Brigid Bazlen

Brigid Mary Bazlen (June 9, 1944 – May 25, 1989) was an American film, television and stage actress. Although she made only three Hollywood films, The Honeymoon Machine, King of Kings, and How the West Was Won, she is still remembered for the latter two. Bazlen retired from acting while she was in her late 20s (1972), and she died from cancer at the age of 44. Early life and career Bazlen was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Her father was Arthur Bazlen, a retail chain executive, and her mother was Maggie Daly, a newspaper columnist with Chicago's American (Chicago Today and the Chicago Tribune). Maggie Daly was, with her three sisters, one of what Time magazine referred to as "the celebrated Daly sisters", who were known for their writing and work in journalism, fashion and advertising. Life magazine ran two feature stories on the sisters with a young Bazlen appearing in the second. Columnist Maggie ("Daly Diary" in Chicago's American), the oldest sister, a one-time model was known for her lunch time Chicago fashion shows and as a radio and television talk show guest and TV show host. Kay Daly, who worked in advertising with such people as Richard Avedon, became a Revlon vice president responsible for its advertising. Novelist and writer Maureen Daly became famous for writing Seventeenth Summer at age 19. Sheila Daly, the youngest, who wrote a Chicago Tribune teen column beginning at a very young age, eventually went into advertising as well. Bazlen was "discovered" in 1950 at the age of 6 waiting for a school bus in front of her house by an NBC executive. The network was testing for the then groundbreaking soap opera Hawkins Falls, Population 6200 (which went on to become the first successful television soap opera) starring Maurice Copeland and Bernardine Flynn, and the executive asked Bazlen's parents for permission to test her. While her mother initially refused, she later relented and Bazlen won a part and became a regular on the show for two years, winning rave reviews. The Blue Fairy (1958) In 1958, Bazlen won the starring role in the children's program The Blue Fairy, broadcast by the independent station WGN-TV in Chicago on Monday nights (7:30 pm – 8:00 pm). It was one of the earliest children's shows to be produced in color. The producer of the show had spotted Bazlen playing hopscotch outside of Bazlen's Chicago home and told Bazlen's mother that "your little girl is just right for my TV series".