Joanne Jordan

Jordan, Joanne
Joanne Jordan 1920-2009

Joanne Jordan, one of the handful of nationally recognized T.V. Commercial Spokeswomen of the 1950s and 60s has died from complications of Parkinson's Disease in Calabasas, California, at age 88.
Having started her early acting career as a juvenile lead in Noel Coward productions at the Beverly Hills Little Theatre, she was a successful Powers model at nineteen, married and "retired". But at age thirty, a divorced mother of three, Joanne broke into the business again by doing live television commercials for dozens of products, most notably as the spokesperson who crossed her palm with non-smearing Hazel Bishop lipstick during the commercial breaks on "This Is Your Life" with Ralph Edwards. While gaining national prominence with that long-running contract, she became a familiar face as national spokeswoman for Johnson's Clear Wax, Dove Dish Detergent, Lilt Home Permanents, Eastman Kodak, and her repeated acting assignments on the half-hour shows starring Bob Hope, Alan Young, Eve Arden, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, Art Linkletter, Gale Storm, and Tom Hatten.
Known for her dark beauty and a voice "of gentle authority", Joanne made several movies, but preferred the convenient schedule of "day jobs" on television. She did, however, appear in several films, including a serious turn in "Written on the Wind" and "I Cover the Underworld", and the role of Queen of the Forty Thieves in the Howard Hughes campy "B" flick, "Son of Sinbad" with Dale Robertson. She was a regular (as the evil Queen Mirtha) on T.V.'s series "Space Patrol", a show that enjoyed a considerable cult following.
Joanne gained local L.A. affection as a weekly host on KTLA's "Sunday Night Movies" with co-host Mark Brenneman. It was there she began using what she called "idiot cards" after embarrassing herself by saying "enjoy your tuna 'on crappers'" instead of "on crackers", during a live Star-Kist commercial. Her subsequent habit of taping handwritten posters above the camera lens was perhaps the genesis of what later became today's common use among newsreaders of the Teleprompter.
The interview show she co-hosted out of Los Angeles with Dean Miller, "Here's Hollywood", was one of the earliest female-hosted celebrity programs.
During her busy years of T.V. work, Joanne became an expert painter, and was commissioned often to do copies of Impressionist Masters.
With her final retirement from show business in 1978, Joanne had become a devoted student of Hindu discipline, built a home in rural Virginia, and lived in quiet solitude until illness forced her to move closer to medical and family care in Los Angeles.
She is survived by son Murray MacLeod of Los Angeles, daughter Melinda Patterson of Annandale, Virginia, and son Duncan MacLeod of Olympia, Washington; six grandchildren, four great grandchildren, and sister Barbara Gray and family of Coronado.
Joanne chose to have her ashes scattered at sea by The Neptune Society.