Jinx Falkenburg

Eugenia Lincoln "Jinx" Falkenburg (January 21, 1919 – August 27, 2003) was an American actress and model. She married journalist and publicist Tex McCrary in 1945. Known as "Tex and Jinx", the couple pioneered and popularized the talk show format, first on radio and then in the early days of television. They hosted a series of interview shows in the late 1940s and early 1950s that combined celebrity chit-chat with discussions of important topics of the day.

Early life Falkenburg was born to American parents in Barcelona, Spain; her father Eugene "Genie" Lincoln Falkenburg was an engineer for Westinghouse. Thinking the name would bring good luck, she was nicknamed Jinx by her mother Marguerite "Mickey" Crooks Falkenburg, an athlete and tennis player (Brazil women's champion in 1927), and the name stuck. All the Falkenburg offspring became known for their tennis abilities; younger brother Bob won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon in 1948. Falkenburg appeared on over 200 magazine covers and in some 1,500 commercial advertisements in the 1930s and 1940s. She was considered to be one of the most beautiful women of that era, known for her All-American-Girl athletic good looks. The New Yorker magazine said she "possessed one of the most photogenic faces and frames in the Western world". The New York World-Telegram said her face was seen more often and in more places than any other woman in the country. While in the hospital recovering from her injuries, she was introduced to singer Al Jolson, who was also convalescing there. Jolson offered her a role in his upcoming Broadway show Hold On to Your Hats, which opened in January 1940.

Her biggest breakthrough as a model came in 1940 when she was picked by New York-based Liebmann Brewery, maker of Rheingold Beer, to be the first Miss Rheingold. They were about to be engaged in 1942, but World War II intervened. They married after the war, This opportunity enabled Falkenburg to make a notable contribution to the implementation of President Franklin Roosevelt's cultural diplomacy initiatives in South America even as hostilities raged throughout Europe.

During the war, Falkenburg traveled extensively on USO tours entertaining troops. The most arduous was a 80-stop series of shows in the rugged China-Burma-India theatre of operations. In 1945 she was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal for her contributions. Reviews ranged from "sprightly" to "rather intense discussions of foreign affairs". In a cover story about the couple, Newsweek wrote: "A soft-spoken, calculating Texan, Tex McCrary, inched up to the microphone and drawled 'Hi, Jinx.' A voice with all the foam substance of a bubble bath answered, 'Hello Tex. Over time they came to be known as "Mr. Brains and Mrs. Beauty".

McCrary wrote the scripts and taught Falkenburg the art of interviewing and the basics of broadcast journalism. Over time she was considered the better interviewer, eliciting candid responses, often from the show's more intellectual guests. Her technique was to ask questions until she understood the answer and so, presumably, did all the housewives at home listening to her.

In January 1947, McCrary and Falkenburg had their first network TV show, Bristol-Myers Tele-Varieties, also known as Jinx and Tex at Home, broadcast Sunday nights on NBC. The program combined film and live interviews of celebrities in their residences. In May 1947, The Swift Home Service Club combined household tips with breezy interviews. Another radio show, Meet Tex and Jinx got such a big audience that in 1947 and 1948 it became a summer replacement for one of radio's most popular shows, Duffy's Tavern.

McCrary and Falkenburg's popularity grew, and at one point in the early 1950s they hosted two radio programs and a daily television show and wrote a column for the New York Herald Tribune. Some of their shows were broadcast from the Peacock Alley restaurant in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. She covered many major stories of the day, including the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London and the wedding of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco. In 1958, she was the only female reporter on the press plane that accompanied then Vice President Richard Nixon on his trip to South America, where he encountered rock-throwing crowds in Venezuela. She also was on assignment and appeared on camera in the historic finger-poking televised "kitchen debate" in Moscow between Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Safire maneuvered the two leaders into the kitchen of the model home, whose manufacturer was a client of McCrary's, for the confrontation.

Politics In 1952, McCrary spearheaded a campaign to get General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for president on the Republican ticket. A high point of that recruitment effort was a "Citizens for Eisenhower" rally at Madison Square Garden. Falkenburg and McCrary organized and hosted the three-hour event. In the early 1960s, Falkenburg was a commercial spokesperson for the American Gas Association. She became vice-president of Marian Bialac Cosmetics, a company owned by Whitney.

Personal life Falkenburg and McCrary had two sons, John Reagan "Paddy" McCrary III and Kevin Jock McCrary. In 2011, Kevin appeared on the A&E reality TV show Hoarders (Season 4, Episode 12, "Kevin & Mary"), in which he was threatened with eviction for hoarding his New York City apartment floor-to-ceiling.

Falkenburg's athletic prowess remained on display as she moved from starlet to middle age. She took up golf at the age of 40 and within a short time had a 12 handicap. In 1975, at the age of 56, she was part of a celebrity team that played a pre-opening tennis match at Forest Hills before the start of the U.S. Open.

Falkenburg died on August 27, 2003, at the age of 84 at North Shore Hospital in Manhasset.

Legacy For her contribution to the television industry, Falkenburg has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street.

Fictional depiction Falkenburg is featured as a supporting character in books #1-3, set in World War II Burma, of a French graphic-novel series, Angel Wings.

Selected filmography She Has What It Takes (1943) Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943) Cover Girl (1944) Nine Girls (1944)