[7] Fresno performer Al Radka got her a singing gig on radio station KARM AM, which led to her winning a televised talent show in San Francisco in early January 1953.

[10] Marlene Willis and her family moved from Fresno to North Hollywood in early 1954, where her father took a job as a propman at Paramount.

[3] During early 1955 Marlene competed against other singers on The Swift Show Wagon with Hoarce Heidt and the American Way, a roving television program that broadcast each episode from a different state.

Unlike them, however, The Swift Show Wagon did not reveal the actual results to the live and TV audiences; instead, a celebrity judge would look at the meters and proclaim the winner.

Referring to Marlene's streak of five consecutive wins, a TV critic for The Boston Globe thought Hoarce Heidt would do well to include a little more transparency.

She and schoolmates The Collins Kids landed headliner roles on a teen-oriented variety show called Rockin' Rhythm on KTTV in June 1956.

She also signed in May 1957 with Regal Pictures for her first acting job, in a musical film originally titled Mother Was a Stripper[21] but later released as Rockabilly Baby.

[24] A few days later she was pictured handing in a check for the defense fund of a Louisiana Black man, whom a group of fifteen Hollywood producers, directors, and actors felt was wrongfully condemned.

She also played a key supporting role in an episode of Wagon Train during season 3 starring Robert Horton, Andy Devine and Glenda Farrell titled "The Jess Macabee Story" in which she portrayed one of five daughters kept isolated on a farm in a secluded valley by her family.

By 1964 she had joined the Juan Esquivel Orchestra as a jazz vocalist playing the casino circuit[30] in Nevada, then wound down her career performing at clubs on the Sunset Strip during 1965.

[32] Columnist Paul Coates gave the gist of a press release from her publicity agent describing Marlene at age 17 as standing 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 113 pounds, with hazel green eyes.