Janis Carter

Janis Carter (born Janis Elinore Dremann, October 10, 1913 – July 30, 1994) was an American stage and film actress who performed throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s. During the mid-1950s, she began working regularly on television, co-hosting with Bud Collyer the NBC daytime game show Feather Your Nest.

Carter was born Janis Elinore Dremann in Cleveland, Ohio. When she started her professional career, Dremann changed her last name to Carter, because people had trouble pronouncing and spelling of Dremann, so she chose her grandmother's maiden name as her new last name.

After initial training as a pianist, Carter changed to singing when she was eight years old. Her elementary and secondary education was provided by schools in East Cleveland. After that, she attended Cleveland's Flora Stone Mather College at Western Reserve University, graduating with two degrees – bachelor of arts and bachelor of music. She also participated in dramatics in college.

After graduating from college, Carter headed to New York in an attempt to start a career in opera. Although that goal was unsuccessful, she then worked on Broadway, where she was spotted on stage by Darryl F. Zanuck, who signed her to a movie deal. Her Broadway credits included Virginia (1937), Du Barry Was a Lady (1939), and Panama Hattie (1940).

After moving to Hollywood, she appeared in over 30 films beginning in 1941 for 20th Century Fox, MGM, Columbia, and RKO. She appeared in the films Night Editor (1946) and Framed (1947) with Glenn Ford, and Flying Leathernecks (1951) with John Wayne. After leaving Los Angeles, Carter returned to New York and found work in television in comedies and dramas and as hostess for the quiz show Feather Your Nest opposite Bud Collyer. Her last role was in a January 1955 episode of The Elgin Hour.

Carter married Carl Prager, a musician and composer, in 1942, but they divorced nine years later. She retired from acting in early 1955, after meeting New York lumber and shipping tycoon Julius Stulman; the couple married in 1956. Carter died in 1994, at age 80, from a heart attack in Durham, North Carolina.