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Jinx Falkenburg Profile
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| (Eugenia Lincoln Falkenburg) |
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| 21 January 19 | is born in Barcelona, Spain, to Eugene L. Falkenburg, an engineer, and his wife, Marguerite "Mickey" Crooks Falkenburg, an accomplished amateur tennis player. Jinx's father has a series of assignments in Spain, where he works on electrifying railroads. Her mother nicknames her Jinx months before she is born because they expect a son. |
| ? | becomes an expert swimmer at the age of 18 months |
| c. 22 | moves with her parents to Santiago, Chile |
| 26 January 25 | her brother Thomas is born in Santiago, Chile |
| 29 January 26 | her brother Robert A. is born in New York City |
| ? | becomes tennis champion of Brazil |
| c. 32 | the Chilean revolution leaves the family broke, and they hurriedly move to Los Angeles minus all their possessions. There her father will become a successful electrical engineer working for the Los Angeles metropolitan water district. |
| 35 | graduates from Hollywood High School |
| December 35 | is reported changing her name to Genia Falken |
| c. 36 | is about 17 and on the tennis circuit when she meets Paulette Goddard, allegedly married to Charlie Chaplin. Soon she becomes part of the Chaplin coterie and, along with writer Anita Loos and Paulette’s mother, the closest female friend of Paulette. |
| August 37 | photographer Paul Hesse discovers her at a Los Angeles tennis court and pictures her for the cover of The American Magazine, capturing the attention of Hollywood |
| 39 | after a minor accident during filming in Honolulu, she's assigned to a hospital room adjacent to one occupied by Al Jolson. They are introduced, and he offers her a part in his upcoming Broadway musical. |
| ? | starts modeling in Los Angeles and later in New York |
| 40 | becomes the first "Miss Rheingold," the creation of 26-year-old salesman Robert R. Wechsel for Philip Liebmann, the president of Liebmann Brewery and maker of Rheingold Beer. In 1942 the selection is opened to public. |
| May 40 | will be in Al Jolson's Silks and Satins show |
| Silks and Satins producer George Hale is reported nuts about her "because she is the image of Billie Sewart, who once jilted him for Billy Wilkerson..." |
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| September 40 | is badly hurt in Philadelphia after a fall |
| 27 January 41 | Life names her America’s No.1 Girl |
| February 41 | is reported the leading candidate for the title of America's No. 1 Glamour Girl for 1941. She will fly to Hollywood to make merry with Eddie Cantor and his Time to Smile company. |
| March 41 | is seen at the Beverly Tropics tete a tete with Glenn Ford |
| End August 41 | Columbia lifts its option on her. She remains under term contract; her next assignment is as yet undetermined. |
| September 41 | Columbia recalls her from summer stock appearance at Dennis, Massachusetts, to stag the song hit Daddy in Two Latins from Manhattan |
| October 41 | columnist Louella Parsons reports Jinx enjoying company with Randy Scott |
| columnist Ken Morgan reports that "Randolph Scott has taken over Edmund Grainger's interest in Jinx Falkenburg..." |
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| November 41 | is expected to publish How to Be a Model in the first of the year |
| December 41 | is noted nightclubbing with Dick Foran, "a new and unexpected combination" |
| becomes one of Hollywood's most expert women flyers. She was instructed by Charles "Buddy" Rogers, her co-star in Sing for Your Supper. |
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| January 42 | Parsons reports that Jinx "has given the 'brush' to Bob Brush, test pilot. He's still her favorite heart interest." |
| is reported heading for skiing in Arrowhead almost any weekend |
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| February 42 | Parsons tells that Jinx gets daily long distance calls from Bob Papst of the beer family |
| 21 February 42 | she and her family attend the wedding of actress Elyse Knox and photographer Paul Hesse in Coronado, California. Hedy Lamarr and George Montgomery also motor down for the ceremony. |
| March 42 | she and Ken Murray open at the Earl Theater in Philadelphia |
