Janet was Playmate of the Month for July 1955, December 1955 and October 1956. She one of only two women to be a three-time Playmate.
Janet was born Charlaine Edith Karalus on June 13, 1934, in Wheaton, IL.
Karalus was employed in Playboy’s corporate office when she became Playmate of the Month in July 1955. Playboy was in its second year of production and had previously used professional models as Playmates. Karalus worked in the subscription department and agreed to pose for a new Addressograph for the office. Hugh Hefner reportedly chose the pseudonym Janet Pilgrim to make fun of sexual puritanism.
“Posing for the centerfold was a big step for me to take,” she said later in life in a Daily Star newspaper story. “The pictures are very modest by today’s standards, but back then they weren’t.”
Janet appeared topless with a tuxedo-clad man in the background, reported to be Hefner. Readers sent letters asking for more of Janet. Despite getting offers to model for outside agencies, Janet chose to pose twice more for Playmate pictorials. She was listed on Playboy magazine’s masthead as head of the reader services department for the next 10 years.
Janet is said to be the prototype for the “girl next door” approach to Playmates from that time onward.
Janet went to to marry, have two children and settle in Connecticut. In the early 1980s, she attended college to become a registered nurse, and worked in geriatrics.
Janet died May 1, 2017, in Norwalk, CT, at age 82.
Digital | Video |Later in life
Playboy appearances:
- Playmate of the Month pictorial, Playboy’s Offie Playmate, July 1955
- Playbill, September 1955
- Playmate of the Month pictorial, A Holiday Evening with Janet Pilgrim, December 1955
- The First Two Dozen Playmates, January 1956
- Playbill, May 1956
- Subscription ad, October 1956
- Playmate of the Month pictorial, Janet’s Date at Dartmouth, October 1956
- Playboy’s Playmate Review, January 1957
- Promotional ads, October 1957
- Promotional ads, November 1957
- Promotional ad, December 1957
- Promotional ad, January 1958
- The Well-Clad Undergrad, September 1958
- Playboy’s Fifth Anniversary Scrapbook, December 1958
- Playboy’s Most Popular Playmates, December 1958
- Five Favorite Christmas Playmates, December 1960
- Janet Pilgrim in Palm Springs, July 1962
- The New York Playboy Club, April 1963
- Editors’ Choice, December 1963
- Playmates Revisited 1955, March 1964
- Playmates Revisited 1956, April 1964
- Readers’ Choice, December 1964
- Promotional ad, September 1967
- Twenty Years of Playmates, January 1974
- 25 Beautiful Years, January 1979
- The Illustrated History of Playboy, January 1979
- The World of Playboy, February 1980
- Playboy’s Playmate Reunion, April 1980
- The World of Playboy, May 1980
- The World of Playboy, August 1981
- 30 Memorable Years, January 1984
- Women of the Fifties, January 1989
- 40 Memorable Years, January 1994
- Golden Dreams, January 1994
- Miss July 1955, June 1995
- Playmate Revisited: Janet Pilgrim, November 1996
- Sex Stars of the Century, January 1999
- Playmate News, November 1999
- The World of Playboy, December 1999
- Centerfolds of the Century, January 2000
- Playmate News, July 2000
- Playmate News, January 2001
- Playmate News, June 2001
- Golden Memories, January 2004
- 50 Years – A Playboy Celebration, January 2004
- Playmate News, October 2006
- 55 Beautiful Years, January 2009
- Playmate News, July 2010
- Playmate News, December 2010
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, December 2011
- Hef’s Girlfriends, November 2012
- Cover Story, July-August 2013
- World of Playboy, July-August 2017
Covers:
Calendars:
NSS:
- Book of Lingerie, September-October 1995
- Celebrating Centerfolds Vol. 5, 2000
- Centerfolds of the Century, 2000
- Facts & Figures, 1997
- New Holiday Album, 1975
- New Holiday Album, 1981
- Nude Celebrities, 1995
- Playmates – The First Fifteen Years, 1983
- Pocket Playmates 6, 1997
- Sex Stars of the Century, 1999
Foreign:
- Brazilian edition pictorial, Playboy, 25 Anos: A Festa é Nossa, January 1979
- Brazilian NSS As Garotas de Playboy, 1980
- Brazilian edition pictorial Todas as Mulheres de Hefner, January 2013
- Bulgarian edition pictorial, Хеф мц русама, Хеф мц чериама, March 2013
- Croatian edition pictorial, Hef’s Girlfriends, December 2012
- German special edition Die 100 Shönsten Playboy Centerfolds Aller Zeiten, 2015
- Greek special edition 50 Xronia, 2003
- Greek edition feature Cover Story, August-September 2013
- Japanese edition pictorial, 25 Beautiful Years, February 1979
- Japanese NSS Playmates 312, 1980
- Japanese NSS Playmates Collection 1, 1982
- Japanese NSS Playmates Collection 2, 1982
- Japanese NSS Playmates Collection 4, 1983
- Japanese edition pictorial, All the Playmates Go Marching On!, February 1987
- Mexican edition pictorial, Hef’s Girlfriends, March 2013
- Netherlands edition pictorial, Het Succesverhaal van Enn Mannenblad, October 1982
- Netherlands edition pictorial, The Playmate Book, February 1997
- Netherlands edition pictorial, Hef’s Girlfriends, January 2013
- Philippines edition pictorial, Hef’s Girlfriends, March 2013
- Portuguese edition pictorial, Hef’s Girlfriends, December 2012-January 2013
- Romanian edition pictorial, Hef’s Girlfriends, December 2012
- Russian edition pictorial, Hef’s Girlfriends, February 2013
- Serbian edition pictorial, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, April 2012
- Slovenian edition pictorial, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, March 2012
- Slovenian edition feature Magnet, November 2017
Other publications:
- 50s Under the Covers, 2007
- Inside the Playboy Mansion: If You Don’t Swing, Don’t Ring, 1998
- French magazine PHOTO, July 1984
- The Playmate Book: Five Decades of Centerfolds, 1996
Television:
- Showtime special, Playboy’s Playmate Reunion (1982)
- E! True Hollywood Story (2006) in the episode “Hugh Hefner: Girlfriends, Wives and Centerfolds
Playboy videos:
- Playboy’s Playmates: The Early Years (1992)
- Playboy: The Party Continues (2000)
- Playboy: Inside the Playboy Mansion (2002)
- Playboy: 50 Years of Playmates (2004)
- Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (2009)