Mary Wickes: I Know I've Seen That Face Before

413 Pages·2013·4.14 MB·English

by  Steve Taravella

mary wickes
Hollywood legends series
Carl rollyson, general editor

Mary
wickes
I know I’ve seen that face before
±
steve taravella
University Press of Mississippi • Jackson
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of American
University Presses.
Copyright © 2013 by Steve Taravella
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2013
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Taravella, Steve.
Mary Wickes : I know I’ve seen that face before / Steve Taravella.
pages cm. — (Hollywood legends series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes filmography.
ISBN 978-1-60473-905-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60473-906-0
(ebook) 1. Wickes, Mary, 1910–1995. 2. Actors—United States—Biography. I.
Title.
PN2287.W45875T37 2013
791.4302’8092—dc23
[B] 2012050083
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
To Lillian (1907–84) and Victor (1903–97) Taravella,
my paternal grandparents, whose generosity enabled me
to start this project
and
to Tim Reagan, my partner, whose patience and support
enabled me to finish it
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C o n t e n t s
Preface IX
Acknowledgments XIII
1. Pardon Me Lady, But Did You Drop a Fish? 3
2. From Stockbridge to the Mercury Theatre 26
3. On Stage and On Air 49
4. Anatomy Is Destiny 71
5. Miss Bedpan 83
6. Los Angeles, Mother in Tow 97
7. Lucille Ball’s Best Friend 108
8. Cookies and Milk with Mother 134
9. She Kept It to Herself 146
10. Mary’s Secret Cousin 159
11. “Not an Ounce” of Romance 169
12. Nurses, Nuns, and Housekeepers 193
13. When Acting Is Everything . . . 221
14. Becoming the Characters She Played 243
15. Success Returns 256
16. Physical Deterioration 278
17. Fade Out 285
The Roles of Mary Wickes 300
Notes 316
Index 358
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P r e fa C e
i remember letting out a little gasP.
I was reading the Los Angeles Times one October morning in 1995, as I
did every morning in the years I lived in California, and turned the page
to see Mary Wickes peering up from the obituary section. I had never
met this character actress and had no relationship with her, yet I imme-
diately felt a sense of loss.
I reacted as I did because of the characters that Wickes brought to
life so vividly. Whether nurse, nun, or housekeeper, she was always the
wry observer peering into a world that she did not entirely belong to.
Intimately a part of whatever was taking place on screen or stage, she
was at the same time an outsider—and it was clear to everyone that she
had made her peace with this status. Although she was almost never the
lead, she was the one who held my attention. Her persona resonated
with me.
I soon learned I was not alone. Some years later, having decided to
produce this biography, I immersed myself in Mary’s papers in the ar-
chives of Washington University. Among them, I found stacks of fan let-
ters that had arrived in the months following her death from people un-
aware she had died. I was astonished by the number of letter-writers—
from as far afield as Australia, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, and the United
States—who revealed the same thing: Most of them tell Mary that she
is the first celebrity they ever wanted to write. Maybe these people, too,
were outsiders of sorts. Certainly, she touched them in some way other
performers had not.
Mary did not try to be funny or clever. In fact, when she occasion-
ally gave seminars later in life, she reminded participants that her class
featured “Acting in Comedy,” not “Comic Acting.” She had a natural
sense of where the laugh was, of what would work and what would not.
She didn’t push for the laugh or nudge the audience, but rather left a
IX