| April 42 | is chosen America's No. 1 brunette by 25,000 beauty shop owners. Rita Hayworth is named the No. 1 redhead and Evelyn Keyes the blonde. |
| May 42 | promotes the Lips for Liberty campaign for buying war stamps in New York |
| June 42 | is named Victory Poster Girl posing for a series of posters on the war effort |
| July 42 | scenes in a B western with her wearing a negligee are considered as too glamorous for a western heroine and are deleted |
| August 42 | Parson's knows: "Jinx Falkenburg's real heart, Tex McCreary, will come to the coast to see her before he goes to London as a war correspondent..." |
| 29 August 42 | drops out in the first round of the 61st Annual National Amateur Tennis Championships held at Forest Hills, New York |
| September 42 | she and Evelyn Keyes are the first film actresses to sign up with the hundreds of housewives, boys and girls who pick fruit and vegetables in the tomato fields of the San Fernando Valley to aid the war Manpower Commission |
| she, Jane Wyman and John Payne are on tour selling war bonds |
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| c. November 42 | entertains the troops in Panama |
| 14 November 42 | announces in Hollywood that she will become the bride of Tex McCrary, former editorial writer for the New York Daily Mirror, within the next few weeks. She displays a diamond engagement ring and says the wedding will take place in Hollywood when McCrary gets his two-week leave as a newly-commissioned offer in the Air Force. McCrary and the former Sarah Brisbane, daughter off the late Arthur Brisbane, editor-in-chief of Hearst, were divorced in 1939 and have a son. |
| 43 | for a while she becomes Paulette Goddard’s housemate at Coldwater Canyon in Beverly Hills |
| January 43 | Michael Arlen, "the polished author," is noted escorting her and Paulette Goddard to several Hollywood nightspots |
| April 43 | she, her family, and Paulette Goddard will trek to the Dallas tennis matches on April 4 |
| May 43 | is reported trying to get an overseas assignment, "and if she gets it she will wed Tex McCrary in London..." |
| having darkened her already coppery color while skiing in Colorado, she is ordered to pale several shades before starting her role in Cover Girl |
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| June 43 | she and Paulette Goddard will depart for Europe with the Jack Benny troupe. She and Paulette are the only Hollywood actresses to do the European jaunt in addition to the China-Burma-India Theater of war. |
| 4 July 43 | is on hand to celebrate the Fourth of July open house at Merced Army Airfield in Merced, California |
| July 43 | will play hostess to Jim Frasher for two weeks in Hollywood. Frasher's a 12-year-old Caldwell, Idaho, boy whom she met when touring Idaho and who bought a $100 bond from money earned selling papers. |
| Late July 43 | columnist Harrison Carroll notes her "with Lieutenant Albert Halprin, once reported engaged to Carol Bruce..." |
| August 43 | columnist Jimmy Fidler thinks she and Army flier Bob Pusey are Mocam-beaux..." |
| October 43 | leaves for Mexico City to be a guest of the Mexican Government |
| November 43 | Parsons reports Jinx thrilled because "McCrary is now a major..." |
| December 43 | is among a troupe of show people visiting service camps and hospitals. Others are Ginger Rogers, Hedy Lamarr, Joan Crawford, Walter Pidgeon, Mickey Rooney, Dick Powell, Robert Young, Fred McMurray, Wallace Beery, Franchot Tone, Irene Dunne, Lucille Ball, Brian Aherne, Francis Lederer, and Alan Marshall. |
| January 44 | her brothers present her with Siggie, a pet lion |
| 13 January 44 | is among a troupe of show people celebrating the 62nd birthday of President Roosevelt at the White House. Others are Joan Fontaine, Martha Scott, Mary Martin, Virginia Field, Mary Pickford, Lucille Ball, Maria Montez, Jeanne Cagney, Lily Pons, Patricia Collinge, Louis Prima, Guy Lombardo, Brian Aherne, Grantland Rice, Roland Young, Red Skelton, John Garfield, Meyer Davis, Walter Pidgeon, and Brian Donlevy. |
| February 44 | has her appendix removed. Afterwards she recuperates at Paulette Goddard's farm. |
| August 44 | is seen out in Hollywood with Al Jolson. "But he is only a stand-in for Lieutenant Colonel Tex McCrary, who is in Normandy..." |
