TV Guide (March 5, 1955)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Mamas Are A Menace The U.S. postman is hailed for reach¬ ing his goal despite rain, snow, sleet, etc. The “TV mama” (not to be con¬ fused with the more normal, con¬ siderate mothers of young TV actors) makes him look like an amateur. One mama seeks jobs for her 10- year-old bleached-blonde daughter by using aliases. “She knows no cast¬ ing director will speak to her if she uses her right name,” says Ethel Winant, of Justice, meaningfully. “She also uses the bribe,” says Hal Loeb, of TV Playhouse. “One day, she even invited me to go over to a ritzy store and pick out a suit.” “And,” adds Anita Gonzales, of Tal¬ ent Associates, “once her child has been turned down for a role, she dis¬ covers where the show’s rehearsing and then turns up. In front of every¬ one she tells the director he’s made a mistake.” “Another one called the other day to say that her child was ready to start working,” chimes in Elgin Hour’s Joan MacDonald. “The child was six weeks old. “It gets so you’re scared to pick up the phone,” adds Joan. “Many mothers put their kids on and you hear them whine, ‘Is there anything for me today, Miss MacDonald?’ “One eight-year-old was so small she could walk by the receptionist without being seen. Ten mornings in a row, at 10:30 on the dot, I’d look up from my desk and there would be this kid, asking, ‘Is there anything for me today, Miss MacDonald?’ “Finally, on the 10th day, the kid was embarrassed almost to tears and I was enraged. I went outside and gave that mother a piece of my mind. “When I was working on the Mont¬ gomery program, I gave a little boy a job, only to discover that his eager mother had booked him on three shows at the same time!” Bill Nichols, now casting Producers’ Showcase, reminisces about “the car¬ nation kid.” “Once a week, for at least a year,” Bill recalls, “I’d look up and there would be this kid with a carnation saying, ‘This is for you, Mr. Nichols.