Shirley Booth: "Not Many People Knew I Played Miss Duffy - But That Was The Way I Wanted It!"

ANNIVERSARY TODAY:

February 11, 1942 - Ed Gardner, Shirley Booth's first husband, joined her on radio's Texaco Star Theater starring Fred Allen.

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GREAT NEWS!

The Kindle edition of my first book, Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story (BearManor Media, 2008) is now available for $9.95 at the Kindle Store. GO TO: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076ZCBM2

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Shirley Booth first husband Ed Gardner divorced her in August of 1943.

So much could be said about Ed's abusive treatment of Shirley. That truth is evident. As I mentioned in my biography, Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story (BearManor Media, 2008), even a quite young Dick Van Patten remembered the coarse treatment. However, I leave the gossip and fabricated anecdotes to another writer. Nevertheless, what should be said is that it was Ed's genius in creating Duffy's Tavern that deserves some credit for offering Shirley Booth her biggest success on radio.

For three seasons (1941-43), two on CBS and one on the NBC-Blue Radio network, Shirley lent her Brooklynese voice to the irrepressibly funny and light-hearted Miss Duffy, the cashier daughter of the owner of the tavern on Duffy’s Tavern.

Shirley: “The audience loved Miss Duffy. Every time I had a personal victory on the show they had one. It’s true that not many people knew I played Miss Duffy but that was the way I wanted it. I wanted them to remember the fictional character. In fact, I believe that all applause for actors at the end of a play should be eliminated. The play should end with them in character. The curtain should come down and the audience is carried away with the play.”

Shirley’s first husband Ed Gardner wore many hats. He produced, directed, wrote and acted in the radio program.

Shirley appeared on Duffy’s Tavern from March 1, 1941 to June 29, 1943. Ed once told her: ‘Shirley, people envy me my success, but they all hope you’ll make it to the top one of these days. They say, good ol’ Shirley. She’s been pluggin’ away a long time.’” Shirley explained: “The difference was that Ed, who’s really a very talented man, rose to the top so very fast.”

Just as rehearsals for the Broadway show Tomorrow the World began, Shirley’s marriage to Ed fell apart. Ed went into her dressing room at the theatre and asked her for a divorce because he loved another woman. Gardner would marry Simone Hegeman thereafter.

Years later Shirley would reflect: “I gave up the stage in the early days of our marriage. I thought it more important to be a good wife than a good actress. I took good care of him. I saw that he didn’t drink too much and that he husbanded his strength. Maybe I took too good care of him. The concentration you need for acting . . . it isn’t always good in private life. Having been alone part of the time, you dedicate yourself to marriage. You get sold on the idea so much you want to be with them more than they want to be with you.”

For a couple of months (April - June 1943), until she bowed out of doing Duffy’s Tavern, Shirley had to do her radio show on Tuesday nights for East Coast audiences at 8:30 p.m. Her curtain call for Tomorrow, the World was at 8:55 p.m. Then she needed to go back to the radio studio after the play to do Miss Duffy for West Coast audiences.

The hectic schedule balancing her time between radio studio and theater stage is explained by Shirley: “I sneak out of the NBC studio, jump into a taxi, and pray that the traffic lights won’t stop me. There’s a studio rehearsal every Monday afternoon, and at 7:30 that night we give a preview. On Tuesdays we work from 3 ‘till 7:30, when I rush here to the theater to make up and dress for the play. Before 8:30 I’m at the studio again, ready to go on the air. The worst of all, though, is getting back there after the play for the west coast broadcast, which starts at 11:30.”

Shirley would eventually say: “I’ve played the part so long that Miss Duffy will own me if I don’t break away. I invented her. She’s really another incarnation of Mabel in Three Men on a Horse, and I’ve got to get out of her clutches before it’s too late. In radio, with millions of listeners, the public identifies you with the part you play. It’s now or never for me.”

Shirley told a Herald Tribune reporter: “I’ve never mentioned this before but there was a time after my divorce when I came closest to having a nervous breakdown. I guess I just lost my confidence, that’s all. Suddenly I was afraid to face an audience. I can’t describe how horrible it was to go out in front of a thousand people and I feel my insides jerking, sweat pouring out of my palms, completely unsure for the first and last time in my life. I fought it. I went to all kinds of doctors, but the only medicine that seemed to work was the hardest to take - just keep going out there.”

But fortunately Shirley would meet up with Bill Baker - a true soul mate...That story is the subject of my book pictured above, For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story (Jim & Donna Manago Books, 2010).

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THANKS FOR VISITING!

JOIN ME AGAIN TOMORROW!

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For purchasing any of my books, you can visit Amazon.com
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For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story
by Jim Manago
Foreword by Leslie Sodaro
Published December 1, 2010
Further details at: http://shirleybooth.blogspot.com

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Now available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076ZCBM2

Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, May 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com