Janet Blair Man" (both 1948), but was dropped by Columbia and did not return to pictures for several years. She made a rare dramatic appearance in the British horror film "Night of the Eagle" (1962). She played the wife of Tony Randall in the comedy "Boys' Night Out", a motion picture released in the same year, which starred James Garner and Kim Novak. In 1950, Blair took the lead role of Nellie Forbush in the U.S touring production of the stage musical "South Pacific", making more than 1,200 performances in three years. "[I] never missed a performance", she noted proudly. During the
South Pacific (musical) allowed him to quit his job as an editor at Macmillan and to become a full-time writer. Over the next five decades, his lengthy, detailed novels centering on different places would dominate the bestseller lists. The role of Nellie Forbush was the first time with Hammerstein that Rodgers made the leading female role a belter, rather than a lyric soprano like Laurey in "Oklahoma!" and Julie in "Carousel". According to Mordden, "Nellie was something new in R&H, carrying a goodly share of the score on a 'Broadway' voice". Nellie does not sing together with Emile, because Rodgers promised Martin that