | flies via United Airlines to Pendleton and then from there to Seattle, where she will have a two-hour visit with members of her family who will be gathered there to see her. Her mother lives with her in Hollywood and isn’t on the trip. |
| she and actor Lew Ayres are a twosome on the Coast |
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| 14 April 47 | is crowned "Miss Damsite" at the McNary Dam celebration in Hermiston, Oregon |
| April 47 | she and Ayres date for ten successive nights, and it looks serious |
| May 47 | columnist Jimmy Fidler asks if her romance with Lew Ayres is just publicity |
| is named "Miss Delicious" at the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival |
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| 2 June 47 | her grandmother, Julia C. Paige, dies at age 67 in Hollywood. The body will be taken to Tacoma, Washington, for burial. |
| Early June 47 | she and Ayres are uh-huneys |
| June 47 | she and Michael North are back together, sitting not far from Howard Duff and Yvonne De Carlo at the Sportsman’s Lodge |
| Early August 47 | reigns as "Miss Cheyenne" at the Cheyenne premiere |
| Mid-December 47 | she and San Francisco restaurateur Frank Louis Martinelli, Jr., announce their engagement in Los Angeles |
| 27 December 47 | marries Martinelli in North Hollywood. Both are 25. Her wedding gown is a gift from her boss, Jack Warner. |
| the Martinellis honeymoon in Yosemite and settle in Beverly Hills |
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| Mid-January 48 | returns from her honeymoon to start filming of One Sunday Afternoon |
| January 48 | has a publicity meeting with the Maharajah of Cooch Behar while he’s visiting Hollywood during a business trip to the States |
| August 48 | her husband, Martinelli, will go into the Hollywood television business |
| October 48 | she and Warner Brothers are going round and round. She yells that Doris Day is getting all the good roles, and she wants out of her contract. |
| December 48 | feuds with her agent. She says she is not only getting nowhere, but it’s happening too fast. |
| March 49 | is named VFW "Buddy Poppy Girl of 1949" because she typifies the thousands of volunteers who each year throughout the country work in the Memorial Week Buddy Poppy sale |
| ? | she and Martinelli go abroad for 6 months |
| September 49 | she and Martinelli celebrate her birthday in Italy, and her big surprise is a gondola ride in Venice during which the gondolier turns out to be actor Mischa Auer |
| December 49 | recuperates from a tonsillectomy |
| Christmas 49 | is back, and she and Martinelli spend the holidays with his family in San Francisco |
| End 49 | is dropped by Warner Brothers |
| April - August 50 | is broke and ill. She has to sell her Cadillac and is forced to take on a debilitating tour of one-night stands in minor clubs across the country. |
| November 50 | divorces Martinelli but dates him four nights in a row after the decree arrives |
| December 50 | columnist Jimmy Fidler expects her and Martinelli to announce a reconciliation |
| January 51 | the reconciliation with Martinelli doesn’t jell in New York. There are only telephone conversations but no patch-up dates. |
| Early 50s | as her film career collapses, she scores heavily on Broadway |
| 51 | tours with her Warner co-star Jack Carson in a nightclub act |
| March 51 | there are rumors she will wed her new manager after her divorce from Martinelli |
| May 51 | will give up Hollywood for New York and has a date to discuss acting lessons with Lee Strasberg |
| 24 May 51 | her divorce from Martinelli is granted in Las Vegas, Nevada, on grounds of mental cruelty. Attorneys say a property settlement was agreed upon. Martinelli will marry and divorce model Irene Burns soon afterwards. In 1956 he will marry Sue Ziegler, a pretty 22-year-old Stanford University student. |
| May 51 | divorces Martinelli, Jr., in Las Vegas |
| July 51 | columnist Walter Winchell reports that she is the current insomnia of Dick Stabile but doesn’t divide him from his wife |
| 3 October 51 | opens at the Morosco Theatre with Remains to Be Seen and becomes romantically involved with her co-star Jackie Cooper |
| October 51 | is seen with lots of lads, but her Mr. Big remains Dick Stabile |
| c. 53 | dates John Hodiak, the ex of Anne Baxter |
| April 53 | a Reno guy, posing as Ronald Reagan’s brother, claims to be her agent. She happens to play a nightclub in the city and puts the cops wise to the fellow. |
| 21 April 53 | opens in New Orleans |
| Early June 53 | is "closer-than-the-humitammitty" with Ralph Meeker at Gilmore’s |
| August 53 | Jackie Cooper minds her schnauzer whilst she tries on dresses in a Fifth Avenue salon |
| September 53 | is quoted saying "The way taxes are today, you might as well marry for love." |
| October 53 | has J. Robertson, the catcher for the Kansas City baseball team, pitching for her |
| November 53 | gets a bonus from Bob Hope for her splendid trouping when she stepped into the Arlene Dahl spot on his TV show as an emergency replacement |
| ? | opens in Kansas City with Annie Get Your Gun |
| ? | tours the armed forces in Cuba and Korea with Bob Hope |
| 54 | has a big success on Broadway with The Pajama Game |
| April 54 | she and Jackie Cooper call it a day |
| May 54 | she and actor John Hodiak are daily doubles at Hickory House |
| August 54 | is dated by recently divorced CBS executive Norman Frank |
| "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom squires her to the Viennese Lantern |
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| October 54 | attends Sloan Simpson’s birthday celebration at El Morocco with Bob Ritchie |
| 55 | turns down a part in Broadway’s Silk Stockings |
| April 55 | is one of the chief mourners for Danny Thomas’ brother, Paul. He helped produce her TV pilot. |
| July 55 | is pursued by Artie Stander |
| August 55 | has a serious romance with Arthur Stander, the producer of her TV show |
