Do you remember the premiere?

Yes and I also remember at the time we had to come in with all the actors.

Up on stage?

Yeah.

So it was you and Lon…

And Ralph Bellamy, Evelyn Ankers, Sir Cedric Hardwick and Bela Lugosi. They were all up there. It was all a big to-do. I also had one in San Jose at the theater there because I was their home girl, so consequently they had a big premiere there when it opened.

The same cast on the stage?

Well no, there was just me. I was born there, that was my town.

Any thoughts on Bela?

Yeah, he was very sweet. I wasn't as close to him as I was to Lon, but he was very sweet to me and treated like a little princess.

Horsing around with Lon Chaney, Jr. Janet gets a horsey ride on the Monster's boot between takes.

Did you see any of the makeup placed on Lon?

Oh yeah, I watched him put the makeup on.

Jack Pierce?

I don’t remember the makeup artist, I just remember I watched them put the makeup on.

The entire makeup?

Yeah.

Do you remember the color of the makeup?

Greenish-gray. More gray than green but some green.

And the coat was black?

Right. His feet were black too. Big! Huge! Big!

Do you recall where you were when you first heard that Lon had passed away in '73?

Oh yeah. I remember that I was married and I had two children and it was a hard period at that time. I felt very bad, very bad at the time. I had asked Lon to come to the wedding when I got married and I had gotten no response from him so I kind of figured he was busy with his own life.

I think it’s funny how things would have been different if you would have been adopted by Lon.

It would have been entirely different. Like I said I loved the man very much, we had a really good relationship. And I loved his wife too. They were very, very, very wonderful people.

In the late '50s and early '60s there was a big monster boom.

I was not aware of it at all. I had a card come out at a greeting store. I was working at Teledyne so it must have been in the early '80s. And I saw the card and my picture was on it with Lon's. The one where I’m sitting below and he’s standing right above and the caption below it read, "They said these May-December weddings would never work". The lawyer from Teledyne sent a letter to the card company saying that they did not have my permission to put that picture out. So they sent me one hundred cards and apologized and said they would not be sending out that card anymore and that’s how we left it.

And you’re going to a monster convention next year.

(Laughing) Hopefully.

Do you know what to expect?

I think from the signings and stuff that I’ve been to, I’m starting to realize.

What is it like to interact with these people?

It is crazy. I mean I had no idea that there were so many people looking for me. I was very surprised, very surprised. And I understand they are into the monster thing just like Star Trek trekkies and stuff like that. I had no idea. I get a lot of mail. It’s been quite a shock because I had no idea.

What was the last film you did?

I think it was Canyon Passage. It was a western; I think I was about eleven years old. I was in the covered wagon with two or three other kids and the Indians were attacking with bow and arrows on fire. I was the oldest of the children. When my mother passed away it was a hard situation because mom wasn’t there and dad would take me to the studio but it was really not the same. After mom died it was just a movie, that’s all. My dad took me. My dad was never into the whole thing. He couldn’t do it. He had to work a job and you can’t work a job and do movies. You have to be there whenever they call you, it’s like with Bryce (one of Janet’s grandchildren, whom Janet is an agent for, a grand-stage mother if you will), you have to be there and take them in. And even though some of them don’t even turn out to be anything you still have to take them. So that was the case with my mom. You can not have a regular life and make movies, you can’t do it.

You work with kids now.

I’m a pre-school teacher, yes.

Do you think since you lost your mom at an early age you are very sensitive to children, and maybe read children better now? Almost as if you have this connection with them.

Yeah, only because when you are with children you see them through a different light. You talk to them on their level. You have to talk to children on their level, I think that’s really important and a lot of people don’t know how to do that.

Did you ever consider going back to acting?

I thought about it at one point, but I was forty years old at that time so it's kind of hard to break in at forty. I had two kids to support. I was working for Aerospace at the time.

Last thing. Anything you want to say to the Monster Kids?

The only thing I can say to the kids is be honest with yourself. Don't care what other people say or do, just be honest with yourself. I think that is the most important thing anyone can do in their whole life. If you’re not honest with yourself you might as well call it quits.