Janet Blair

Janet Blair
File:Janet Blair Henry Fonda Smith Family 1970.JPG Blair and Henry Fonda from the television program The Smith Family
Born	Martha Janet Lafferty (1921-04-23)April 23, 1921 Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Complications from pneumonia
Resting place	Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1941–1991
Spouse(s)	Lou Busch (m. 1943–50) Nick Mayo (m. 1953–71)
Children	2

Janet Blair (April 23, 1921 – February 19, 2007) was a big band singer who went on to become a popular American film and television actress.

Early years

Born Martha Janet Lafferty in Altoona, Pennsylvania (she took her acting surname from Blair County, Pennsylvania), Blair was the daughter of musically oriented parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred B. Lafferty. Her father led the choir and sang solos in his church, and her mother played both piano and organ. She had a brother, Fred Jr., and a sister, Louise.

Film

Blair began her acting career on film in 1941, being placed under contract to Columbia Pictures. Before that, she was a featured singer in the Hal Kemp Orchestra. During World War II she appeared as the pin-up girl in the March 1944 issue of Yank Magazine. She made a string of successful pictures, although she is today best remembered for playing Rosalind Russell's sister in My Sister Eileen (1942) and Rita Hayworth's best friend in Tonight and Every Night (1945). In the 1947 film The Fabulous Dorseys, Blair returned to her musical roots, portraying a singer. In the late 1940s, Blair had star billing in the crime drama I Love Trouble as well as in The Fuller Brush Man, a comedy with Red Skelton, but was dropped by Columbia and did not return to pictures for several years.

She made a rare dramatic appearance in the 1962 British horror film Night of the Eagle. She played the wife of Tony Randall in another film that year, the comedy Boys' Night Out, which starred James Garner and Kim Novak.

Stage

In 1950, Blair took the lead role of Nellie Forbush in the U.S touring production of the stage musical South Pacific, making more than 1,200 performances in three years. "[I] never missed a performance", she noted proudly. During the tour, she also got married to second husband, producer-director Nick Mayo, and they became parents of Amanda and Andrew.

Blair also starred in the Broadway comedy You Never Can Tell in 1953.

Clubs

Blair was a star musical performer in premiere nightclubs and supper clubs like the Empire Room at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Television

In 1955, Blair starred as Venus in a live production of One Touch of Venus on NBC-TV.

Blair appeared on television in various variety show guest appearances—saying, "I think I appeared on the Milton Berle Show more than any other guest"—and hosted, with John Raitt and Edie Adams, the 1958 summer replacement for the Dinah Shore Chevy Show for the vacationing star Dinah Shore. She was a cast member during the 1956-57 TV season on Caesar's Hour, a comedy-variety series starring Sid Caesar.

On television in 1971, Janet co-starred with Henry Fonda in The Smith Family, a comedy-drama series on ABC. Her last performance on television was in a 1991 episode of Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury.

Radio

On radio, Blair co-starred with George Raft in "Broadway," a 1942 episode of Lux Radio Theatre on CBS.

Recording

Blair recorded an album of standards entitled Flame Out! for the Dico label which included ballads like "Don't Explain" and "Then You've Never Been Blue."

Personal life

Blair was married twice. Her first marriage was to musical arranger and conductor Louis Ferdinand Busch on July 12, 1943, at Lake Arrowhead, California. The two had met four years earlier when Blair sang for Hal Kemp's band and Busch was Kemp's pianist and arranger. They divorced in March 1950. She married television producer Nick Mayo in 1952 with whom she had two children: Andrew and Amanda. They divorced in 1971.

Death

On February 19, 2007, Blair died of complications from pneumonia, aged 85, at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. She was survived by a daughter and a son.

Filmography

File:Janet Blair in Tonight and Every Night trailer.jpg

in Tonight and Every Night (1945)

• Three Girls About Town (1941)
• Blondie Goes to College (1942)
• Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942)
• Broadway (1942)
• My Sister Eileen (1942)
• Something to Shout About (1943)
• Once Upon a Time (1944)
• Tonight and Every Night (1945)
• Tars and Spars (1946)
• Gallant Journey (1946)
• The Fabulous Dorseys (1947)
• I Love Trouble (1948)
• The Fuller Brush Man (1948)
• The Black Arrow (1948)
• Public Pigeon No. 1 (1957)
• Night of the Eagle (US: Burn, Witch, Burn, 1962)
• Boys' Night Out (1962)
• The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968)
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)

Television

• The Ford Theatre Hour (1948)
• The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (1949)
• The Philco Television Playhouse (1949)
• Armstrong Circle Theatre (1954)
• The Elgin Hour (1954)
• The United States Steel Hour (1954)
• A Connecticut Yankee (1955, TV)
• Goodyear Television Playhouse (1955)
• Lux Video Theatre (1955)
• Climax! (1955)
• Front Row Center (1955)
• One Touch of Venus (1955, TV)
• Ford Television Theatre (1956)
• Screen Directors Playhouse (1956)
• Caesar's Hour (1956–1957)
• Alcoa Theatre (1958)
• Around the World with Nellie Bly (1960 TV movie)
• The Chevy Mystery Show (1960)
• Shirley Temple's Storybook (1960)
• The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1960–1961)
• The Outer Limits (1963)
• Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1964)
• Destry (1964)
• Burke's Law (1963–1964)
• Ben Casey (1966)
• Marcus Welby, M.D. (1970–1973)
• The Smith Family (1971–1972)
• Switch (1977)
• Fantasy Island (1980)
• The Love Boat (1982)
• Murder, She Wrote (1991)

Radio

• Lux Radio Theatre (1946 - Gallant Journey)
• This Is Hollywood (1946 - Along Came Jones)

Discography

• Flame Out (1959, Dico)

Further reading

• Oderman, Stuart, Talking to the Piano Player 2. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 1-59393-320-7.

External links

• Janet Blair at the Internet Movie Database
• Janet Blair at AllMovie
• Daily Telegraph obituary
• Photos of Janet Blair in Columbia Pictures 1940's films by Ned Scott