Jean Veloz

Jeanne Phelps was born on March 1, 1924 in Los Angeles to Lyndon Phelps and Ada Marie Grinnell. She was second to three siblings, brothers named Robert and Raymond. When Jean was about five years old the family moved to Santa Maria, California. In 1942 they moved back with their mother to Los Angeles. As teenagers living in the LA area they often practiced swing dance with their friends. In fact, Jean and Ray got along together so well that they often teamed in dance halls, as a famous photograph testifies. She won a dance contest at the Hollywood Legion Stadium with Gene Halverson, and with it a Screen Actors Guild card and her first movie role, a dancing part in the feature film Swing Fever (1943). The number, One Girl and Two Boys sung by Marilyn Maxwell to Kay Kyser's band, has become a classic although the three (Jean, Lennie Smith and Don Gallagher) remained uncredited. Then she would appear in Where Are Your Children? (1943) and Jive Junction (1943) (dancing with Bob Ashley) and