| 9 January 56 | announces she’ll marry Stander on January 18 in Las Vegas. She and Stander met while she was appearing on Broadway in Pajama Game. Stander offers her the leading part in the television series "It’s Always Jan," and she leaves Broadway to accept the part. |
| 18 January 56 | marries TV producer-writer Arthur Stander in Las Vegas, Nevada. He’s 39; she’s 33. Each was married once previously. |
| January 56 | columnist Walter Winchell reports that her former admirer, Bob Goldworm, is now consoled by ballerina Mary Ellen Terry |
| February 56 | she and Stander plan to make a movie together |
| September 56 | has to be given oxygen during her nightclub engagement at Lake Tahoe. The altitude affected her. |
| March 57 | she and Stander embark upon a "mental separation." That is what a spokesman for her calls it. He says that although they are living in different rooms of the same house, they have come to the conclusion they will have to part. They have been married 14 months. |
| April 57 | friends blame her split-up with Stander chiefly on the flop of "It’s Always Jan," which he wrote and produced. It was the program that brought them together in the first place, but when they became a husband-and-wife team in the nerve-wracking world of video the familiar frictions developed. |
| she and Stander are said to be on the long distance phone daily. Intimates are hopeful that they will patch things. |
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| May 57 | her new escort is CBS executive Ed Blum |
| is given the big brush by a Caucasian tycoon with the initials E. L. In 1958 he will court Broadway’s Josephine Premice. |
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| 4 June 57 | divorces Stander in Santa Monica. "He was uncontrollably jealous. I was subject to hours and days of cross-examination about my past life." she testifies. "And the questions were completely unjustified." Stander will die at age 40 in 1963 of a cerebral hemorrhage. |
| June 57 | is seen in a Beverly Hills cocktail lounge battling with producer Jimmy Ellsworth |
| is offered the lead in the London company of Bells Are Ringing |
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| July 57 | she and actor Donald McKinner are a nightly parlay on the Vegas strip |
| February 58 | she and actor Jack Webb claim their dates are just for kicks, not heavily romantic |
| April 58 | is given the big rush by Harry Karl, who is anxious to divorce actress Marie McDonald so he can marry a mysterious "someone else" |
| August 58 | is seen at the Forum with Bill Williams |
| December 58 | MGM wants her for the upcoming "Maisie" TV series based on the character Ann Sothern played in the movies |
| is heartbroken because she can’t go on the Christmas trip with Bob Hope. She won’t finish at Desilu in time, and after that, right into the "Maisie" TV series. |
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| January 59 | hops into New York from Los Angeles for some fun, gets a bad cold, cancels all dates, and returns without having had fun |
| June 59 | columnist Walter Winchell thinks that she and British comic D. King prefer the "hida-woo" spots |
| November 59 | is courted by Texan Rod Barry |
| January 60 | she and broker Walker "Moon" Mullins may make it a spring wedding |
| May 60 | her date at the Harwyn is TV producer Elliott Arnold |
| Early December 61 | is seen at Cafe Torino in New York in gold leotards and gold-rimmed specs |
| December 61 | signs a run-of-the-play contract for the London version of The Unsinkable Molly Brown. She says it doesn’t mean the end of her romance with composer Ray Gilbert. He will arrange to cross the Atlantic and work over there. |
| January 61 | she and producer Leo Gruber are setting the Embers aglow |
| 24 April 62 | a seven-ton dump truck tumbles down an embankment and stops just short of her Hollywood Hills home, narrowly missing a bedroom where she is dressing. The 32-year-old driver, Columbus Bryant, tells police he had left the truck parked on a drive above Janis’ home. He says he has no idea how it broke loose. |
| August 62 | "The Janis Paige Show," produced by Danny Thomas, is the sole casualty this summer. It lasted only a season. |
| 30 August 62 | marries Ray Gilbert, the Hollywood composer and music publisher in Nice, France. He’s 50; she’s 39. She just finished a film on the Riviera. |
| Late September 62 | she and her husband, Gilbert, return to Los Angeles |
| Christmas 62 | accompanies Bob Hope on his annual Christmas tour of U.S. bases in Japan, Korea, Okinawa, Formosa, the Philippines, and Guam. She sings and dances and takes part in comedy routines. |
| January 64 | has to redo her hair for her Broadway musical Here’s Love |
| February 64 | has a virus, so her stand-by, Jan McArt, has to go on for her in Here’s Love |
| 68 | is back on Broadway as Angela Lansbury’s replacement in Mame |
| ? | the Gilberts live in California but spend much time in Brazil, where she studies Portuguese |
| Early 70s | suffers a serious accident that causes a back injury and threatens her mobility |
| 4 March 76 | becomes the widow of Gilbert, who dies at age 64 from complications from open heart surgery after a long and happy union |
| 2 June 24 | dies ar age 101 in Los Angeles |
| Sources: "Janis Paige - A Marvelous Therapy" by Colin Briggs in Classic Images, The Lowell Sun, The Era, Lincoln Sunday Journal and Star, Newark Advocate and American Tribune, The Zanesville Signal, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Statesville Daily Record, Middletown Times Herald, Pottstown Mercury, Record-Eagle, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Indiana Evening Gazette, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Lincoln Journal, Record-Eagle, Dixon Evening Telegraph, The Coshocton Tribune, Silver Screen, The Times Recorder, Nevada State Journal, Mansfield News-Journal, The Lima News, The Charleroi Mail, The Daily Independent, The Monessen Daily Independent, Tri-City Herald, The Times Recorder, Burlington Daily Times-News, The Sheboygan Press, The Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, www.IMDb.com | |
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| Links: Filmography | |