| 9 October 44 | her father dies at age 56 in Mexico City of a heart attack. He and his wife had been in Mexico vacationing since September 28. Her mother will later marry Leroy Wagstaff. |
| Christmas 44 | returns from a much publicized USO tour of the China-Burma-India war theater. Others with her have been Ruth Carrell, Harry Brown, and Pat O'Brien. She stayed in Cairo to meet McCrary, whom she hasn't seen for 27 months. |
| February 45 | she and John Shea win the mixed doubles at the tennis finals held in La Jolla, California |
| 27 April 45 | is on the cover of Yank, the Army Weekly |
| 8 June 45 | gives a cocktail party asking her friends to see the Mexican fabrics she is introducing in the States |
| 10 June 45 | marries Lieutenant Colonel John Reagan, "Tex," McCrary in New York. He's 34; she's 26. The ceremony is performed by Supreme Court Justice Ferdinand Pecora in the justice's apartment a few hours after Jinx arrived by plane from Hollywood. |
| 19 July 45 | her USO troupe is granted an audience with Pope Pius XII in Rome, Italy |
| December 45 | will welcome the stork next fall |
| c. 2 August 46 | her son John Reagan, III, is born in New York |
| 2 July 46 | she and McCrary establish a successful husband-and wife team New York-based radio show, "Tex and Jinx" |
| 3 January 47 | her brother Tom and the former Bernice Alfred marry in Los Angeles |
| June 47 | will be the star of the Fashion Fair held at the Garden. The show will be staged like a musical comedy. |
| c. 7 July 48 | her 22-year-old brother Bob wins the men's single championship in the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament held at Wimbledon, England |
| 13 August 48 | her second son, Kevin Jock, is born in New York |
| Christmas 49 | she, Bob Hope and songwriter Irving Berlin visit Berlin, Germany, during the Allied airlift |
| July 50 | is noted lunching in Beverly Hills with Gussie Moran |
| 7 November 50 | graces the splash Don Carlos opening of Rudolf Bing's Metropolitan Opera. Other celebrity guests of the televised event are Faye Emerson, Dorothy Kirsten, Rise Stevens and Betty "Legs" Henderson. |
| 51 | her biography, Jinx, is published |
| February 52 | her husband announces he’ll leave the radio and television show to campaign for General Dwight D. Eisenhower for the Republicans nomination for president. She will carry on the shows they jointly conduct. |
| 53 | has her five-days-a-week daytime show, "New York Close-Up" |
| 29 January 53 | is pictured with Eleanor Parker and Louella Parsons at the New York City premiere of Above and Beyond |
| 6 October 53 | is on hand to promote the opening of the $650,000 fund drive by the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York |
| 15 October 53 | attends Betty Hutton's opening show at the Palace Theater in New York City |
| 20 November 53 | is on hand when Ginger Rogers pours champagne on the nose of the Golden Parisian, christening the new Air France overnight airliner before its inaugural flight across the Atlantic. Also present is Jacques Bergerac, Ginger Rogers' husband. They were among the celebrity passengers on the maiden hop from New York to Paris. |
| 26 November 53 | she, news commentator John Cameron Swayze and United Press Vice President Mims Thomason escape injury in a bus accident in Algiers, Algeria. The bus crashes into an embankment while transporting 30 Americans touring Algeria as guests of Air France from Algiers to the airport outside the city. |
| April 54 | will do the narration on the telecast of New York's Easter Parade |
| 12 April 56 | interviews Grace Kelly at a press cocktail party aboard the liner Constitution enroute to Grace's Monaco wedding |
| 30 September 56 | she and Betty Hutton are pictured hugging David Sarnoff, board chairman of RCA, at a New York City dinner honoring his 20 years in radio and television |
| April 58 | columnist Hedda Hopper tells that Jinx "is flipped for Sinatra; think he's the greatest..." |
| is noted at the Back to Methusalem opening in New York for her new up Japanese hair-do |
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| May 58 | is mistress of ceremonies at the 32nd White House Correspondent's Association dinner held at Washington D.C.'s Hotel Statler. Vice President Richard M. Nixon is among the several hundred guests. |
