Saturdays with the Stars: Eve Arden

Each month of 2022 we will be taking a look at one-time film actors who became foundational figures in the early days of television, stretching from the early 1950's into the mid-1960's.  Last month, we talked about Jack Benny, who despite an early contract with MGM was never able to become a leading man with the studio, but would instead become one of the most famous names in radio & television comedy.  This month, we're going to switch pace a little bit, focusing on an actress who was never a proper headliner like Benny or January's Lucille Ball, but instead consistently had key character actor parts, including one that would result in an Oscar nomination, during her career in movies.  It was television, though, that would give her the central marquee when she would become a headliner in one of the more popular sitcoms of the mid-1950's.  This month's star is Eve Arden.

Arden was born the daughter of a gambler (whom her mother, who worked as a milliner, would quickly divorce) in Northern California.  While at a convent boarding school, she developed a taste for theater, which would lead her to join a touring company after she finished high school.  This brought her to Hollywood, and a supporting part in Song of Love.  She didn't initially take to the movies, and for much of the 1930's Arden worked in New York, taking on a number of featured roles in Broadway comedies.  It was in 1937, though, when she signed a long-term contract with RKO, that she became a regular in movies upon the success of Stage Door (which also featured future TV superstar Lucille Ball as her roommate).

Arden's career throughout the 1940's frequently had her playing the same style of part, that of a tall, wisecracking, world-weary woman that would provide comic relief regardless of the genre of the picture.  This led to her greatest film success, as Joan Crawford's best friend in Mildred Pierce, which would glean Arden her only Oscar nomination.  But as the 1940's closed, it was in radio that Arden was gaining most of her success, featured on Danny Kaye's variety show (the two were reportedly romantically involved), and after that was cancelled, on the show Our Miss Brooks, which was a massive hit on radio (to the point where Arden was named an honorary Member of the National Education Association) and then graduated to television, where the show was equally popular, and won Arden one of the first ever Emmy Awards for Best Actress.

Arden, if she's spoken of at all today, is likely remembered for her roles in the Grease musicals.  Our Miss Brooks is not I Love Lucy, even if it rivaled it for popularity at the time; it is not a show that has become ubiquitous in pop culture.  And Arden is not a typical actor to feature in our Saturday series because, outside of her work on television, she was never a leading woman; we have never featured a true character actor in this series, which has made confirming that she's got key roles in films that I haven't seen of hers difficult without spoiling them for myself.  But as Arden is someone I've always enjoyed onscreen, and because she is a quintessential definition of someone who "couldn't make it in movies, but was a huge success in TV" I thought she was the perfect fit for our series this March, and so TMROJ will also be bringing her to the top of the call sheet.