Jean Bartel

Jean Bartel, who died on March 6 aged 87, was crowned Miss America of 1943 and followed her reign with an acting career on Broadway and on television in shows such as Perry Mason and The Red Skelton Hour. 

Away from the spotlight of the Miss America pageant, Jean Bartel later admitted that she struggled to get media attention and earn the public’s respect. “It is the fate which falls upon all beauty queens,” she recalled in January this year.

Jean Bartel after winning the Miss America title in 1943

She also confessed that she had entered the competition only because Horace Schmidlapp, a prominent Broadway producer, was on the judging panel: “I intended to wow him and therefore win a ticket to stardom and Hollywood. ”

Born Jean Bartlemeh on October 26 1923 in Los Angeles, she showed promise as a performer from an early age. “I had my pin-ups,” she said later. “I adored Jean Harlow and Bette Davis. I had this burning desire to be a Broadway star.” After graduating from the Hollywood High School, she entered UCLA, where a friend suggested she enter the Miss California competition. She won and was sent to Atlantic City for the Miss America contest.

On stage she sang Cole Porter’s Night and Day in front of a packed audience. The press described her as a “gifted soprano” with a “forceful and dramatic style”. Applauded for her efforts, in particular by Horace Schmidlapp, she was crowned Miss America.

Since the country was at war, Jean Bartel took her role to heart, embarking on a relentless tour selling war bonds that would result in her being honoured by the United States Treasury Department as the individual who had sold the most Series E Bonds that year — more than $2.5 million worth. “And I didn’t even have to kiss anyone,” she remembered.

After relinquishing the title, Jean Bartel began to concentrate on her acting career, realising her ambition to star on Broadway, in The Desert Song in 1946, before moving into radio and television. In 1952 she headlined opposite Jack Carson in Of Thee I Sing at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway, winning enthusiastic reviews. The show then toured the Middle East, London (at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Paris and Canada.
On her return Jean Bartel went to Las Vegas, where she was the opening act for comedians such as Milton Berle, Danny Thomas and Red Skelton among others: “There was really only one casino in Las Vegas at the time, the Flamingo. And Bugsy Siegel and the gang ran it. Bugsy couldn’t have been nicer to me and I respected him for that. After the shows, the guys and I would talk, talk, talk, because we were never sleepy. It was nothing but desert out there then.”
Jean Bartel also appeared in several popular television series, among them The Rockford Files and The Love Boat. Her films included We’re Not Married (1952), with Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe; Sanctuary (1961), with Lee Remick; the all-star comedy The Oscar (1966), in which she shared a scene with the notorious Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper; and The Debtors (1999), opposite Michael Caine and Randy Quaid.
She retired in 2000 following the death of her husband, William Hogue. “I was never beautiful. I had vitality. I looked healthy. People always told me how wholesome I was,” she said. “People asked me if I would still like to perform, to do an Elaine Stritch style one-woman show. I’ve had a lovely career, but it’s not my turn any more.”
Jean Bartel was the oldest survivor of the 47 former Miss America beauty queens. She had no children.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/8377102/Jean-Bartel.html