| August 58 | is caught in Haiti's revolution attempt. Friends fear she might miss the "Masquerade Party" TV show. |
| October 58 | is reported seriously ill with hepatitis for the past two and a half months |
| Late March 59 | has licked the hepatitis that sent her off to South America. McCrary brings her back from Argentina quietly. |
| July 59 | still convalescing, she turns down TV offers for summer at Montauk Manor |
| September 59 | returns from Russia and says she was most impressed by the hard manual labor performed by Soviet women |
| July 60 | takes up golf during her convalescing from hepatitis and is already shooting in the low 90s |
| Early 60s | she and Paulette Goddard still meet for shopping in New York City |
| May 62 | she and McCrary will report the 16-week coverage of the Billy Graham Crusade for Christianity |
| March 64 | is the gas industry television hostess showing "how automatic gas dryers take the work out of a washday" |
| 3 March 65 | her 41-year-old brother Tom is arrested coming off the ninth hole of a golf course in Jackson, Mississippi, in connection with a $4,048 armed robbery of the Bank of Ridgeland in rural Madison County on February 25 |
| 30 April 65 | her brother pleads guilty in the $4,048 robbery of the Bank of Ridgeland and the $14,230 robbery of the Bank of Madison on March 30, 1964 |
| 22 May 65 | her brother Tom is sentenced to prison in Jackson, Mississippi, on charges stemming from two bank robberies. U.S. District Judge Harold Cox hands down two 15-year prison sentences to run concurrently and a $5,000 fine. "The former tennis star stood silent." Tom Falkenburg will die at age 80 in 2005 in Stuart, Florida. |
| ? | develops a drinking problem and loses touch with Paulette Goddard |
| ? | comes out of retirement to become vice president of Marian Bianlac Cosmetic Co., a Swiss company and maker of Yatrolin, a liquid and night cream moisturizer |
| June 71 | to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the McCrarys are feted by the George Mardikians at their home in San Francisco |
| is guest of honor at a fashion party at the home of the Harry Lewises. She's noted wearing Oscar de la Renta. |
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| June 75 | attends a dinner given by Argentine ambassador Alex Ortiz honoring her and McCrary with her two sons. McCrary is laid up in North Shore Hospital, Long Island, with peritonitis. |
| 77 | after 15 years, she phones Paulette Goddard at her apartment at the New York Ritz Towers. They have dinner and go to the theater. |
| Paulette visits her in Greentree, Manhasset, but soon she withdraws and Jinx never sees her again |
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| August 78 | represents her brother Robert who's inducted into the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport, Rhode Island, casino |
| 80s | the McCrarys separate but never divorce |
| ? | resides quietly in Mill Neck, Long Island |
| 29 July 03 | McCrary dies at age 92 of natural causes in Manhattan |
| 27 August 03 | as Jinx Falkenburg, she dies at age 84 at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York |
| Sources: Opposite Attraction by Julie Gilbert, Paulette: The Adventurous Life of Paulette Goddard by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, The New York Times, Oakland Tribune, The Burlington Daily Times-News, Woodland Daily Democrat, Humboldt Standard, The Austin American, Soda Springs Sun, The Lima News, The Modesto Bee, The Port Arthur News, The Fresno Bee, Middletown Times Herald, The Lowell Sun, The Ogden Standard-Examiner, The Charleston Gazette, Olean Times-Herald, The Port Arthur News, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, The Bismarck Tribune, Lincoln Sunday Journal and Star, Winnipeg Free Press, Nevada State Journal, The Daily Gleaner, Waukesha Daily Freeman, The Daily Courier, Waterloo Sunday Courier, The Tribune Sports, The Bradford Era, The Monessen Daily Independent, The Independent, Redlands Daily Facts, Charleston Daily Mail, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Odessa American, The Daily Intelligencer, The Daily Oklahoman, Pacific Stars and Stripes, The Daily Review, San Mateo Times, Newport Daily News, Mansfield News-Journal, pro.Corbis.com, www.Ancestry.com | |
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| Links: Filmography | |