Dolores Rosedale, Sidekick on ‘Beat the Clock,’ Dies at 95
Dolores Rosedale, a model known as Roxanne whose burst of fame in the early 1950s as the hostess of the wacky game show “Beat the Clock” led to the creation of a doll in her image and to appearances on the covers of magazines like Life and TV Guide, died on May 2 in Spring Park, Minn., near Minneapolis. She was 95.
Her daughter Ann Roddy confirmed the death, at an assisted living facility.
Roxanne joined “Beat the Clock” in 1950 when it made its transition to television from radio. Bud Collyer, the host, presided over the weekly program, in which contestants raced to finish stunts against time limits.
Roxanne’s role didn’t require her to say much at first. She posed with the prizes and took pictures of contestants as they carried out their stunts. She later gave introductions of the contestants.
But her poise and glamour — and, perhaps, the polka-dot ballet costume she sometimes wore — helped her break out.
In 1951, she donned a costume for a Life magazine cover story about chorus girls. Inside, a photograph that identified her as the show’s “stunt mistress” showed her guiding a blindfolded Boy Scout as he tried to identify an elephant.