When she won her first starring role, he sent her two large bouquets and a note saying, “I know you’re going to knock them dead in ‘Ginger’ and you’re going to have a fantastic career.” He coached her and afterward praised her professionalism. Fields chose her for a scene in which she played hopscotch in front of his store, frustrating his exit. Fields in “It’s a Gift” (1934) belies the legend - encouraged by Fields himself - that the comedian hated children. Jane played bit roles in movies and supplied voices for the Willie Whopper and the Looney Tunes cartoons. Her mother had greater ambitions, and she persuaded her husband to move the family to Hollywood. Born April 12, 1926, in Atlanta, she had appeared as Dixie’s Dainty Dewdrop on local radio by the age of 3. She said in a later Times interview that she felt the original Josephine character was “too smart-alecky, too brash,” but she thought “any lady who was going to become a plumber” would take pride in her work and care about her customers.įame started early for Jane Withers. The main advantage, she said, was that unlike the Broadway offers she was getting, the job didn’t interfere with her home life in Hollywood. “I got five figures for eight of those commercials, and I’m doing four more.” “Oh, the money is nice, all right,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1963. Her biggest prominence came from portraying “Josephine” in TV commercials for Comet cleanser for 12 years. Withers proved less of a draw as a teenager, and her career dwindled.Īs an adult, she appeared in a few films and on television. “I wasn’t allowed to shoot in Westwood until Shirley left the studio,” she said. While the Temple films were made on Fox’s modern Westwood lot, Withers made hers at the old studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Among the titles: “Ginger,” “Paddy O’Day,” “Little Miss Nobody,” “Wild and Wooly” and “Arizona Wildcat.” Explore Facebook rolls out new feature that allows users to request prayersĮven though B pictures were aimed for the bottom half of double bills, a theater owners poll named Withers one of the top money-making stars in 19. His last role was on “Seinfeld” in February 1996 in theĮpisode titled “The Cadillac.” White played a condo board member who helped impeach Jerry’s father as condo president.- Atlanta-born actor Jane Withers, on a movie she made with Shirley Templeįor four years, Fox ground out three or four Withers films annually at budgets far lower than the Temple specials. Jesse White died in January 1997 at the age of 80. Hopefully, Jane Withers, the child movie star from the 1930s who became Josephine the Plumber in theġ960s, was compensated just as handsomely. Why!” he said, displaying this rolled-up wad of money and grinning demonically. Plunging his hand into one of his pants pockets and then pulling out a wad of one-, five-, 10- and 20-dollar bills that was so thick he could not close his fingers around it. He answered my question by suddenly and dramatically Of all the movies and TV shows we had just been talking about, I asked him why he stayed in the Maytag repairman role for so many years. Our conversation eventually turned to his long association with Maytag. “Death of a Salesman” starring Fredric March in which White played Stanley the restaurant waiter. He cited two movies as career highlights - the 1950 film version of “Harvey” starring Jimmy Stewart, in which White played a sanitarium orderly, and the 1951 film version of Martin's Laugh-In” - with whom I was acquainted./p>Īt first, my conversation with the Maytag repairman focused on his earlier career as a character actor in movies and TV shows. radio personality, voice artist on commercials and cartoons, and a man known to a generation of TV viewers as the “beautiful downtown Burbank” announcer from “Rowan & We were introduced to each other by Gary Owens. When I met Jesse White, he was 70 and (unbeknownst to me) nearing the end of his run as Ol’ Lonely. Slogans such as “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should” and “Please don't squeeze the Charmin” are Millions can easily recall the commercials and slogans of our youth. Those of us who are old enough to have been among those The reasons why these characters and so many of the TV commercials and slogans of the pre-cable TV era were so memorable are more or less self-evident and often noted.īut three broadcast channels to watch, the commercials seen in those decades were seen by audiences in the many tens of millions. Wilson - the grocery store manager who could not resist squeezing the Charmin and the original Maytag repairman, officially named Ol’ Lonely, played by Jesse White for 21 years, 1967-88. Others who come to mind are Madge the Palmolive lady, the beauty salon manicurist (“You’re soaking in it!”) played by Jan Miner Mr.
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