16 year old fashion model Madeline Balcar graced the cover of the March 21, 1949 issue of Life. She was apparently never heard from again, but, fortunately for us, she left these attractive artifacts behind.
Glad to see that I am not the only one to appreciate Madeline's demure charms from afar--the distance in this case being temporal rather than social or spatial (alas, even more cruel). She reminds me of the innocent but plucky kid sister types played by Joan Leslie in High Sierra and The Hard Way. Should time travel or a Holodeck-type simulacrum of the past become possible, Miss Balcar is the kind of girl that I would ask out on a date to the soda fountain or a movie, assuming of course that I could take on an age-appropriate form (no Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer scenario for me).
My fascination was enough to make me do some heavy Googling, and I managed to turn up her obituary (not available when you posted this in 2010). The family even used the photos from her Life magazine shoot in the slideshow tribute.
Sadly, another "What Ever happened to" mystery solved. One hopes that the rest of her life was a happy one, even if it turned out to be rather prosaic after such a promising start.
Glad to see that I am not the only one to appreciate Madeline's demure charms from afar--the distance in this case being temporal rather than social or spatial (alas, even more cruel). She reminds me of the innocent but plucky kid sister types played by Joan Leslie in High Sierra and The Hard Way. Should time travel or a Holodeck-type simulacrum of the past become possible, Miss Balcar is the kind of girl that I would ask out on a date to the soda fountain or a movie, assuming of course that I could take on an age-appropriate form (no Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer scenario for me).
ReplyDeleteMy fascination was enough to make me do some heavy Googling, and I managed to turn up her obituary (not available when you posted this in 2010). The family even used the photos from her Life magazine shoot in the slideshow tribute.
https://www.rockawayfuneral.com/obituaries/Madeline-M-Orlowski?obId=8864918
Sadly, another "What Ever happened to" mystery solved. One hopes that the rest of her life was a happy one, even if it turned out to be rather prosaic after such a promising start.