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When it came to bright and polished, they didn`t get much spiffier than singer/actress Janet Blair -- perhaps to her detriment in the long haul. At Columbia, she was usually overlooked for the roles that might have tested her dramatic mettle. Nevertheless, she pleased audiences as a pert and perky co-star to a number of bigger stars ranging from George Raft and Cary Grant to Red Skelton and the Dorsey Brothers.

Of Irish descent, she was born Martha Janet Lafferty in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1921. Raised there in the public school system, she sang in the church choir during her youth and adolescence. The inspiration and talent was evident enough for her to pursue singing as a career by the time she graduated. At age 18 she was a lead vocalist with Hal Kemp`s band at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles. While with Kemp`s outfit Janet met and subsequently married the band`s pianist Lou Busch, a respected musician, songwriter and later ragtime recording artist.

A Columbia Pictures talent scout caught her behind the microphone and spotted fine potential in the pretty-as-a-picture songstress. The death of Kemp in a car accident in December of 1940 and the band`s eventual break-up signaled a life-changing course of events. She signed up with Columbia signed for up to $100 a week and moved to Los Angeles while her husband found work as a studio musician. Janet made an immediate impression in her debut film as the feisty kid sister of Joan Blondell and Binnie Barnes in Three Girls About Town (1941) and also dallied about in the movies Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942) and Blondie Goes to College (1942) until her big break in the movies arrived.

Star Rosalind Russell made a pitch for Janet to play her co-lead in My Sister Eileen (1942) as her naive, starry-eyed younger sister (Eileen) who carried aspirations of being a big-time actress. The film became an instant hit and Janet abruptly moved up into the "love interest" ranks. Usually appearing in a frothy musical or light comedy, she was seeded second, however, to another redhead, Rita Hayworth, when it came to Columbia dispensing out musical leads. Janet nevertheless continued promisingly paired up with George Raft in the mob-oriented tunefest Broadway (1942); alongside Don Ameche in the musical Something to Shout About (1943), and opposite Cary Grant in the comedy-fantasy Once Upon a Time (1944), one of his lesser known films. She played second lead to Ms. Hayworth in Tonight and Every Night (1945) and was right in her element when asked to co-star with bandleaders Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey in their biopic The Fabulous Dorseys (1947). A rare dramatic role came her way in the Glenn Ford starrer Gallant Journey (1946), but again she was relegated to playing the stereotyped altruistic wife. In retrospect, the importance of her roles, although performed quite capably, were more supportive and decorative in nature, and lacked real bite. By the time the derring-do "B" swashbuckler The Black Arrow (1948) rolled out, Columbia had lost interest in their fair maiden and Janet had lost interest in Hollywood.

A new decade brought about a new career direction. Putting together a successful nightclub act, she was spotted by composer Richard Rodgers, and made a sparkling name for herself within a short time. Rodgers & Hammerstein`s "South Pacific" starring Mary Martin was the hit of the Broadway season and Janet dutifully took on the lead role of Ensign Nellie Forbush when the show w