Last spring the officials of a Hollywood school attended by the children of several motion picture actresses were up against the problem of which famous mama to name judge of its May Day parade. As it turned out, the student body didn't know who most of the movie stars were. They selected a really famous mama, one who does commercials on TV.
The judge was Joanne Jordan, the attractive brunette who paints her palm with lipstick on This Is Your Life. Not only the red stuff has found its way across Joanne's palm since she turned model and actress six years ago. There's been plenty of the green stuff, too. As one of TV's top spielers, she earned $50,000 last year.
Joanne, mother of three, had had no experience in show business when she hung up her boots and apron, said goodbye to 3000 steers, and left her husband's ranch at Riverside, Cal. to make the rounds of the Hollywood model agencies.
"I chose modeling," she says, "because I didn't want to work steadily from nine to five."
Agency after agency objected that she lacked the hollow cheeks and "stylish" figure so dear to the fashion photographer's heart, until she was sent on a job for which various thin gals had been rejected. It paid $40 a day for over two months, enabling her to hang on until she could convince KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, she could be trusted to hold up a can of tuna between the reels of an old Sunday night movie.
Since then, she's had a variety of TV chores. On one Burns and Allen show, she played a part and did the commercial, too. She's acted on Four Star Playhouse, City Detective and Racket Squad. Magazine illustrators seek her services, but she turns them down in favor of her TV commitments, which isn't surprising. They total about 11 hours a week of working time, and that's not nine to five!
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