Jan Miner

Jan Miner
(1932 – 1994)

The soap companies and their sponsorship of daytime serial dramas helped to launch and support the budding careers of numerous actors and actresses. Acting in the soaps, or any radio drama for that matter, was much less demanding than acting for the stage, film, or even television. Radio avoided the need to spend hours in makeup and costuming, and rehearsals were also fairly limited, often just a script reading with the writers and directors before airtime. This meant that the radio actor had plenty of time to study and train and schedule auditions for "legitimate stage" jobs.

Broadway diva Jan Miner found an even better gig with Colgate-Palmolive to support her "acting habit". From 1966 until 1992, Miner appeared in Palmolive Detergent ads as beauty parlor attendant Madge who consistently surprised her customers by soaking and softening their hands with dishwashing detergent. Shooting the ads only took a few hours, paid very well, allowing Ms. Miner the opportunity to be selective in managing her Broadway career. However, before Madge she had a solid background in radio drama.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, 1917, to a dentist and a painter, Jan grew up with three brothers. She was educated at the Vesper George School of Art and went on to study "the Method" with Lee Strasberg, eventually debuting in a Boston production of Street Scene. Jan went on to become a regular on New York's radio row and specialized in playing feisty secretaries in a number of crime dramas. She played Della Street on Perry Mason, girl reporter Ann Williams on Casey, Crime Photographer, and Boston Blackie's gal pal Mary Wesley. In 1957, she starred in a remake of the radio soap Hilltop House sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive, and her association with the company may have been a leading factor in her getting hired to play Madge in the TV commercials. For 27 years, she was one of the longest running product spokespersons on television.

Jan married actor/writer Richard Merrill in 1963 and the couple appeared together in several plays. She passed away on February 15, 2004, in Bethel, Connecticut. She was 86.