In 1959, at age 9, she disappeared from her Los Angeles home and was feared kidnapped. But it turned out she had booked a flight to Washington, D.C., herself, and boarded the airplane unaccompanied. When she was taken off the plane at Baltimore, she said she'd wanted to visit First Lady
Mamie Eisenhower, whom she had met previously, at the White House to ask her help to "get me a part in a TV series".