Jolene Brand

Ernie and Jolene in the ABC studios circa 1961

Jolene Marie Christina Bufkin is born in 1935 in Baldwin Park, Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of a salesman and later the stepdaughter of a Baldwin Park real estate dealer.

Jolene Bufkin attended Mount San Antonio Junior College in Pomona, California. At the age of 16 she is crowned “Miss Baldwin Park” and attends the Pasadena Playhouse the following year. She is named “Queen of the Los Angeles County Fair" winning a lifetime pass and $200. With the cash she quits college, enrolls in a modeling school, and changes her name to Jolene Brand.

George and Jolene circa 2005

Spending the next few years with personal appearances by 1956 she marries NBC talent executive George Schlatter and gives birth to daughters Maria in 1962 and Andrea in 1969. George will later become a prolific TV producer, director and writer. He was the creative force behind NBC's hit series "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In".



Jolene as Ana María Verdugo 



With her Hispanic heritage, Jolene is a natural to play Ana María Verdugo in the Walt Disney action/adventure drama series "Zorro" for the 1958-59 season on the ABC Television Network. She is signed by Disney as the love interest for Guy Williams in at least five episodes for it's second seaon.

In April 1977, she returns to TV as the lady in the bathtub in the first show of her husband's "Laugh-In" television show.