Mary Hartline

Mary Pauline Hartline (born October 29, 1926) is an American model and actress who became one of television's early stars.

Hartline was born in Hillsboro, Illinois, in 1926, the second child and second daughter of Paul and Dorothy Crowder Hartline. Her father was involved in local politics, becoming chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party and, after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president, the Hillsboro postmaster. Hartline graduated from Hillsboro High School, where she was elected the "Queen of Love and Beauty" (then the equivalent of the prom queen).

Harold Stokes was a Montgomery County native who had gained success as a band leader and radio personality. During a period that he was out of broadcasting, he was living near Hillsboro and was persuaded to produce a local amateur show fund-raiser. Hartline was a dancer in the show.

Upon graduating from high school, with the encouragement of Stokes, Hartline moved to Chicago with the intent to become a model. In 1946, she was cast in ABC radio's Teen Town (originally, Junior Junction) (or vice versa; references disagree). The cast of this show, produced by Harold Stokes, included Dick York as the mayor of a town inhabited only by teenagers. While appearing on this show, Hartline was stricken with a severe case of polio, but quickly recovered. Soon thereafter, the twenty-one-year-old Hartline married the forty-two-year-old Stokes.

In 1949, the ABC television network picked up the local show, Super Circus, which was also produced by Stokes. Hartline moved to Super Circus where her looks and figure made her a national star and a sex symbol for thousands of boys, young and old. The show, starring former real-life Chicago World's Fair barker, Big Band announcer, and radio host Claude Kirchner, featured Hartline as the band leader, the circus clowns Cliffy, Scampy, and Nicky, as well as Mike Wallace playing the circus barker peddling Peter Pan Peanut Butter.

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