Evening star., 1954-07-09
On the Air


to visit Washington recently who
has just given herself one Of
those shredded-wheat haircuts
with q. pair of manicure scissors.
You will have to consult Eleni
for further details about such
purely feminine aspects of Miss
RaineS' life, but the self Imposed
haircut was the direct result of
televiSion.
The attractive actress has Just
completed 80 films for her Janet
Dean, R. NJ" series (WTOP-TV
Saturday, 10:30 p.m.). That is
the equivalent of 13 feature
length movies. That is also q
long time for a girl to be playing
the same role and when the
whole thing was concluded, Miss
Raines made the quickest drastic
change possible. She went to
her dressing room and picked up
those scissors.
This is not the only note
worthy thing about Miss Raines,
who is Mrs. Robin Olds, proud
Of her Air Force colonel husband
for attaining the rank so young
and proud mother Of two daugh-
ters. Another noteworthy thing
is that she is the major stock
holder in the production COM
pany which made the Janet
Dean" series.
This has her in an even more
confusing situation than most
women can get into. It has not
been decided whether another 80
"Janet Dean" telefilms will be
made, but Miss Raines is under
exclusive contract and can't do
anything else until September.
Then, If the right movie role
were available, she could do it
before starting the new TV series
in November. She already has
had to pass up some good Holly
wood parts because of the. con-
tract, one of them the stewardess
role in. "The High and the
Mighty"
What makes this confusing is
that Miss Raines, being the
principal stockholder in that
corporation. is actually under
contract to herself. If she broke
the pact and sued, she could tie
a law court up for the rest Of
her life.
Miss Raines. It was revealed
over a healthy luncheon steak
at Olmsted's yesterday, came
through her first bout with tele-
vision with her sense of humor
unimpaired. In addition to. be-
ing highly attractive young
woman, she gives every evidence
Of being a frank and honest
one who knows her business.
The major Janet Dean" prob
lem, she disclosed was the same
problem facing every other show.
Somebody has to sit down some
where before q sneering type
writer and pound it for awhile
before anything else can hap
pen. Before Miss Raines' regis
tered nurse could solve any
problems, somebody had to think
up the problems.
Even with the script situation
Miss Raines did not waste any
of her time scanning unsolicited
teleplays from free-lance writers.
For one thing, she was kept too
busy with production. The scfed-
ule called for shooting Is half
hour films in six or seven weeks,
then taking six weeks OF. Dur
ing the filming weeks, the ac-
tress started by getting up at
$50 Monday morning, finished
when the second Of the weeks
two episodes was in the can on
Friday night.
Another reason for not using
scripts from free-lance TV dra-
matists was simply the nature
of Janet Dean"
"The average writer can't
write about a nurse" said Miss
Raines. When he tries. the
nurse comes in on wires. She's
not real" To keep Janet real.
Miss Raines kept q stable of
Ave writer's busy. And she is as
aware as anyone that Janet
was not at her best in o couple
of the episodes already televised
here.
A third notable thing about
Miss Raines is that she made not
only q ''pilot flm''. Of the Janet
Dean" show but Q whole series
Iof Is films before signing q
sponsor.
That's confidence" some
body at the tahle commented.