Jean Mode
Jean Mode (born 1922) is an American former burlesque star and erotic dancer.
Night club dancer
In August 1942 Mode was part of a 10 hitliner, 2:30 a.m. bill, at Leon and Eddie's night club at 33 West 52nd Street. Other entertainers featured were Johnny Morgan, Wacky Wayne, Leo Fuld, and Cesar and Rosita.[1] The cafe owners were Leon Enken and Eddie Davis. Mode was in a cast of performers at the same 52nd Street establishment, in February 1944. A new Ruth Lane revue and former lightweight champion Tony Canzoneri were also there.[2] In June 1945 she was again at Leon and Eddie's. Mode took an ice cold shower prior to each performance to give her skin a pinky glow.[3] She made a return to striptease in April 1952 under the management of Miles Ingalls.[4]
Mode was among the cast of the carnival comedy, Bigger Than Barnum (1946), staged by Fred Rath and Lee Sands.[5][6] The show opened in Boston and closed in a short time, in the spring of 1946. Patricia Neal was one of the production's performers.[7]
Suicide attempt
Mode attempted suicide in her Beekman Tower Hotel apartment, 3 Mitchell Place, New York City, on December 30, 1952. She swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills. The hotel manager knocked on her door around 3:15 a.m., after the switchboard light indicated that the telephone in her room was off the hook. He called the police when he found Mode on the bathroom floor. An emergency squad policeman worked on her for an hour and twenty minutes before she was revived sufficiently to be taken to Metropolitan Hospital. Her condition was listed as serious. She was 30 years old.[8]
References
- No Title, New York Times, August 18, 1942, Page 16.
- News of the Night Clubs, New York Times, February 20, 1944, Page X4.
- Dorothy Kilgallen, Lowell Sun, June 20, 1945, Page 40.
- Bumpkin On Broadway (Manhattan): Earl Wilson, Galveston Daily News, April 16, 1952, Page 4.
- Benny Baker Signs For Role In Farce, New York Times, February 8, 1946, Page 27.
- News of the Stage, New York Times, March 30, 1946, Page 10.
- Regina, The Younger, New York Times, December 1, 1946, Page X3.
- Suicide Attempt Fails, New York Times, December 31, 1952, Page 32.