She wore glasses. She was the middle sister who pretended to have a boyfriend, the forgotten Brady who was sick, sick, sick of hearing about Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.
Eve Plumb, who played Jan Brady on the 1960s and early '70s cult sitcom "The Brady Bunch," doesn't really want to talk about being a Brady -- a biographical note that will follow her through life and after. She's 36 now, wears contact lenses and came to Towson last night to show her lithograph prints at the Dark Horse Gallery. Of course, she knows the reason people come to see her work.
"The 'Jan Thing' gets the attention," Ms. Plumb says. "I'm not that stupid."
The timing of her appearance, which coincided with the nationwide opening of "The Brady Bunch Movie," couldn't have been better for gallery owner Michael Gilbert. He was hoping maybe a thousand Brady fans would show up. But only about a dozen fans were there by 6 p.m.
"We think Jan is groovy," said Denise Dorsey, 27, of Columbia. She and her friend, Joy Kaminski, were not ashamed to say they loved "The Brady Bunch" and especially Jan. "She struggled for her identity. She came through.
"We're plumb crazy about Eve!"
Ms. Dorsey brought '60s Flower Power stickers, which Ms. Plumb signed in her real name. Ms. Dorsey wanted to ask her to sign the stickers "Jan" but that might have offended her.
One fan, 9-year-old Brittianey Moles, got Ms. Plumb's signature. She couldn't wait to see Jan Brady in person.
"She looks different," Brittianey said. (For the hundredth time, TV makes people seem taller.)
A few miles up York Road, "The Brady Bunch Movie" is playing at the Yorkridge. The movie resurrects the members of the Brady family grooving their way into 1995. Shelley Long is a dead ringer for Carol Brady, and actress Jennifer Elise Cox plays Jan. Ms. Cox has Jan Brady's profile and speech down.
Ms. Plumb didn't want to be in the movie. She doesn't want to see the movie.
"I forgot about its coming out," she said. "I got over the '70s nostalgia thing. I lived through it."
All this week, Nick at Nite has carried on a Brady love-fest, re-running the re-runs and throwing in all those Brady byproducts. The Nick at Nite people sent the press "A Buncha Brady-Mac Version Disk" to plug into home computers. Ms. Plumb was amused.
"I'm the product," Ms. Plumb says. "And I'm not seeing a dime out of it." She's laughing at herself, and the laugh is about the only remaining remnant of Jan Brady. That and maybe a seriousness about her. She was, after all, the thinking boys' bombshell.
