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Jayne Meadows has died


HarryCarter
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Here's Lucy guest star Jayne Meadows has died at the age of 95.

 

Jayne Meadows Allen, award winning stage and screen actress, died peacefully of natural causes in her Encino, Calif. home Sunday night at age 95, ET has learned.

 

Jayne -- who was born in Wuchang, China to missionary parents -- enjoyed more than six decades in the entertainment industry, from Broadway roles like The Gazebo in 1958 to her Emmy-nominated role on CBS' High Society in 1995. Jayne was also a regular panelist on the CBS hit program, I've Got a Secret. During her run on the show, Jayne was the highest rated actress on CBS, second only to Lucille Ball.

 

In film, Jayne appeared in many roles, including 1946's Undercurrent alongside Katharine Hepburn. Her one woman show, Powerful Women in History -- which toured the United States for seven years -- earned her the International Platform Association Award. Jayne received the Susan B. Anthony Award for her continued positive portrayals of women in her acting.

 

Jayne's husband of 46 years, Steve Allen -- the first host of The Tonight Show -- passed away in 2000.

 

Jayne's son, Bill Allen tells ET that Jayne was immediately charmed by Allen when she met him, even telling her sister Audrey Meadows -- who passed away in 1996 and notably starred as Jackie Gleason's wife on The Honeymooners -- "If that man isn't married he soon will be...and to me."

 

In an exclusive letter to ET, Bill fondly remembered his mom.

 

"She was the most loving mother and grandmother I could ever imagine," said Bill. "Seeing only the best in all her family members and giving us all confidence that we had value to offer the world and should take risks because we could do no wrong in her eyes."

 

"She was not only an extraordinarily gifted actress who could move audiences from laughter to tears and back again all in one scene, but she was the greatest story teller I have ever known and I will miss her endlessly fascinating and frequently hilarious anecdotes about her life and the many brilliantly talented people she worked with and befriended along the way. She will be sorely missed and never forgotten."

http://m.etonline.com/news/163524_jayne_meadows_allen_dies_at_95/

 

 

I'm not sure where this comparison to Lucy comes from.

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-----I've Got a Secret. During her run on the show, Jayne was the highest rated actress on CBS, second only to Lucille Ball.----

 

Yes, this one is a head-scratcher.   I think she was more of a guest panelist, since Betsy Palmer and Bess Myerson were the woman who made up the panel during most of its run.

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Jayne was a regular on I've Got A Secret for the first seven years of the show's 15 year run. The Allens then moved to LA and Bess Myerson replaced Jayne. Jayne's time period was skipped over in the GSN reruns in recent years because of the Winston Cigarette advertisements that dominated the show. Jayne was on the panel the night Lucy was guest panelist.

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Jayne was great, very talented, she told this great story of travelling in China and seeing a crowd gathered by a tv while on the road, when she stopped to see what they were watching, it was Lucy, what else?  She and Audrey were like the Gabors but with talent.  Love the fact that she lived such a long life.  She was second to Lucy?????  Was Steve Allen the only one who voted?  Always interesting on a talk show, they were a great couple.

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So here's my little two cent story on the Allen-Meadows. My dad has a good friend who tells the story of the time she was partying with their son at their house. Alcohol was involved and all she remembers from the incident was sitting in the kitchen and seeing Jayne and Steve pouring her a cup of coffee to sober up!

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I remember that show!  It was such an ingenious idea.  I found a couple clips on Youtube. This one includes Jayne.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNqkzDHkATY

 

Very interesting.

 

Catherine the Great: He envied my dexterity at sports.

 

I bet!

 

One can only hope the Stuarts got a segment or two under the Fairness Doctrine. They certainly got the short end of the stick here.

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Very interesting.

 

Catherine the Great: He envied my dexterity at sports.

 

I bet!

 

One can only hope the Stuarts got a segment or two under the Fairness Doctrine. They certainly got the short end of the stick here.

 

Wow, I'm impressed that you know about our late Fairness Doctrine!  The Reagan Administration put an end to that, thus leading us down the path that made possible Fox News and right-wing hate radio, and then MSNBC on the other side.  And now here we are in this era of incivility and vitriol, and nothing ever getting done in our government.

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Wow, I'm impressed that you know about our late Fairness Doctrine! 

I'm always impressed (but no longer surprised) by the knowledge possessed by these young whipper-snappers-scholars.  My knowledge, like high school student Lucy Carmichael's of early American history, is because  "I lived through most of it!".   which by the way is the best line in that (otherwise odd) episode. Towards the end of TLS, the script would take a pot-shot or two at Lucy's age. Another e.g.:  Lew Parker: What is your age? (to Lucy on witness stand).  Lucy: 32.  Lew: YOU DON'T LOOK 32.  blah blah blah then Judge Parley Baer: "Any woman who admits to being over 30 MUST be telling the truth."  Mooney: "She wouldn't be telling the truth if she admitted to over FORTY!"

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I'm always impressed (but no longer surprised) by the knowledge possessed by these young whipper-snappers-scholars.  My knowledge, like high school student Lucy Carmichael's of early American history, is because  "I lived through most of it!".   which by the way is the best line in that (otherwise odd) episode. Towards the end of TLS, the script would take a pot-shot or two at Lucy's age. Another e.g.:  Lew Parker: What is your age? (to Lucy on witness stand).  Lucy: 32.  Lew: YOU DON'T LOOK 32.  blah blah blah then Judge Parley Baer: "Any woman who admits to being over 30 MUST be telling the truth."  Mooney: "She wouldn't be telling the truth if she admitted to over FORTY!"

 

It's not just that Brock is young, he's also Canadian!  So I'm double impressed.

 

And now that you mention Lucy, the student, I'm reminded that this is a woman who took the time to go back to high school to get her high school diploma, somehow forgetting she had a college degree.  Isn't it interesting that Milroy accepted students who hadn't even finished high school!

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  • 1 month later...

I remember that show!  It was such an ingenious idea.  I found a couple clips on Youtube. This one includes Jayne.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNqkzDHkATY

 

Hon, I think they all included Jayne. I never watched the show.  I was a teenager and this was not the sort of thing kids liked.  It seemed so pretentious from what clips I saw of it  and even then it struck me an absurd and self serving that Mrs. Allen was always the only actress to appear on the program.  She was talented but who the hell besides Meryl Streep (then a newbie) could possibly play so many different women throughout history. 

 

I found Jayne kind of fascinating in a Zsa Zsa Gabor way - as you know she was verrry theatrical, Carole Cook is downright down-home next to Ms. Meadows -  but I was never that fond of her ; I think she and Steve were kind of threatened by Lucy's success and lasting fame judging by some of their comments over the years. 

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I found Jayne kind of fascinating in a Zsa Zsa Gabor way - as you know she was verrry theatrical, Carole Cook is downright down-home next to Ms. Meadows -  but I was never that fond of her ; I think she and Steve were kind of threatened by Lucy's success and lasting fame judging by some of their comments over the years. 

Well said and probably quite true.

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