Carol Ohmart

Armelia Carol Ohmart (June 3, 1927 - January 1, 2002), better known as Carol Ohmart, was an American actress who is best known for the Michael Curtiz film, The Scarlet Hour (1956). She's also known for lead roles in numerous film noir and horror films.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, into a Mormon family her father was C. Thomas Ohmart, a dentist who was first a professional actor, and Armelia Ohmart. She attended East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, and graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington.

Ohmart won the Miss Utah 1946 title (A September 27, 1945, newspaper article gives her title as "Miss Utah, 1945".)] at the age of 19. (An Associated Press news story published September 6, 1945, says that Ohmart won the Miss Utah title when she was 17). She then won fourth place in the Miss America pageant. (An Associated Press news story published September 8, 1946, says Ohmart "placed fourth runner-up," which equates to fifth place.)

In 1947, Ohmart became a model for the character "Copper Calhoun" in Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon comic strip.

At age 12, Ohmart was a singer on KFRC in San Francisco, California. She also sang on KSL, KUTA and KDYL in her hometown of Salt Lake City. Additionally, she sang with dance bands, including that of Jan Garber.

Ohmart was seen on early television doing commercials, appearing on NBC's Bonny Maid Versatile Varieties (1949–51), which aired Friday nights at 9 p.m. Ohmart was seen pitching floor wax along with Anne Francis and Eva Marie Saint, with the trio also hosting the show.] She also worked on The 20th Century Fox Hour.

Ohmart moved to New York in 1955 where she worked as an understudy on Broadway.

Ohmart had steady work in television until the early 1970s, with guest roles in Bat Masterson, Ripcord, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Get Smart, Perry Mason and Barnaby Jones.

Dubbed a "female Brando" by the press, Paramount Pictures signed her in 1955 and promoted her as the next Marilyn Monroe. Ohmart had top billing in The Scarlet Hour, a Paramount film made by the distinguished director Michael Curtiz about a married woman who persuades her lover to commit a jewelry robbery. After spending nearly $2 million promoting her, Ohmart was released from her contract. She co-starred with Anthony Quinn in a 1956 crime drama, The Wild Party.

After marrying Wayde Preston, she briefly retired from acting, only to return a year later, starring in numerous films and television series. Producer Jack Warner offered her a supporting role in Born Reckless (1958); although she didn't like the script, she accepted the role out of gratitude. One of her most noted roles was in William Castle's House on Haunted Hill (1959), playing the murder-plotting wife of Vincent Price. She later starred in Spider Baby; according to director Jack Hill, Ohmart was enthusiastic about the project, asking "Do you think we can win an Academy Award for this?" She was considered for the starring role in Hell's Bloody Devils (1970) by director Al Adamson. Her last film role was in 1974 with The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe.

Later years After her acting career, Ohmart left Hollywood to study metaphysics.

Ohmart was married three times, most notably to actor Wade Preston. They wed in 1956 and were divorced in 1958.

Her first marriage, in 1949, was to actor Ken Grayson; it was annulled in 1951.

In 1978, she married William Traberth, a veteran and former firefighter, and retired in Sequim, Washington. She changed her name to Kariomar S. Traberth and left her fame in the past.

She was a conservative Republican.

Ohmart died in Fort Collins, Colorado on January 1, 2002 of natural causes. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered over Carter Lake in Loveland, Colorado. Her husband died on February 21, 2005 in Lake City, Florida

Carol Ohmart Actress - Born June 3, 1927 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Died January 1, 2002 in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Birth Name Armelia Carol Ohmart

Nickname Kariomar Sonne Traberth

Height 5' 7" (1.7 m)

She was one of a bevy of sexy blondes shuffled about in 50s films, thrust into the limelight by ambitious movie studios as possible contenders to Marilyn Monroe's uncooperative pedestal. Almost none of these ladies managed to even step up to the plate when it came to the powerful allure of "La Monroe" and starlet Carol Ohmart managed to be no different.

Armelia Carol Ohmart was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on July 3, 1927, the daughter of a dentist father (Thomas Carlyle Ohmart, a one-time actor) and an abusive Mormon mother (Armelia Merl Ohmart). Raised in Seattle and a baby contest winner as an infant, she was on stage from age 3 in a vaudeville act with her uncle. She then lived all over the place with her mother after her divorce from her father, attending high school at Lewis & Clark High in Spokane. A radio singer back in Salt Lake City, Carol won the "Miss Utah" title (then a brunette) at age 19, coming up fourth runner-up when she segued into the 1946 "Miss America" contest (came in 4th). The attention she received led to a modeling, commercial and magazine cover career.

In the early 1950s Carol found TV and commercial work and on stage on Broadway (in the ensemble of "Kismet" and also as Joan Diener's understudy) and summer stock. Paramount took interest after a talent agent caught her in "Kismet" and signed her in 1955, billing her, of course, as the "next Marilyn." But Carol came off more hardbitten and unsympathetic than the vulnerable, innocent sex goddess, and when the knockout blonde's first two movies The Scarlet Hour (1956) and The Wild Party (1956) tanked at the box office, she was written off in 1957. Only a few more film offers came her way, including director William Castle's gimmicky House on Haunted Hill (1959) (her best known); the campy horror _Spider Baby, or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1968)_; and her last, The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974). She had steadier work on TV with guest appearances on "Bat Masterson," "Perry Mason," "Get Smart," "Mannix" and "Barnaby Jones," but by 1974 she was pretty much history.

Carol wed three times. The first, to radio actor Ken Grayson, lasted two years before it was annulled. A second brief two-year marriage in 1956 was with cowboy actor Wayde Preston (ne William Erskine Strange), who starred in the rugged "Colt .45" TV western. In the late 1970s, she married a third time to a non-professional (fireman), which lasted. After a particularly depressing period dealing with medication addiction and disability, a recovered, spiritual-leaning Carol found a helpful avenue outside the Hollywood scene in the 1970s studying metaphysics, delving also in oil painting, gardening, poetry and writing.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

William Traberth (1978 - 1 January 2002) (her death)

Wayde Preston (22 November 1956 - 18 July 1958) (divorced)

Ken Grayson (17 August 1949 - 1951) (annulled)

She was Miss Utah of 1946.

She was a very conservative Republican.

According to Laura Wagner, who wrote an article on Carol in "Films of the Golden Age", Issue #81, Summer 2015, Carol befriended Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, who promised her the prostitute role in From Here to Eternity (1953). However, he eventually gave it to Donna Reed, who went on to win a Supporting Actress Oscar.

She dyed her hair red and posed for artist Milton Caniff's character Copper Calhoon for the comic strip "Steve Canyon".

Was up for the leading role in The Horse Soldiers (1959) opposite William Holden but lost out to Constance Towers.

She was 4th runner up in the Miss America Contest (1946).

Personal Quotes (1) When I left Hollywood back in the 1970s, I didn't want to slam the door and padlock it. I was happy there in the early years. I was a star and flamboyant. I was successful and popular. I left because I was tired and wanted to find me. I've spent a decade being a quiet, ordinary person. I've found my peace, my secret garden . . . My life is not serene and I'm healthy in body, mind and spirit. And my talents are actively at work in many areas. I've never, never reviled Hollywood. I love the people, the talents, the joy of making movies much too much.

The Scarlet Hour (1956) $500 /Weekly