She was most noted for her role at NBC daytime television programming as the first female vice president of a TV network, a position she held from 1972 until 1976.
[1] In this role, Bolen was responsible for commissioning the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune and is credited with bringing successful long form to network soap operas.
Her sister Marilyn Bolen was notable for being the first woman stockbroker to work on the St. Louis exchange floor.
[4] In September 1975, she was the first female Vice President of Programming at a TV network and took NBC to #1 in the national Nielsen ratings.
Daytime and late-night were seen as NBC's profit center at that time, and advertisers wanted programs that attracted young women.
In late 1972, Bolen ended Concentration 's fifteen-year run and replaced it with the Heatter-Quigley Productions game show Baffle.
The new company created and developed game shows, movies of the week, and theatrical films for networks and studios.
One series which Bolen's company produced for NBC was loosely based on her own career, taking a serious look at the men who ran network television.
[17] Bolen died on January 19, 2018, at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, and was survived by her son, Jordan Wendkos.