Romper Room's Miss Jean

Ah, but life was good – and simpler – in the '50s. No one locked their doors, and children actually played with other children instead of sitting alone indoors in front of a video game. The pace of life was slow and measured. An ice cream cone cost only 15 cents, and our lives revolved around our neighborhoods. Barney, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Tele-Tubbies and Sesame Street were years away for the little ones.

For children growing up in the Boston area, however, it didn't really matter much. They had Miss Jean. That would be Miss Jean of Romper Room.. In a recent telephone interview with the now Jean Durkee from her home in Florida, I found out all about the franchised TV show that captivated and taught preschoolers from 1953 to well into the 1990s.

The original Romper Room began in 1953 at WBAL-TV 11 in Baltimore, but it wasn't long before the show was seen in nearly every corner of the country, each with its own perky hostess. In the late '40s and early '50s, most television shows were nationally franchised, but produced by local stations with local talent. Baltimore had Miss Nancy (Nancy Claster and her husband Bert were the originators), Chicago had at various times Miss Rosemary, Miss Beverly and Miss Bonnie. In Cleveland, it was Miss Barbara, in L.A., Miss Soco, and in Evansville, Indiana, Miss Annette.

How was it that a Salem State College English major with an education minor, whose previous jobs had included teaching language arts, social studies and girls' physical education at Lynnfield Junior High School and home schooling handicapped children in Lynn, was elevated to near-cult status among New England's four- to six-year-old set?

Durkee's mother had seen an ad in a local paper seeking job applicants for a position as host of a children's show. Durkee's reaction when her mother first told her? "You've got to be kidding!"

Atter further reflection, however, the Swampscott native thought 'why not?' and gave the station a call. Her interview was scheduled on the last day of tryouts, at 5 p.m. Shortly after returning home, she was one of only a handful to receive a call to return at 8 o'clock that night for an on-camera tryout.

It was then that panic set in. Durkee had never appeared on camera before and feared making a fool of herself. When her turn came, the director instructed her to position herself at a certain spot and "imagine playing with six children." It was just then that Jean Durkee got a facial tick, hardly an auspicious sign.

A production assistant came out, told her to relax and filming began again. Fortunately, Durkee remembered a song from kindergarten, and she sang it with gusto, all the while cavorting with six imaginary friends. After improvising a short commercial with a carton of milk, the future Miss Jean returned to Swampscott, sure that her brief affair with the camera would be just that.

Fate, however, had other things in store for her. She was chosen from 500 initial applicants to kick off the local version of Romper Room in the greater Boston market in 1958. The rest, as they say, is history. Her tenure on the show, which was designed to teach learning skills and good manners in an atmosphere of fun, lasted 14 years. Those years were not without their moments.

Durkee remembers doing her first live commercial. "It was something called VitaYums," she says. "I was well into my spiel when one of my charges – I still remember his name; it was Andy Gordon – piped up and said 'Can I have one of those?' Not knowing what else to do, I gave him one and continued the commercial. Moments later, he tugged at my skirt again and loudly asked – with an accompanying grimace – 'Where can I spit this thing out?'"

One of the questions frequently asked about Romper Room is "How were the children chosen?" "Parents would write in," Durkee recalls. "At the height of its popularity, the show had a four- to five-year wait for the two-week stints. Some parents were so anxious for their children to be on the top-rated show that they wrote in when the little ones were just days old, hoping to secure a place five years hence.

"Occasionally, parents would also write in and ask me to address certain behavioral issues their children were having. Dutifully, I'd try to work their request in at the end of the show when I looked in my Magic Mirror to acknowledge children in the TV audience. I can still remember one morning looking into the mirror and saying, 'This morning I see Billy and Susie and Janet and Steven . . . and Bobby, please don't walk on your little sister, Beth! It hurts her and it's not very nice!"

Thirty-two years after her last performance, "Miss Jean" remembers the show with great fondness. "It was really the precursor to Sesame Street and many of the other fine educational shows that came later," she says. "Who wouldn't enjoy being adored by thousands of preschoolers?"

Her parting words to me? "Remember, Margo. Always be a good Doo-bee!"

I'll do my best, Miss Jean. I really will.