Janet Blair

Janet Blair (born Martha Janet Lafferty; April 23, 1921 – February 19, 2007) was an American big-band singer who later became a popular film and television actress.
Early years
Janet Blair was born Martha Janet Lafferty on April 23, 1921 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the daughter of musically oriented parents. 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's showbusiness career began as a featured singer in the Hal Kemp Orchestra. She began her film career in 1941 under contract to Columbia Pictures. During World War II, she appeared as the pin-up girl in the March 1944 issue of Yank, the Army Weekly magazine. She appeared in a series of successful films, although she may be best remembered for playing Rosalind Russell's sister in My Sister Eileen (1942) and Rita Hayworth's 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, she had star billing in the crime drama I Love Trouble and the comedy The Fuller Brush Man (both 1948).
She was dropped by Columbia in 1947 and did not return to film for several years. "I gave up Hollywood and I gave up pictures" she explained. "All I got were princess parts. A girl gets tired of being a princess all of the time."
In 1962, she appeared in a rare dramatic role in the British horror film Night of the Eagle and played the wife of Tony Randall in the comedy Boys' Night Out with James Garner and Kim Novak.
Stage
In 1950, Blair took the lead role of Nellie Forbush in the American touring production of the stage musical South Pacific, with more than 1,200 performances in three years. During the tour, she married her second husband, producer-director Nick Mayo, and they later had two children.
Blair also starred in the Broadway comedy A Girl Can Tell in 1953.
Television
In 1955, Blair starred as Venus in a live production of One Touch of Venus on NBC.
Blair appeared on television in various variety-show guest appearances and served as Dinah Shore's summer replacement on the Dinah Shore Chevy Show in 1958. She was a cast member during the 1956–1957 season on Caesar's Hour, a comedy-variety series starring Sid Caesar.
She appeared as a guest panelist on the June 9, 1957 episode of What's My Line?.
Blair costarred with Henry Fonda in The Smith Family, an ABC comedy-drama series. Her last performance on television was in a 1991 episode of Murder, She Wrote.
Radio
On radio, Blair costarred 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 such as "Don't Explain" and "Then You've Never Been Blue".
Personal life
Blair married musical arranger and conductor Louis Ferdinand Busch on July 12, 1943 in Lake Arrowhead, California. They 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. Two years later, Blair wed television producer Nick Mayo, with whom she later had two children, Andrew and Amanda. The couple remained together for 19 years until their divorce in 1971.
Blair was a Republican and campaigned for Thomas Dewey in the 1944 presidential election.
On February 19, 2007, Blair died at the age of 85 at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California from complications of pneumonia. She was cremated.
Filmography
Three Girls About Town (1941) – Charity Banner
Blondie Goes to College (1942) – Laura Wadsworth
Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942) – Patricia Dare
Broadway (1942) – Billie Moore
My Sister Eileen (1942) – Eileen Sherwood
Something to Shout About (1943) – Jeanie Maxwell
Once Upon a Time (1944) – Jeannie Thompson
Tonight and Every Night (1945) – Judy Kane
Tars and Spars (1946) – Christine Bradley
Gallant Journey (1946) – Regina 'Ginny' Cleary
The Fabulous Dorseys (1947) – Jane Howard
I Love Trouble (1948) – Norma Shannon aka Gretchen Breeger
The Black Arrow (1948) – Joanna Sedley
The Fuller Brush Man (1948) – Ann Elliot
Public Pigeon No. 1 (1957) – Edith Enders
Night of the Eagle (US: Burn, Witch, Burn, 1962) – Tansy Taylor
Boys' Night Out (1962) – Marge Drayton
The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968) – Katie Bower
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) – President's Girl 3
Television
The Ford Theatre Hour (1948)
The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (1949)
The Philco Television Playhouse (1949)
Armstrong Circle Theatre (1954) – Marilyn Wilson
The Elgin Hour (1954) – Lacey Gaddis Clark
The United States Steel Hour (1954) – Peg St. Claire
Goodyear Television Playhouse (1955)
A Connecticut Yankee (1955, TV) – Sandy
Lux Video Theatre (1955) – Shelly Carnes
Climax! (1955) – Joan Hale
Front Row Center (1955) – Kitty Foyle
One Touch of Venus (1955, TV) – Venus
Ford Television Theatre (1956) – Mary Higgins
Screen Directors Playhouse (1956) – Della Morgan
Caesar's Hour (1956–1957)
Alcoa Theatre (1958) – Lily Adair
Around the World with Nellie Bly (1960 TV movie) – Elizabeth Jane Cochran (Nellie Bly)
The Chevy Mystery Show (1960) – Lisa Townsend
Shirley Temple's Storybook (1960) – Aunt Polly
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1960–1961) – Herself
The Outer Limits (1963) – Lynn Arthur
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1964) – Polly Emerson
Destry (1964) – Bessie Hawkins
Burke's Law (1963–1964) – Violet / Rina Jacobs
Ben Casey (1966)
Marcus Welby, M.D. (1970–1973) – Mrs. Carter / Ann Ferris
The Smith Family (1971–1972) – Betty Smith
Switch (1977) – Isabel Jensen Craig Harris
Fantasy Island (1980) – Jackie Flynn
The Love Boat (1982) – Mrs. Joan Gerber
Murder, She Wrote (1991) – Bertie (final appearance)
Radio
Lux Radio Theatre (1946)
This Is Hollywood (1946)
Discography
Flame Out (1959, Dico)
References
Further reading
Oderman, Stuart, Talking to the Piano Player 2. BearManor Media, 2009. .
External links
Daily Telegraph obituary
Photos of Janet Blair in Columbia Pictures 1940's films by Ned Scott
1921 births
2007 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
Actresses from Pennsylvania
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
American television actresses
California Republicans
Deaths from pneumonia in California
Pennsylvania Republicans
People from Altoona, Pennsylvania
21st-century American women