July 29, 2012 – (Left) Mary Hartline presents to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in River North the sequined drum majorette outfit she wore on Super Circus, a popular television show that was produced in Chicago and aired nationwide from 1949 to 1956. (Click on image to view larger version.)

Considered one of television’s first sex symbols, Hartline, now 82 years old, says she has no special diet. “I just eat what I feel like. I don’t over-indulge in anything. I have great energy. I’ve always had great energy. I play a lot of tennis.”

Over the noon hour on Saturday, Hartline spoke to a small crowd at the museum about her career that started in the 1940s when she was a teen-ager. On Super Circus, she was the bandleader, working with ringmaster Claude Kirchner, whose widow, Marilyn, attended the program.

The donated dress will be part of a new exhibit at the broadcast museum on North State Street along with other Super Circus artifacts.