12/18/2022 0 Comments Josephine the plumber![]() ![]() The only reason she hated being nasty in “Bright Eyes” was because “Shirley is so nice.” Otherwise it was fun. Withers is fond of telling you, plays marbles, skates, rides, swims and climbs fences. She lives quite like the rest of the children on the block, as Mrs. Jane can affect other accents-French, German, Jewish. The down-south accent persists with both Jane and her mother. In “Meal Ticket,” now in production, she will perform a take-off on Harry Lauder. As Shirley, she shrewdly stressed the cherubic smile at the end of each sentence. She needed no encouragement to do Zasu Pitts, Garbo and Shirley Temple for me. She can do 37 imitations now, and the list is growing. Like Mitzi Green five years ago, Jane is a natural mimic. He rushed her to Butler, made her repeat them. When Butler was preparing “Bright Eyes,” Casting Director James Ryan saw Jane do some of her impersonations. Jane played small roles in "Kid Millions,” “Hollywood on Parade,” “The Good Fairy” and “It’s a Gift.” Her first Fox picture was “Handle With Care,” with James Dunn. Simultaneously things began to break with the studios. She did six months of Looney Tunes, and also Willie Whoppers, sometimes imitating as many as four voices in a single reel. This led to her being hired by the animated cartoon people to dub in the voices of the little drawn figures. She was selected from several hundred youngsters to exemplify the “Nuisance” on KFWB’s weekly Juvenile Revue. They pestered casting directors for eight months, and never a tumble did they get. There was nobody to welcome them in Los Angeles. ![]() Jane said good-by to the college football team of which she was the mascot, sang “I’m a Rambling Wreck From Georgia Tech,” her radio theme song, on the closing program and scrambled aboard a through train with Mrs. After they got settled and Ruth was in the movies-time enough, then, to think about coming on. Walter Withers stayed behind it was all right for Ruth and the kid to go, but he had a prosperous tire business to look after. She came out three years ago with her mother. (Hollywood seemed logical because Jane had done practically every thing else.) At five Jane was a veteran performer, with Hollywood the next stop. ![]() Pretty soon she was broadcasting over WGST, doing songs, imitations and tap dances. It was the last, the only, time that happened.Īt three, Jane won a contest and a part in Aunt Sally’s Kiddie Revue. Jane got up on the stage and burst into tears. The training started at the age of two, when her mother took her to a hall in Atlanta so that she could do a negro recitation. Jane is, I am afraid, everything we mean when we say, “a born actress.” This is partly because she is a girl, feminine gender, and partly because of her training: after she was born. Not that she’s the least bit nasty, but the mischievous expression on her face, the not-quite-hidden laughter in her eyes, are well, shall we say, a trifle disconcerting? That sense of superiority you get from looking down at someone smaller than yourself doesn’t work with Jane, at all, at all. Talking to Jane is very likely to deflate an interviewer’s opinion of himself, especially if it happens to be a high one. They will have an opportunity to judge with the release, this week, of “Ginger.” Not the elevation, perhaps, so much as the reformation. It is up to future audiences, of course, to decide the wisdom of this move. Whereupon Fox-to whom both are under contract-elevated Jane to a stardom like Shirley’s and now Jane is to be a very nice little girl too. Now That She’s to Be Star Like Shirley, She’ll Reformīy being a very nasty little girl indeed, Jane Withers diverted more comment to herself in “Bright Eyes” than reviewers allotted Shirley Temple, who was not only a very nice little girl but the star of the picture as well. She was nine when she did this interview. ![]() She talked about animation a bit in this syndicated newspaper feature dated July 14, 1935. I can’t help but wonder if she’s Cookie and the baby Elmer in the first Buddy cartoon at Warners, “Buddy’s Day Out” (1933). And considering it was almost 80 years ago, she might not remember. Regretfully, voices went uncredited back then so which specific titles Withers appeared in will never be known unless someone asks her about it. But before that, she had a career as a voice actress in cartoons. Withers had been a star in the movies as a child in the ‘30s and ‘40s. She was picked over 102 other actresses, including Ann B. The idea of a lady plumber was new and Withers happily chirped the benefits of a cleanser to some clueless homebody. Withers played the character on TV commercials starting around February 1963 until, well, they could still be running somewhere for all I know. If you’re of a certain age, when you think of Jane Withers, you think of Josephine the Plumber. ![]()
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