Re: Barbara Eden, I Dream of Jeannie at Lincoln High School in 1949

03/27/23 - posted by Holt Macon

It was not just that Barbara Eden had a bad photo taken in the Lincoln High yearbook. According to her book "Jeannie Out of the Bottle," when she first went to Warner Brothers to audition, the executive there told her the best thing she could do was to go back home and get married. She did not meet the standards of what a Hollywood starlet should look like. And she herself knew she was not the most beautiful woman around when she admitted that she had no chance of winning the Miss California contest she entered. Remember that. She herself admitted that.
So in the end, it was moving to LA, living at the actors studio in Hollywood, making connections, constantly auditioning, doing her comedy shows at private clubs as the team of Hoffman and Huffman and her talent that got her through but not stunning looks that got her where she was. Nothing sexist about it and nothing to do with my manners. Just pure fact.
I have women friends I have mentioned this to as well to get their opinion on her looks from a woman's point of view and they totally agree with me that she was not the best looking woman.
Barbara Eden is now 92 years old and fighting Breast Cancer. Her days are numbered and that is sad.