Barbara Lang

Actress Barbara Lang was a beautiful, brassy "B"-level blonde of the 50s in the Barbara Payton mold. Lang's life was certainly not as reckless as that of Payton, who also flourished during the 1950s, but it did have its share of roller coaster rides. She also did not make as many films as Payton -- three to be exact. Born Barbara Jean Bly on March 2, 1928, Barbara was the daughter of a silent movie dancer, Esther Kaufman, who went by the name Maureen Knight, and a non-professional father, Leonidis Bly. Born in Pasadena, California, she was raised in the Los Angeles area and started out her teen years toiling as a jewelry sales girl and used her nubile features and curvy figure to her advantage as a part-time model. She also earned tips as a cocktail lounge singer and piano player but avoided nightclubs per se because of the propositioning male clientèle that frequented them. Out of nowhere Lang woke up one day in late 1953 unable to move. Stricken by polio, her speech was affected an