Before Jeannie

Before she was Jeannie, she was Loco.

Barbara Eden finally thought she got her break when she was cast in a TV version of How To Marry A Millionaire in 1957. She took on the role of Loco that had been Marilyn Monroe’s in the movie.

Things were a little more loco than Eden might have imagined.

Millionaire was not a network show. It was created by syndicator NTA Films, as it tried to expand its reach beyond old feature films and cartoons. Judging by this story from November 8, 1958, it was loco on the tour publicising the show. There seems to have been absolutely no organisation and the actresses were left to run amuck during what was supposed to be an interview.

TV KEYNOTES
3 Girl Stars Offer Hospitality
By HAROLD STERN
Lori Nelson, Merry Anders and Barbara Eden arrived in New York recently to say a few words on behalf of their TV series, "How To Marry A Millionaire." I visited the girls in their hotel suite, spent a good part of the time just ogling asked virtually no questions about the series, and am now firmly convinced that "How To Marry A Millionaire" is one of the television triumphs of the decade.
In this era of unshaved cowboys on dustflecked horses, getting three girls on any half-hour show comes under the beading of windfall profits.
The first sight that greeted my eyes when I entered the suite was Barbara Eden in a form-fitting bathing suit "Ah ha," I though, "those stories I've heard about Hollywood are true, true, true!" No doubt about it, it was a nicely designed bathing suit.
Just Finishing Work
"Please excuse us," said a voice which I turned to find belonged to Merry Anders. "We're just finishing up a picture session."
Looking past Barbara Eden, I was able to make out several other figures, the dumpy sort one usually associates with newspapermen, photographers and press agents.
"Why don't you sit down somewhere?" asked another voice, this one belonging to Lori Nelson. I looked about and, finding no vacant chair, started to sit on a camera case.
"Hold it a minute, Mac," came a voice which could only belong to a newspaperman, "we'll be outta your way." And suddenly they were gone.
Coffee Ordered
"Would you wait just a minute, please," called Barbara Eden, as she dashed out of the room. "I have to change. Have some coffee."
"We're all out," said Lori and she and Merry went to the telephone and called room service.
"Do sit down," said another voice, "I'm Mrs. Nelson, Lori's mother".
This was an unexpected development!
I sat.
Birthday Party
the girls joined me and I opened my mouth to ask a question.
"Could you wait just a minute more?" asked Merry, and she disappeared into the foyer.
"Now what do you suppose she's up to?" Lori asked Barbara.
"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Barbara and Lori." Merry's voice rang out. She re-entered the room, laden with gifts.
"Ooooh!" shrieked Barbara and Lori.
"Isn't she sweet?" asked Mrs. Nelson. "Lori's birthday was in August. And so was Barbara's." Cake Served
After me birthday cards and gag lingerie had been distributed, Merry turned back to me. "You're being very nice," she said.
How much further this blatant attempt to woo use might have progressed, I'll never know. The doorbell rang and a large table of coffee and serving dishes rolled into the room.
I turned back to Merry, but it was too late. She had vanished, only to return a minute later carrying an enormous ice-cream cake.
"You'll have to join us," she insisted. And she slashed the cake into slabs which resembled paving blocks. I was the only one of the group unable to finish.
"If this is a sample of your diet," I was finally able to ask, "how do you keep your figures?"
I poised myself to launch my interview.
"Girls!" came a sharp voice from the foyer, "you're a half-hour late for a cocktail party!" It was a press agent! The girls arose to leave.

The Marquis Chimps were big on TV in the late ‘50s—Jack Benny got loads of laughs with them—so someone got the idea of pairing Barbara Eden with a chimp. The Salt Lake City Deseret News managed to get an interview with her, explaining how she came to act with a chimp on TV after signing a movie contract with 20th Century Fox. A chimp didn’t help the sitcom careers of both Peggy Cass and Ted Bessell. It didn’t help Eden’s. Millionaire lasted 1½ seasons before NTA gave up on filming new episodes.

TV’s ‘Loco’ Wants High Comedy, But Gets Monkey As Co-Star
BY HOWARD PEARSON
Deseret News TV Editor
Barbara Eden, better known as Loco Jones on How to Marry a Millionaire, wants to do high comedy, but she'll appear in an episode with a trained monkey first.
The trained monkey bit has already been filmed and will be seen within a few weeks. Barbara has several movies behind her and she is now haunting producers to give her broad comedy. “Comedy doesn't have to be completely shallow,” she declares, “It is best when colored with pathos.
"Like my own experience in Hollywood," she says, "comedy comes where it's least expected. For instance, when I came to Hollywood from San Francisco, I was loaded with letters to prominent movie executives. They all saw me and gave me friendly advice.
“Most of this boiled down to ‘You’re too nice a girl for tough show business. Why don’t you go home.’ Not one of them offered to let me read a line. That’s comedy to me now, comedy mixed with the pathos of a girl struggling to get ahead.”
Barbara thought she could make enough as a singer in Hollywood. “I soon discovered this didn’t work out because there were too many singers,” she says. “So I took a job in a bank after hours. I’d haunt the casting directors during the day and operate an IPM machine in the bank at night.
Her first plunge into show business came as a dancer in a night club. “I didn’t know how to dance, but I stumbled through it for five months before the producer found out I couldn’t dance. Then I was fired. However, I’d met show people and was able to land some jobs.” She did 14 Johnny Carson shows, some episodes on Private Secretary, West Point, Highway Patrol and several others.
While doing parts in the movie, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" she tested for the TV Millionaire series and landed the part that Marilyn Monroe played in the movie
When she gets several episodes ahead on Millionaire, she is able to do movies. Forthcoming pictures in which Barbara appears are "A Private's Affair," with Gary Crosby, Christine Carere, Terry Moore and Sal Mineo, which she says is comedy, but not as broad as she wants, and “Blue Denim,” a drama.
Like Merry Anders and Lori Nelson, her co-stars on Millionaire, Miss Eden says: "I'd want no part in marrying a millionaire. With all his money he could get dates with all the girls he would want, and I want to be Queen Bee." True to her word, she did not marry a millionaire. At least he isn't yet. Her husband is Michael Ansara of the late Cochise series.

Five seasons as TV’s favourite genie awaited her, a genie who couldn’t show her belly button. We think that’s a little loco, too.