This legend was star at Stadium High when Hollywood discovered her. She died this month

Tacoma native Janis Paige went from the Stadium High School stage to the bright lights of Broadway and Hollywood and made news even into her 90s when she became part of the “Me too” movement.

The actress died in Los Angeles on June 2 at age 101.

Paige was a so-called triple threat — a singer, actress and dancer — who originated the stage role of Babe in the 1954 hit musical “The Pajama Game” and starred in over 100 movies and TV shows.

Tacoma beginnings

Paige was born Donna Mae Jaden (some records spell it as Tjaden) on Sept. 16, 1922 in Tacoma, according to a biography on historylink.org. Her parents soon separated and she grew up in her grandparents’ Tacoma home.

She attended Washington Elementary School and Jason Lee Junior High School (now Hilltop Heritage) before attending Stadium High School. In her later years, she would reminisce about summer days spent at Dash Point State Park.

In 1940, Paige was the lead in the 200-member cast of Stadium High’s production of “Desert Song.” In 1941, she was the star of “The Merry Widow” at the school. Stadium’s yearbook, Tahoma, named her “The Class Venus” and “Most Talented” her senior year, according to History Link.

In 1943, two years after graduating high school, Paige moved to Los Angeles with her mother for voice lessons. She soon took a singing job at the legendary Hollywood Canteen where she was discovered by MGM studio executive Ida Koverman.

Leaving her legal name behind, Paige used her maternal grandmother’s name, Julia C. Paige, for her stage name.

In June 1943, Paige performed at Madigan Army Hospital while on a return visit to Pierce County, according to History Link.

A star is born

One of Paige’s first film roles was in 1944’s star-studded “Hollywood Canteen,” a biopic of the place she’d been discovered. More film roles soon followed.

With her star rising, Paige’s return visits to Washington were of a higher profile and peculiar to the region and her era. In 1947, she was named “Miss Damsite” during the groundbreaking ceremony for the McNeary Dam on the Columbia River, according to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. That same year she was named “Miss Delicious” at the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival.

Despite a string of films, including 1946’s “Her Kind of Man” and 1948’s “Romance on the High Seas” with Doris Day, Paige left Hollywood for Broadway in 1951. It was her role in “The Pajama Game” that made her a star. Despite her success in the musical, the role was given to Day when it was adapted into a film.

Local coverage

The News Tribune covered every stage of Paige’s meteoric rise to stardom. When she was signed to “Hollywood Canteen” by MGM, the paper published a pin-up style photo of her announcing the news.

In a promotion for the film “Her Kind of Man,” a contest was held for a “lucky local man” to fly to Hollywood for a dinner date with Paige. Wannabe dates had to send a 100-word letter to the Roxy Theater stating why he thought he was “her kind of man.”

Writer Verg Langdon wrote, “Everyone who views ‘Her Kind of Man’ will unquestionably agree that this cute and talented little miss from our home town has truly ‘arrived’.”

Another story, after her success on Broadway, was headlined, “Janis Paige, Has-Been 5 Years Ago, a Star.” In the story, she tells of going broke in-between her initial film successes and Broadway.

“I lost my house, my two cars, and my husband,” she said. She had been married to Frank Martinelli Jr. and later Arthur Stander.

“The Pajama Game” turned her life around.

“I love everyone who turns to stare, every autograph hound, every cop who grins at my shocking pink car,” she said. The story said she had recently dined with England’s Queen Mother.

In 1981, The News Tribune printed a long interview with her when she returned to Tacoma to connect with high school friends. She said acting helped her overcome her shyness.

Mid-career

Paige tried her hand in the relatively new medium of TV. In 1955, she had the title role in “It’s Always Jan,” but the series ran just one season. She returned to film in 1957 for Fred Astaire’s “Silk Stockings.” If she had any animosity toward Day, it didn’t show when the two appeared in 1960’s “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.”

Paige kept busy in her later years with guest starring and recurring roles in dozens of TV shows like “Happy Days,” “Trapper John, M.D.,” “Night Court” and “General Hospital.”

Later years and ‘Me Too’

Paige was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She celebrated her 90th birthday in 2012 with a performance at a San Francisco nightclub.

When the Me Too movement spread through Hollywood in 2017, spurring women to recount sexual abuse at the hands of powerful studio executives, Paige wrote an op-ed for The Hollywood Reporter.

“Being the victim of attempted rape never leaves your body,” she wrote. “Even at 95, I remember everything. Closure is never complete.”

Paige was married to composer and music publisher Ray Gilbert in 1962. He died in 1976.

When Paige returned to Tacoma in 1981 it wasn’t to flaunt her success but instead “remake” friends.

“I want to listen to their stories and find out what they did with their lives,” she said. “Everybody knows about me; I want to know about them.”