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Jolene Brand Profile

Jolene Brand
Jolene Brand
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(Jolene Marie Christina Bufkin)
July 34 is born in Baldwin Park, Los Angeles, California, of half-Spanish descent; daughter of a salesman and later the stepdaughter of a Baldwin Park real estate dealer
? attends Mount San Antonio Junior College in Pomona, California
? pitches softball, left handed, for the Baldwin Park Rockettes
51 is crowned “Miss Baldwin Park” at age 16
52 attends Pasadena Playhouse
53 is named “Queen of the Los Angeles County Fair." Wins a lifetime pass to the fair and $200. With the cash she quits Mount San Antonio and enrolls as a model.
55 changes her name to Jolene Brand
March 55 columnist Harrison Carroll tells that "Jolene Brand, the statuesque brunet in the Ciro's chorus, dated Dick Contino and was dining at La Rue's with steel man Ben Serlis..."
April 55 she and fellow MGM starlets Darleen Engle and Jean Patti are on a nationwide promotion tour for the studio's upcoming The Prodigal. They are reported guests of Sam Gilman of Loew's State Theater in Syracuse, New York, appearing on radio, television and in a giant float in front of the theater. The float is mounted with a Wheel of Fortune, a six-foot statue of Lana Turner, a black idol named Baal, and the starlets dressed as handmaidens to the goddess.
lives at the Hollywood Studio Club "where the prize resident now is Kim Novak"
tagged an NBC actress and Ciro's entertainer, she promotes a new workbench in local newspapers
16 October 55 is race queen at the 100-mile national championship race at Sacramento, California
End October 55 as "Miss Red Feather of 1955," she leads a parade down Hollywood Boulevard
she and 14 other actresses are chosen as "WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1956" by a group of veteran actors and actresses, including Ginger Rogers. The other Baby Stars are Fay Spain, 21, Phoenix, Arizona; Barbara Huffman, 21, Tucson, Arizona; Violet Rensing, 24, Berlin, Germany; Dawn Richard, 18, Los Angles, California; Donna Cook, 18, Los Angeles, California; Norma Nillson, 18, Los Angeles, California; Phyllis Applegate, 22, Los Angeles, California; Del-Fin Thursday, 20, Honolulu, Hawaii; Ina Poindexter, 23, Covington, Tennessee; Roxanne Arlen, 21, Detroit, Michigan; Lita Milan, 21, Brooklyn, New York; Jewell Lain, 24, Indianapolis, Indiana; Doreen Stevens, 21, Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Barbara Marks, 22, San Diego, California.
November 55 columnist Harrison Carroll reports from Gary Crosby's debut at Ciro's: "It happened so fast few saw it, but, in the lobby after the show, Ciro's chorine, Jolene Brand, hauled off and slapped Ben Serlis. Both say their friendship is over."
56 is discovered by agent Sid Gold in the Hollywood Studio Club's annual revue
February 56 attends the Alan Gordons' party with Morty Tannenbaum
c. 56 marries George Schlatter, NBC talent executive, who will become a prolific TV producer, director and writer
May 57 is a “Queen for a Day” model. The press tells she and fellow models Suzan Alexander, Millicent Deeming, Virginia Bingman, Maxene Reeves, and Lois Shaumberg have to "work five shows a week, but their working day ends at 3:30 in the afternoon. Now that the days are getting longer, they have plenty of time to enjoy themselves at the beach. Even the lifeguards approve."
August 57 competes for the title of "Miss Rheingold 1958." Other contestants are Robin Bain, Carolyn Stroupe, Madelyn Darrow, Cathy Monahan, and Maylu Miner.
58 with Eileen O’Neill and Chris Noel, she is chosen one of the six finalists in the "Miss Rheingold" contest
11 June 58 is signed by Disney as the love interest for Guy Williams in at least five episodes in the 1958-59 season of ABC's "Zorro"
June 61 Harrison Carroll congratulates her and Schlatter for their fifth wedding anniversary
April 62 columnist Earl Wilson tells that she's expecting. "Her husband, George Schlatter, produces the Dinah Shore show..."
21 June 62 her daughter Maria S. is born in Los Angeles. She will become a TV producer.
February 68 columnist Dick Kleiner notes her at her husband's shindig for Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. to celebrate his participation in NBC's "The Legend of Robin Hood"
24 September 69 her daughter Andrea Justine is born in Los Angeles
April 77 returns to TV as the lady in the bathtub in the first show of her husband's "Laugh-In"
February 87 she and her husband are reported hosting a party at Chasen's for Barbara and Frank Sinatra
August 01 together with her husband, George, she attends the Guy Williams Walk of Fame star ceremony
22 lives in Beverly Hills, California
Sources:
TV Guide, The Lethbridge Herald, The Post-Standard, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The Hammond Times, The Berkshire Eagle, The Daily Gleaner, The Port Arthur News, Syracuse Post-Standard, pro.Corbis.com, www.Ancestry.com
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