Robbin Mele Gaudieri, who, as Robbin Bain, embodied conventional girls’s roles because the winner of a magnificence contest designed to advertise beer in 1959 and later because the “Today Girl,” dealing with trend and wonder segments, on the favored NBC-TV morning present, died on Oct. 21 in Southampton, N.Y., on Long Island. She was 87.
Her daughter Lara McLanahan stated the trigger was breast most cancers.
In 1959, she was elected Miss Rheingold, representing what was then the preferred beer within the New York area and was additionally offered in Pennsylvania and all through New England. She defeated 5 different finalists in an election that the brewer stated attracted 24 million votes.
As Miss Rheingold, she acquired $50,000 (about $530,000 in right this moment’s {dollars}) and spent a yr making appearances within the United States and Europe. She additionally starred in newspaper adverts during which she was seen in a kitchen throughout a celebration, open air at a barbecue and in entrance of a Christmas tree, amongst different locations.
An advert that ran early in her reign stated, “You’ll soon be seeing Robbin Bain almost everywhere you look, such an attractive reminder of the popular beer she represents — Rheingold Extra Dry!”
In 2000, she recalled the qualities that had been sought in a Miss Rheingold.
“It was not a body thing,” she instructed The Daily News of New York. “Personality and wholesomeness were very important. You had to look very approachable to the guys sitting at the bar or going to the supermarket.”
Barbara Jane Bain was born on Aug. 10, 1936, in Flushing, Queens, and raised in Bronxville, N.Y., in Westchester County. Her father, James, was an government with Mack Trucks. Her mom, Margaret (Davison) Bain, was a homemaker.
Pursuing a profession as a mannequin, Barbara appeared in adverts for Helena Rubinstein and Revlon. She was additionally one in every of 4 girls, known as “Portrettes,” who launched Jackie Gleason on his tv selection present, “The Jackie Gleason Show,” in 1956 and 1957. The subsequent yr, she graduated with an affiliate diploma from Bradford Junior College (which later turned Bradford College) in Haverhill, Mass., the place she studied psychology, artwork and theater.
Early in her profession, she modified her first title to Robbin to keep away from confusion with the actress Barbara Bain.
Ms. Bain was well-known sufficient in 1961 to be a panelist on “To Tell the Truth,” a sport present whose object was to determine which of three individuals claiming to be the identical person was the actual one. In one episode she was so good at it in every phase that one other panelist, Betty White, playfully stated, “I think Robbin’s disgusting.” In response, Ms. Bain calmly punched Ms. White on the shoulder.
In late August 1961, Ms. Bain joined NBC because the “Today Girl,” working alongside the host John Chancellor and the information anchor Frank Blair. It was a stereotypical feminine position that had beforehand been stuffed by the actresses Estelle Parsons, Lee Meriwether and Florence Henderson; Robert Bendick, the “Today” present’s producer on the time, outlined it in 1959.
“A girl is essential to the show,” he instructed The Associated Press. “You need a woman’s face to brighten up things. And you also need a woman for some types of features — fashions, beauty and talking to certain guests.”
Before turning into a serious pressure in tv information, Barbara Walters was a “Today Girl.” In her autobiography, “Audition: A Memoir” (2008), she likened the position to pouring tea and wrote that it had been “Neanderthal” for girls to be consigned to masking “features geared for women.”
But Ms. Bain stated she beloved it. “I was the only woman with the exception of the makeup woman on the set,” she stated throughout a reunion of “Today Girls” on “Today” in 2012. And, Ms. McLanahan famous: “The role did transition to co-host. She always felt that she was groundbreaking in that sense.”
Ms. Bain left “Today” after solely two months; the press speculated that she didn’t just like the hours, however the truth is she was pregnant along with her first daughter, Dina.
“I ruined her career,” her daughter, now generally known as Dina Nemeth, joked in a telephone interview.
Ms. Bain later turned an inside designer.
In addition to her daughters, Ms. Bain is survived by her husband, Alexander Guadieri; a stepson, Alexandre Guadieri; and 6 grandchildren. Her marriage to Arno Schefler led to divorce. Her second husband, Edward Mele, died in 2003.
