Jolene Brand

Early years

Brand was from Baldwin Park, California. She graduated from Covina High School and attended Mt. San Antonio College. She won an American Legion beauty contest in 1951 and was queen of the Los Angeles County Fair of 1953, Miss Red Feather, Miss Baldwin Park, the Future Farmers of America Queen, and a WAMPUS Baby Star.

Career

Early in her career, Brand performed in Las Vegas, and in 1955 she sang and danced at Ciro's night club in California. Also in 1955 she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star.

In 1958, she acted in the B-film Giant from the Unknown, about a man who was frozen in suspended animation for 500 years and was freed by a lightning bolt and goes on a killing spree. Later that year she was signed up to play a part in the Disney television show Zorro. She played the romantic interest for the main character played by Guy Williams. She was a model on the television series Queen for a Day as well.

Brand portrayed "Indian Emily" in the 1959 episode of the same name on the syndicated television anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. The setting is the United States Army outpost at Fort Davis, Texas. Emily, an Apache captive, adopts the white man's ways but flees when a young officer, Tom Easton (Burt Metcalfe), whom she loves, prepares to marry someone else. She returns to warn the fort of a pending Apache attack, and dies of a gunshot wound fired in error after saving the fort. Meg Wyllie played Tom's compassionate mother, Mrs. Easton. A memorial at Fort Davis honors the heroism of Indian Emily. Brand and her husband George Schlatter were close friends with Kovacs and his wife, Edie Adams. Brand appeared with Kovacs in many of his later ABC-TV programs.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

References

1. (October 28, 1955). "Jolene Bufkin named 'Miss Red Feather'". The Pomona Progress Bulletin.
2. Samuel Claesson. (January 31, 2025). "Glamour: Models, Mannequins, and Pinups of the 1950s". Sequoia Press.
3. (October 31, 1955). "Jolene Bufkin Is Wampas Baby". The Pomona Progress Bulletin.
4. W. Lee Cozad [https://books.google.com/books?id=Uq2IW_Ghso4C&dq=%22Jolene+Brand%22Giant+from+the+Unknown&pg=PA215 ''More Magnificent Mountain Movies'' (pg. 215)] via google.com; accessed November 11, 2017.
5. Jolene Brand profile, [http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/486/Jolene+Brand/index.html ''Glamour Girls Of The Silver Screen''], glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com; accessed November 11, 2017.
6. Gallagher, Danny. (October 9, 2013). "Laugh-In's George Schlatter Will Receive The Dallas VideoFest's Ernie Kovacs Award". "Dallas Observer" blogsite.
7. Starr, Michael. (March 17, 2011). "Starr Report". New York Post.