Saturdays with the Stars: Ann Sothern

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 character actress Eve Arden, who went from playing second bananas to bigger stars throughout the 1940's to becoming a true leading lady on television with Our Miss Brooks.  This month, we're going to talk about a woman who did lead a number of movies throughout the 1930's & 40's, and some might argue was too big of a success for this series' theme.  However, it was in television that she truly graduated from being a B-movie headliner and instead became a true industry name.  This month's star is Ann Sothern.

Sothern grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and from an early age showed promise as a musician, specializing in the piano.  This led her to do numerous stage productions in her high school, and when her mother moved to Los Angeles after Sothern's graduation, her daughter came with and got a job working for Warner Brothers as a vocal coach.  A short-term contract with MGM eventually came about, but it was in vaudeville & theater that Sothern had her early successes, working for Florenz Ziegfeld in his follies.

Sothern didn't take off in movies (she had unsuccessful contracts with RKO & Columbia before landing another contract with MGM) until 1939's Maisie.  Originally intended for Jean Harlow, the Maisie movies were given to Sothern after Harlow's death, and were big moneymakers for the studio.  Sothern, therefore, was under contract to the studio for most of the decade specifically to make the popular Maisie movies (she'd make ten in all, as well as a radio program inspired by the series).

Outside of Maisie, though, Sothern never really took off in the same way other MGM stars like Judy Garland or Joan Crawford had.  She was largely typecast in the part, and though she'd enjoy arguably the most important role of her film career in 1949 (the Oscar-winning A Letter to Three Wives, which she's marvelous in), a bout with hepatitis caused MGM to cancel her contract for health reasons, and by the early 1950's what success she had been able to amass in movies had been taken over by small roles in forgettable pictures.

Broke and with a waning film career, Sothern turned to television, which her longtime best friend Lucille Ball had recently had a big success with, starring in the CBS program Private Secretary.  The show was a big hit, and Sothern finally was able to step out of the shadow of Maisie and her tumultuous film career to have a proper star run.  This month, we're going to look back at that career, including watching one of the Maisie movies, as well as take a peak into why Sothern, whom Ball would once describe as "the best comedian in the business" never became a truly award-worthy actress until television gave her a venue for her talents to be respected.