Mary Hartline's striking looks and more-than-ample figure made her a natural for the black-and-white, low-definition television screens of the late 1940's and early 1950's.

From January, 1949, until the last week of December, 1955, Mary appeared weekly on "Super Circus" [click here to watch a video clip], the ABC television network's premier Chicago origination (produced by its Chicago o&o, WENR-TV). "Super Circus" aired Sundays from 4 to 5 pm, Central Time. The show was produced---live, of course---in the Civic Theater (adjacent to the Civic Opera House) before an audience of close to nine hundred moppets, all of whom were under the age of fifteen.

Mary was typically introduced on "Super Circus" (by ringmaster Claude Kirchner) as "our Queen." She would lead the "Super Circus" band in at least one up-tempo number per half-hour segment, participate in comedy sketches with the show's three clowns and guide youngsters from the studio audience through on-stage contests.

Above all, Mary was a merchandiser---of the Super Circus sponsors' products, of "Super Circus" licensed products and of her own product line, which included dolls, toys and clothing. Mary's beauty added immensely to the effectiveness of her pitch. (Another saleperson on the show was Mike Wallace who, dressed as a side-show barker, sold Peter Pan peanut butter.)

For a time in early 1951, Mary co-hosted (with pianist Chet Roble) the kids-oriented "Mary Hartline" [click here to watch a video clip] show over ABC-TV. The late-afternoon weekday broadcast never found a sponsor and was thus short-lived.

Following the demise of "Super Circus", Mary returned to television in the summer of 1957---demoted from queen to princess, reduced from network to local. "Princess Mary's Magic Castle" [click here to watch a video clip] aired weekday mornings over WBKB, ABC's Chicago owned-and-operated successor to WENR-TV. The show aired through the middle of December, 1958.

Mary made her broadcast debut on Saturday, February 2nd, 1946 as a member of the cast of ABC radio's "Teen Town" (the show's title was shortly changed to "Junior Junction"). Originating from the NBC studios in Chicago's Merchandise Mart (where ABC, lacking its own Chicago facilities, leased space) the show was purportedly set in a town run completely by teenagers. The late Dick York was the town's mayor. Mary was passed off as the show's bandleader and trumpet soloist (she had studied trumpet as a child). In fact, ABC music director Rex Maupin led the band. And the trumpet solos attributed to Mary were alternatively played by Ralph Martieri and Eddie Ballentine, except on one occasion when Mary herself executed Begin the Beguine---a performance several surviving ABC staffers vividly remember more than half a century later.

In May of 1946, Mary was stricken with a severe case of bulbar polio. But under the care of Dr. Martin Seifert (of Evanston Hospital) she made an extraordinary---and rapid---recovery, returning to the air in a month's time. (For years, Dr. Seifert's medical students struggled to retain clinical objectivity as they watched the film he had shot of Mary, in which he demonstrated the degree to which her limbs had regained their strength.)

Mary remained with "Junior Junction" until the debut of "Super Circus" on the ABC television network.

But how did Mary get into the broadcasting business? Read on...

Mary Pauline Hartline was born in Hillsboro, Illiniois, the county seat of Montgomery County, in 1926. She was the second child (and second daughter) of Paul Hartline and Dorothy Crowder. Paul Hartline was chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, by virtue of which he became Hillsboro's postmaster not long after the advent of the New Deal.

During Mary's senior year in high school, her classmates elected her the "Queen of Love and Beauty"---the central Illinois equivalent of prom queen. By that time she had already met Harold Stokes, who successively became her mentor, lover and, for a time, husband.

Harold Stokes was born in Nokomis, Illinois in 1905. Nokomis is about fifteen miles northeast of Hillsboro. When he was a child, his family moved to Saint Louis. He attended the University of Missouri.

Harold had considerable musical talents which he directed toward jazz and popular music. He played a robust piano (with hints of Jelly Roll Morton) and occasionally accordion. He was an accomplished dance-band orchestrator.

In 1928, Stokes became the musical director of the Chicago-based Jean Goldkette band (which the legendary Bix Beiderbecke had left not long before). The group appeared daily on WGN radio and regularly recorded for Victor. (One such session, which Stokes directed, included members of the "McKinney's Cotton Pickers" band. It was the first instance I know of where blacks and whites played together in a Chicago recording studio.)

When NBC established a Chicago presence in 1929, Stokes became one of the networks staff conductors---leading groups of various sizes on various programs. He is said to have conducted the first coast-to-coast broadcast originating in Chicago. Stokes became known for his scorings of novelty numbers and his generally off-beat arrangements. The NBC-Chicago regulars he appeared with included Marian and Jim Jordan (in their pre-"Fibber McGee and Molly" days) and Don McNeill (in his pre-"Breakfast Club" days. On account of his looks he was called, behind his back, "Horse Face."

When WGN moved into its opulent new quarters adjacent to the Tribune Tower in 1934, Stokes was hired to lead its newly-formed "WGN Dance Orchestra." He held this position until the summer of 1941 when he was fired. (His replacement was Bob Trendler whom many will remember as the band leader on WGN-TV's "Bozo's Circus" show.) His first marriage disintegrated shortly thereafter.

Stokes retired to a chicken farm near Hillsboro that he had purchased during his palmier days at NBC. In the spring of 1944, the city fathers of Hillsboro asked him to put together an amateur variety show to raise funds for a proposed youth center. Stokes, with plenty of time on his hands, wrote an original score and assembled a cast of townsfolk. He also persuaded Jack Owen of the Blue Network's "Breakfast Club" and Lawrence Salerno (a WGN vocalist) to come to Hillsboro to appear in the show which was called "Hillsboro Hilarities."

Mary Hartline appeared in this show as a dancer. Stokes took a liking to her.

A year later, ABC hired Stokes as a radio producer. Almost simultaneously, Mary graduated from Hillsboro High. With Stokes encouragement, she decided to go to Chicago to become a model. Within a year, Stokes was assigned the new "Teen Town" show. He immediately made Mary a member of the cast. Stokes (age 42) and Mary (age 21) were married in June of 1947.

When ABC began construction of its Chicago television facilities in 1948, Stokes was assigned to program development, both for the network and its local outlet, WENR-TV.

"Super Circus" was one of Stoke's first ideas. Not surprisingly, Mary became a member of the cast to, in essence, bring her "Junior Junction" persona to the television screen.

Mary divorced Stokes in 1951 and married George Barnard, her tax lawyer. Their marriage ended in 1960. Mary subsequently married George Carlson, a Chicago construction contractor. Following Carlson's death in 1960, she married Woolworth Donahue, grandson of F. W. Woolworth, the five-and-dime magnate. Donahue died in 1972.