T o a viewing publ ic wearily a c -customed to the truth about tou-pees. swatches, hair dyes and age-reducing make-up, it may come asa spiritual uplift to know thatAmanda Blake’s red hair is bothred and her own.

For the past two seasons, Aman-da, who picked the name out of adictionary. has been working inGunsmoke as Kitty Russell, a girlwho started out as a dance-hallhostess when the show first tookto the air in the fall of 1955 andhas since worked her way up tohalf-owner of the saloon

“Kitty,” Amanda says, i s essen-tially a nice girl. After all, this istelevision. She i s rather like B e l l eWatling-though if she has to be.but with a heart of gold”

Even though Gunsmoke is an adultWestern and Amanda a strikinglypretty redhead, certain inviolableWestern rules have been followed:she has kissed the hero. Jim Ar-ness. only once in 78’ episodes.“And that,” she says wearily, “wasin a commercial.”

Amanda. born Beverly LouiseNeill in Buffalo, NY, moved toCalifornia with her parents in 1943and struck up a schoolgirl friend-ship w i t h a movie p r o d u c e r ’ sdaughter. When the daughter latermarried and her husband took offfor Harvard Law School. Amandam o v e d i n w i t h t h e b r i d e as ahouse guest. “The husband,” says

Amanda. “IS now my lawyer, andit was the producer’s wife who gotme a contract at M-G-M ”

A m a n d a suffered through thrusual run of ma jor studio con-tracts. Including three fruitlessyears at M - G - M a n d Columbiabefore finally discovering t&vi-s i o n . S h e made her first appear-ancc in a Fireside Theater episode,“so old now that it’s being reruna t 1:30 in the morning aroundhere.” She then fell in with a smallgroup of actresses who were con-stantly being given parts in CBSshows, a situation which led theproducer of Gunsmoke to considerher for the part of Kitty Russell.

“We met me dur ing a My My Fa-vorite Husbande Favorite Husband rehearsal when II was a mess." Amanda explains Aman .“and went back to his office andcrossed my name off the list. Hehated me. But I guess I had asixth sense about this thing. I justknew I was going to get the roleso I lit out after it. I made the pro-ducer see me when I looked morelike myself. And I got it.”

Married and divorced (“I got mydivorce in the morning and wasback at work in the afternoon”),A m a n d a r e c e n t l y has bought asmall one-bedroom house in thevalley. “I am an undesirable so faras apartments are concerned,” sheexplains. “Two boxers. four per-manent cats and a stream of cattransients.”