Grand Years 5 April 2023

TIME 100: Daughter of Jane, the comely blond, brings another scandal

After Jane, came her daughter Patti, who warned her mother, “I’ll be careful.”

What Rita Hayworth was to the American GI, a lissome lass named Jane was to the British Tommy – and more. Jane was the comely blonde heroine of a comic strip in Britain’s giant Daily Mirror, with a circ of 4.5 million.

She somehow managed to lose her clothing at least once a week. She was so popular that the morale of the RAF was said to rise and fall with her skirts.

Minor victories from the Mediterranean to Malaya were attributed to the fact that Jane was unblushingly bare on a particular morning. After the war Jane continued to cavort the pages of the Mirror.

Delighted demobbed servicemen found that she looked as luscious at a suburban breakfast table as she had in an army mess hall.

F E A T U R E

MAIN: Jane (left) says there a reason for everything. And Patti, Jane’s daughter: “You can’t trust everybody.” Covering the fundamentals – almost.

Just one of the stories found in the 8 September 1961 issue of TIME magazine, now in its 100TH year!

But in October 1959, when the Mirror underwent a thorough revamping and made a brassy new pitch to British youth --- it was decided to pension Jane off.

First unveiled … in December 1932, at the age of 21, she vanished 27 years later … at the same age.

“Let’s quietly disappear and start again together,” said Jane’s perennial fiancé, Georgie, in the farewell strip as the couple headed for marriage.

At last, Jane was decently clad, not only did she wear a swimsuit for her finale but a sweater as well.

Patti - Double Exposures.

Jane’s successor was Patti, an 18-year-old supposed to be a sample of British youth. But Patti, less prone than Jane to losing all but her lingerie, never caught Britain’s fancy, and the Mirror sent her packing five months ago.

In her place … appeared “Daughter of Jane,” an ectoplasmic 16-year-old who had clearly inherited her mother’s inability to keep buttoned up.

“Her fundamental attributes,” said one Mirror reporter demurely, “are always covered by a towel.”

Britons brightened at Jane’s return, but the august Guardian, fully aware that Jane had wed Georgie a scant 22 months ago, was aghast at the sudden appearance of a teen-aged daughter.

“There is a slight accent of scandal about the whole thing,” concluded the Guardian.

<< Adapted by Frank Morris.