Candy Jones

Candy Jones, born Jessica Arline Wilcox (December 31, 1925 – January 18, 1990), was an American fashion model, writer and radio talk show hostess.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, she was raised and educated in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In the 1940s and 1950s, she was a leading model and pin-up girl, and afterward, established a modeling school and wrote several books on modeling and fashion. In 1972, Jones married her second husband, popular radio show host Long John Nebel, and became the co-host of his all-night talk-show on WMCA in New York City. The show dealt with paranormal, UFO, and conspiracy theory claims.

Jones controversially claimed to be a victim of Project MKULTRA, the CIA mind-control program, in the 1960s.

Biography

Early life and career Candy Jones was born to a well-off family. Jones reported vivid, conscious memories of physical abuse by her parents and vague memories of sexual abuse in her youth. She was shuttled among relatives, and her mother, Jones insisted, often kept her cloistered or locked in dark rooms. As a child, Jones said she had an imaginary friend named Arlene to help through her lonely episodes.

Jones grew into an attractive, statuesque young woman, about . Changing her name, she pursued a career as a fashion model. She was a quick success, becoming a runner up for Miss New Jersey in the Miss America contest. Jones was able to parlay this into a hostess job at the main Miss America contest, and a successful career. She was one of the leading pin-up girls of the World War II era: In one month in 1943, she appeared on 11 magazine covers.

During a lengthy United Service Organizations (USO) tour in the Philippines, Jones fell ill in 1945, and was treated by a doctor who was still alive when Candy publicized her mind-control claims; biographer Donald Bain gave this doctor the alias "Gilbert Jensen". who interviewed Jones before she died in 1990, the "Marshall Burger" alias in Bain's book who worked with Jensen on the Jones case was actually Dr. William S. Kroger, a psychologist at one time associated with UCLA.

First marriage In 1946, Jones married fashion czar Harry Conover, one of the first model agents. They had three sons, and Jones says she didn't realize Conover was bisexual until some years into their marriage. She recognized some people might consider this naive, but Jones insisted her abusive childhood had made her wary of intimate relationships, and though she had many suitors, she was sexually inexperienced when she married.

Jones opened a modeling school, and she began appearing regularly on NBC's weekend radio news program Monitor.

Second marriage and radio career On December 31, 1972, Jones married radio host Long John Nebel after a one-month courtship; they briefly met decades earlier when Nebel was a photographer.

Bain

Dr. Herbert Spiegel, a nationally recognized hypnosis expert, wrote the foreword to The Control of Candy Jones.

The story of her mind-control claims was featured in an episode of the Science Channel's Dark Matters: Twisted But True in a segment entitled "Sexy Secret Agent".

Death Jones died of cancer on January 18, 1990, at Lenox Hill Hospital. She was 64 years old and had been living in Manhattan.

Books by Jones Make Your Name in Modeling and Television, Harper and Brothers, 1960 Finishing Touches, Harper & Brothers, 1961 Between Us Girls Harper and Row, 1966 Just for Teens , Harper and Row, 1967 Modeling and Other Glamour Careers, Harper and Row, 1969 More Than Beauty: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Modeling World, Harper and Row, 1970 Candy Jones' Complete Book of Beauty and Fashion, Harper and Row, 1976