Top Models by Samuel Claesson - HTML preview

Jann Darlyn

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One of the most successful brunettes in Hollywood was Jann Darlyn, who was sometimes credited as Jan Darlyn. She was born as Mildred Darlyn Mersich on August 21, 1929 in San Rafael, California to Gustov and Carolyn Mersich, who were immigrants from Yugoslavia. She had a sister named Helene too. As a child, she studied music. She sang and was an accomplished pianist. She was a star in high school. She was an academic, an avid reader, and a great vocalist. She proved herself to be a good performer weeks before her graduation when he made her onstage debut in Boomerang on May 25, 1947.

According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Jann planned to have a career in public relations. That changed. After graduating from Lowell High School, she joined a modeling troupe called the American-Jugoslav Juniors who modeled coats, hats, and shoes at various fashion events. While June Kirby studied modeling at Barbizon, Jann attended House of Charm where she learned makeup, posture, and hair. Meanwhile, the

City of San Francisco was preparing for it' s annual 35 pageant. It wasn't uncommon for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce to post flyers at House of Charm to recruit contestants, which is exactly what they did.

Jann faced some hefty competition that included former semifinalist Lorraine Hinton and Nuvia Cabrera, the first immigrant to compete in the pageant. Jann sang a song titled "Once in a While " which was met with applause, and she was crowned Miss San Francisco on May 1, 1952. The runner-ups were Patricia McBride and Helen Wells. She competed in Miss California on June 6, 1952 where she placed third. As required, she made the rounds at various events to promote the pageant. She appeared at the California International Home Show, San Francisco ' s Auto Show, and the California State Fair. She even got to meet that year' s Miss America. According to columnist Herb Caen, Jann said "That' s the closest I'll get to being Miss America."

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She enrolled at San Francisco City College months later where she continued her studies in music. She wanted to be known for her talent as a songstress rather than another gorgeous face. She continued expanding her resume though, modeling with Lilli Ann Co, a manufacturer of fine garments.

After earning a degree, she flew to Hollywood to pursue the dream. Her two predecessors of Miss San Francisco, Pat Sheehan and Barbara Eden, had become great successes in the entertainment industry, and Jann wanted to follow suit. Jann, like June Kirby, made her onscreen debut on the Colgate Comedy Hour, The Liberace Show, and Eddie Cantor ' s Comedy Theatre. She had changed her name to Jann at the request of her agent, who thought that Mildred was a dowdy name.

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Jann Darlyn in Miss California ->

It seemed that the stage name was a good choice, as she was named Girl of the Golden West weeks later by the Western Harness Association. She thought that racking up pageant titles would do her career some good, so she went to the Beverly Hills Hotel on April 14, 1955 where hundreds of women were applying to be Miss Rheingold. She was one of eight selected, but ultimately did not win.

Her career had stalled for years, but she finally had a breakthrough when she was cast in Guys and Dolls (1955) after an hour-long interview with it' s producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. She was one of six women chosen -out of thousands who appliedto tour with the cast of Guys and Dolls (1955). It was an international tour where she toured 26 cities and several countries. It was exhausting, but she met some great friends along the way. One of the women on the tour, Madelyn Darrow, would be a lifelong friend of Jann.

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Jann Darlyn in Guys and Dolls (1955) ->

It was a great year for Jann, and two additional films Anything Goes (1956) and The Ten Commandments (1956) followed. The following year, she appeared in The Garment Jungle (1957) as a runway model alongside Madelyn Darrow and June Kirby. She can be seen wearing a gown and black gloves by the doorway as the manager -played by Lee J. Cobbis giving his son a tour of the store. She had another brief appearance in The Joker is Wild (1957) where she shared the screen with the legendary Frank Sinatra.

On October 28, 1957, she made a highly-publicized appearance at a Los Angeles Dodgers pre-season event to promote what was the team ' s premiere year with the city of Los Angeles. The woman who was everywhere and did everything marked another category in sports. On Oct 26, 1957, Jann appeared in Perry Mason. It wasn 't just her breakthrough role, but it gave her an opportunity to do some legitimate acting. It was on one of the most popular television series in

history nonetheless. She portrayed Miss Carling, 47 who telephones her lover while he ' s gambling at a casino. Her last line is "I'll be waiting." Anyone interested in seeing Jann ' s acting ability can watch the episode free-of-charge on Pluto TV.

Jann Darlyn and Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls (1955)

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Jann Darlyn in The Naked and the Dead (1958) ->

She was on two episodes of The Bob Cummings Show as well. One of the episodes, Bob Butters Beck, Beck Butters Better, has her and models Suzanne Lloyd and Lisa Davis posing on a tractor for a photograph. She has dialogue, but it' s muffled by various sound effects. On The Jack Benny Program, she is seen with a wheelbarrow of money assisting with a trivia segment. Those episodes can be seen -in low resolution- on YouTube.

It was that year when she was named spokesmodel for a bevy of companies. She was crowned Max Factor ' s Girl of 1957, and took honors in Germany while demonstrating techniques for applying makeup. She represented ParcelAir, where she appeared in various newspapers holding shipping containers to promote their expanding services. On October 31st , she reigned over National Tuna Week. One of the photographs in this chapter will show that she did modeling for Friskies Pet Food.

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Jann ' s last films were The Naked and the Dead (1958) as Betty and The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) as a receptionist. That was the end of her career as an actress, but she wasn 't gonna quit modeling so soon. After a brief audition with a producer at NBC, she was hired as one of the models on Jack Bailey ' s Queen for a Day, which was one of the most popular series on television.

Unlike June Kirby, Jann was frequently on the series rather than part -time. She earned $250 a week alongside Maxine Reeves, Carol Anders, Suzanne Alexander, and Jolene Brand. She was single, and she needed a steady paycheck. That was her primarily concern, and Queen for a Day provided just that. Her tenure on Queen for a Day was brief, as she would leave the series to wed a man she planned to spend her life with. On June 17, 1960, Jann married Dr. George Stedman Huard. He was a divorcee with a son, but he was wealthy nonetheless. They had a son named James. The union ended, with rumors

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spiraling that he cheated on her with Dion Bondshu, a dancer in Las Vegas. If that didn 't complicate matters, the relationship with Bondshu resulted in a child Jann Darlyn and Jack Bailey on Queen for a Day -> named Heidi being born. Jann was ready to move on with her life.

On March 4, 1967, she married Horatio Robert "Bob" Plate, a grocery tycoon. He adopted Jann ' s son James. The couple lived in Atherton, California for decades after leaving Hollywood, where she became a successful realtor as a lot of former models do. She later moved to Houston, Texas after her husband died.

As of 2023, Jann is in great health. Although she has no plans to return to Hollywood, she loves hearing from fans. She ' s happily retired in Paso Robles, California near her son James, who owns a vineyard. I' ve had correspondence with her via mail, and she ' s always been pleasant.

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