Log In

Jean Bartel Edit Profile

Actor

Jean Bartel was Mission California and Mission America 1943.

Career

There had been comparisons between Bartel and popular blond actress Carole Lombard. Bartel initially entered the pageant after learning one of the judges was Broadway actor and producer West. Horace Schmidlapp. As talent counted for 50% of the score, she thought it was a way to launch her career on Broadway.

This tactic worked.

In 1946 she appeared on stage in "The Desert Song" at the New York City Center for Music and Drama. She sold more Series East bonds in 1943 than any other United States Citizen, amounting to over $2.5 million. Eighty percent of those bonds were sold to women.

The Mission America Organization is now the world"s largest provider of scholarships for women in the world.

She was born Jean Bartlemeh. Later her name was shortened to Bartel.

Bartel was from Los Angeles, California, worked for many years on Broadway and in television, including starring in her own travel series, lieutenant"s a Woman"s World, as well as performing for seven months in South America. Bartel died on March 6, 2011, aged 87, of undisclosed causes.

The Mission America Organization issued a statement calling her "one of our most beloved Mission Americas.".

Achievements

  • She won the talent and swimsuit awards at the national pageant. At 5 feet 8 inches tall, Bartel was the tallest pageant winner up to that time. Not only was she chosen as Mission America after a vocal performance the press hailed as a "forceful and dramatic style," but she landed a career on Broadway and an agent that booked her on tours in South America, the Middle East, Europe, Canada, and in every State of the Union except Maine. Bartel was the first Mission America to refuse to pose in her swimsuit after the pageant, a choice that eventually led to Catalina Swimwear dropping their sponsorship and starting the Mission United States of America Pageant. She was the first college student to win the title of Mission America. After visiting her sorority sisters in Kappa Kappa Gamma around the country, she and her traveling companion developed the idea of awarding scholarships to those who competed in the Mission America Organization.