Saturdays with the Stars: Donna Reed

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 three-time Oscar winner Walter Brennan, who went from decades as a character actor to becoming a chart-topping singer in his late sixties.  This month, we're going to look at another Oscar winner, one who made two screen classics that overshadowed the fact that her film career was, as a whole, somewhat of a disappointment given her beauty & age when she was signed to MGM and Columbia.  It wasn't until ABC produced her eponymous television show that her celebrity finally was fulfilled...though it came at a price.  This month's star is Donna Reed.

Born Donna Belle Mullenger in Denison, Iowa, Reed was raised a conservative Methodist, and moved to Los Angeles for college.  It was there that, after courting several studios, she eventually signed with MGM, who relatively quickly changed her name to "Reed" due to anti-German sentiment in the wake of World War II (Reed famously hated her new moniker).  During her years at MGM, she struggled to find a footing despite being put opposite a number of high-profile costars, most frequently Mickey Rooney.  It wasn't until MGM lent her on assignment to RKO that she finally got what appeared to be her big break, playing Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.

Despite being a Best Picture nominee & now being one of the most widely-watched films of its era, It's a Wonderful Life didn't really do a lot for Reed's career.  She got lead roles on occasion, but almost always in B-material and never anything beyond "love interest" in her mind, so she moved to Columbia.  There, she got more of the same, with the exception of From Here to Eternity, which won the Best Picture trophy in 1953 and got Reed her only Oscar.  By 1958, she was nearing forty and had never been a leading woman in the way of someone like Bette Davis or Olivia de Havilland...and then came along The Donna Reed Show.

Despite starring in two undisputed classics, if you hear the name "Donna Reed" you probably think of her TV show, and not necessarily because you've seen it.  Reed's show, a big success for ABC during its eight-year run, has become shorthand for a brand of conservative domesticity, of a woman who devotes herself to her husband & family but never moves beyond that as her life's ambitions.  Reed was handsomely rewarded for the series at the time (winning a Golden Globe and four Emmy nominations), but spent decades after its run facing criticism for being the antithesis of the woman's movement that came in the latter half of the 1960's.  This month, we're going to take a look at Reed's film career, but also discuss her show's legacy, and Reed's own politics, which were far more complicated than her TV persona would suggest.