PITCHGIRL continued - $150,000-a-year Job for Julia - "I tackle commercials as though I were playing the queen in Hamlet," says titian-haired Julia Meade. "I rehearse them all different ways and still get a kick when someone tells me I did the commercial well last night." Her earnest approach, her wholesome good looks and her soothing, sincere voice have made Miss Meade the top pitchgirl in television. She earns $150,000 a year and since 1948 has sold everything from cars to cameras to cookstoves.

The daughter of Caroline Meade, a repertory star of the '20s, Julia went straight from high school to Yale School of Drama, then took small parts in stock, modeled and tried TV. There she began the hard way with the "grind of five-a-week daytime shows, warming up audiences, handing out prizes and being an amiable, articulate general stooge."

Today, by an odd twist of show business, the virtual stardom that Julia has achieved delivering commercials on the Ed Sullivan Show means sold-out houses for her summer stock and an easy entree to Broadway and Hollywood. She got good notices in a flop play, Roman Candle, and in a hit film, Pillow Talk. "But I don't think I have a star complex," she insists. "Fans don't tear my clothes or try to take a lock of my hair home to junior. They stop me in the street mostly just to say hello -- and that testifies that I can do something well. That's all I've ever wanted."

Checking her style, Julia studies her own performance on a home movie projector in her bedroom (left).

"In a commercial you have to be calm. I try to relax yet not have everyone go to sleep while I talk because I am so soothing. Watching myself helps me ponder the effect I want."

Julia, married in 1952, plays with her 7-month-old daughter Caroline. She hopes to raise [a] large family.

"She lights up the minute a camera comes into the room. I won't go so far as to say she's a ham, but she does light up. She'll probably be good at TV, and I won't mind at all."

PITCHGIRL continued - Julia poses on a stepladder in her husband's studio. He is Worsham Rudd, an illustrator, and Julia shows up in print from time to time under fictional names.

"My husband sketches me when he doesn't have time to get a model. It wouldn't be so boring if he caught me when I had something to meditate about, but he never does. He tries to make me think he wants to use me because I'm divine, but he really uses me because I'm inexpensive."