On May 19th, The New York Times published an obituary of Dolores Rosedale--whose name I was not familiar with.
The story's headline read: "Dolores Rosedale, Who Found Fame as a Game-Show Sidekick, Dies at 95." She died in Spring Park, Minnesota, not far from Minneapolis.
The story's secondary headline explained that Ms. Rosedale was the model and actress better known as Roxanne--a name I do know. She was a widely-known figure in early television.
From 1950 until 1955, she was featured (with host Bud Collyer) on the CBS game show Beat the Clock--a show, the Times obituary noted, "in which contestants raced to finish stunts against time limits."
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| Roxanne, on cover of Feb. 1951 "T-V Stars" magazine |
As Times reporter Richard Sandomir wrote: "Roxanne's role didn't require her to say much at first. She posed with the prizes and took pictures of contestants as they carried out their stunts. She later introduced the contestants."
The obituary continued:
"But her poise and glamour--and perhaps, the polka-dot ballet costume she sometimes wore--helped her break out."
She was seen on the covers of Life, Look and TV Guide magazines, among others.
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| Roxanne, 1951, inside cover of "T-V Stars" |
"She reached a pop culture pinnacle of sorts in 1952," Mr. Sandomir wrote, "with the appearance of the 18-inch Roxanne doll."
I've included two images of her, above, from the February, 1951 debut issue of a magazine I have, T-V Stars. The cover photo describes her as "T-V's Most Photogenic Figure." The photo on the inside of the cover shows her holding a camera--presumably the one she used to photograph contestants, as referred to in the Times story.
Roxanne also appeared as an actress in a handful of TV shows and movies, including the 1955 Billy Wilder film The Seven Year Itch (with Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell), and in one Broadway play, A Hatful of Rain, in 1956.
In 1953, while starring on Beat the Clock, she gave an interview to newspaper columnist Earl Wilson, during which she told Mr. Wilson an amusing story about the incomparable Ms. Monroe, concerning a time when Ms. Monroe was modeling. Mr. Sandomir, of the Times, wrote the following about the interview:
Roxanne encountered Marilyn Monroe well before appearing with her in “The Seven Year Itch.”
“It was my first week in New York,” she told Earl Wilson, the syndicated gossip columnist...I’d gone to a wholesale house to model dresses. This girl walked in and started taking off her clothes. She was wearing just a dress, stockings and garter belt, and that’s ALL! I said, ‘Oh, this girl doesn’t know what underwear is.’ ”
