Joan Davis
| Joan Davis | |
|---|---|
 Davis as she appeared in I Married Joan. |
|
| Born | Madonna Josephine Davis June 29, 1907 Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | May 22, 1961 (aged 53) Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, Vaudevillian |
| Spouse | Si Wills (1931–1948) |
| Children | Beverly Wills |
Joan Davis (June 29, 1907 – May 22, 1961) was an American comedic actress whose career spanned vaudeville, film, radio and television. Remembered best for the 1950s television comedy, I Married Joan, Davis had a successful earlier career as a B-movie actress and a leading star of 1940s radio comedy.
Born as Madonna Josephine Davis in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Davis was a performer since childhood. She appeared with her husband Si Wills in vaudeville.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Career
[edit] Films
Davis' first film was a short subject for Educational Pictures called Way Up Thar (1935), featuring a then-unknown Roy Rogers. Educational's distribution company, Twentieth Century-Fox, signed Davis for feature films. Tall and lanky, with a comically flat speaking voice, she became known as one of the few female physical clowns of her time. Perhaps best known for her co-starring turn with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hold That Ghost (1941), she had a reputation for flawless physical comedy. Her pantomime sequence in Beautiful But Broke (1944) was a slapstick construction-site episode.
She co-starred with Eddie Cantor in two features, Show Business (1944) and If You Knew Susie (1948). Cantor and Davis were very close offscreen as well.
[edit] The Sealtest Village Store
Joan Davis entered radio with an August 28, 1941 appearance on The Rudy Vallee Show and became a regular on that show four months later.
Davis then began a series of shows that established her as a top star of radio situation comedy throughout the 1940s. When Vallee left for the Coast Guard in 1943, Davis became the host of his show. With a title change to The Sealtest Village Store, Davis was the owner-operator of the store from July 8, 1943 to June 28, 1945 when she left to do Joanie's Tea Room on CBS from September 3, 1945 to June 23, 1947. Sponsored by Lever Brothers on behalf of Swan Soap, the premise had Davis running a tea shop in the little community of Smallville. The supporting cast featured Verna Felton. Harry von Zell was the announcer, and her head writer was Abe Burrows, formerly the head writer (and co-creator) of Duffy's Tavern and eventually a legendary Broadway playwright.
The tea shop setting continued in Joan Davis Time, a CBS Saturday night series from October 11, 1947 to July 3, 1948. With Lionel Stander as the tea shop manager, the cast also included Hans Conried, Mary Jane Croft, the Choraliers quintet and John Rarig and his Orchestra.
Leave It to Joan ran from on July 4 to August 22, 1949 as a summer replacement for Lux Radio Theater and continued from September 9, 1949 to March 3, 1950. She was also heard on CBS July 3–August 28, 1950. She was a frequent and popular performer on Tallulah Bankhead's legendary radio variety show, The Big Show (1950–52).[1]
When I Love Lucy premiered in October 1951 on CBS Television and became a top-rated TV series, sponsors wanted more of the same with another actress who wasn't afraid of strenuous physical comedy. I Married Joan premiered in 1952 on NBC, casting Davis as the manic wife of a mild-mannered community judge (Jim Backus) who got her husband into wacky jams with or without the help of a younger sister, played by her real-life daughter, Beverly Wills. The series continued until 1955.[1]
[edit] Death
On May 22, 1961, Davis died of a heart attack at the age of 53.[2] She was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery mausoleum in Culver City, California.
On October 24, 1963, Davis' mother, daughter Beverly Wills, and grandchildren were all killed in a house fire in Palm Springs, California.[3]
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Joan Davis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1501 Vine Street.
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Way Up Thar | Jennie Kirk | short subject |
| 1935 | Millions in the Air | Singer | |
| 1936 | Bunker Bean | Mabel, Bunker's Secretary | Uncredited |
| 1937 | The Holy Terror | Lili | |
| 1937 | On the Avenue | Miss Katz — Dibble's Secretary | |
| 1937 | Time Out for Romance | Midge Dooley | |
| 1937 | The Great Hospital Mystery | Flossie Duff | Alternative title: Dead Yesterday |
| 1937 | Angel's Holiday | Strivers | |
| 1937 | Sing and Be Happy | Myrtle | |
| 1937 | You Can't Have Everything |
|
Uncredited |
| 1937 | Wake Up and Live | Spanish Dancer | |
| 1937 | Thin Ice | Orchestra Leader | Alternative titles: Lovely to Look at Der Komet |
| 1937 | Life Begins in College | Inez | Alternative titles: Life Begins at College The Joy Parade |
| 1937 | Love and Hisses | Joan | |
| 1938 | Sally, Irene and Mary | Irene Keene | |
| 1938 | Josette | May Morris | |
| 1938 | My Lucky Star | Mary Dwight | |
| 1938 | Hold That Co-ed | Lizzie Olsen | Alternative title: Hold That Girl |
| 1938 | Just Around the Corner | Kitty | |
| 1939 | Tail Spin | Babe Dugan | |
| 1939 | Skinny the Moocher | The Maid | Uncredited |
| 1939 | Too Busy to Work | Lolly | |
| 1939 | Day-Time Wife | Joyce Applegate | |
| 1940 | Free, Blonde and 21 | Nellie | |
| 1940 | Sailor's Lady | Myrtle | |
| 1940 | Manhattan Heartbeat | Edna Higgins | |
| 1941 | For Beauty's Sake | Dottie Nickerson | |
| 1941 | Hold That Ghost | Camille Brewster | Alternative title: Oh, Charlie |
| 1941 | Sun Valley Serenade | Miss Carstairs | |
| 1941 | Two Latins from Manhattan | Joan Daley | |
| 1942 | Yokel Boy | Molly Malone | Alternative title: Hitting the Headlines |
| 1942 | Sweetheart of the Fleet | Phoebe Weyms | |
| 1943 | He's My Guy | Madge Donovan | |
| 1943 | Two Señoritas from Chicago | Daisy Baker | |
| 1943 | Around the World | Joan Davis | |
| 1944 | Beautiful But Broke | Dottie Duncan | |
| 1944 | Show Business | Joan Mason | |
| 1944 | Kansas City Kitty | Polly Jasper | |
| 1945 | She Gets Her Man | Jane "Pilky" Pilkington | |
| 1945 | George White's Scandals of 1945 | Joan Mason | |
| 1946 | She Wrote the Book | Jane Featherstone | |
| 1948 | If you Knew Susie | Susie Parker | |
| 1950 | The Traveling Saleswoman | Mabel King | Producer |
| 1950 | Love That Brute | Mamie Sage | |
| 1951 | The Groom Wore Spurs | Alice Dean | |
| 1952 | Harem Girl | Susie Perkins | |
| 1952 to 1955 | I Married Joan | Joan Stevens | 99 episodes Producer |
[edit] Award nominations
| Year | Award | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Emmy Awards | Best Comedienne |
[edit] See also
- Golden Age of Television
- Let's Join Joanie (Failed pilot with Joan Davis)
[edit] Further reading
- Ohmart, Ben. Hold That Joan — The Life, Laughs & Films of Joan Davis. Albany: BearManor Media, 2007. ISBN 1-59393-046-1
- Rapp, Philip. The Television Scripts of Philip Rapp. Albany: BearManor Media, 2006. ISBN 1-59393-070-4.
- Tucker, David C. The Women Who Made Television Funny (2007). ISBN 978-0-7864-2900-4.
- Karol, Michael. Sitcom Queens: Divas of the Small Screen. iUniverse, 2006. pp. 22–24. ISBN 0-59-540251-8.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-507678-8.
- ^ Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence (2007). Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America. McNeilly, Donald. Routledge. p. 297. ISBN 0-415-93853-8.
- ^ Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence (2007). Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America. McNeilly, Donald. Routledge. pp. 297, 298. ISBN 0-415-93853-8.
