Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
Jane Withers
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Jerrie Walters |
Jane Withers (born April 12, 1926) was a model, singer and actress. Withers started out her career in 1932 as a "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" impersonator on radio in Atlanta, GA. She appeared on the WGST & KFWB networks. She sang, danced, and impersonated other movie icons including ZaSu Pitts, Fanny Brice, W. C. Fields, Maurice Chevalier, Eddie Cantor, and Greta Garbo.
In her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, during the Golden Age of Radio, she had her own children's radio show. Withers hosted a radio programme called Dixie's Dainty Dewdrop where she also conducted interviews with local Atlanta celebrities.
She and her mother moved to Hollywood, where she appeared as an extra in many films until landing her breakthrough role as the spoiled, obnoxious Joy Smythe opposite Shirley Temple's angelic orphan Shirley Blake in the 1934 film Bright Eyes.
From 1933 to 1934, Withers provided the voice-over for Willie, Mary and background characters in the "Willie Whopper" series by Ub Iwerks, Pat Powers and and M-G-M.
Before quitting at age 21 in 1947, she appeared in a total of 38 pictures. She was interviewed for many television documentaries about the Hollywood Golden Age in the 1990s.
A&E Biography featured her in a 45-minute segment that aired in 2003.
Quotes
- Jane Withers: "I actually started on the radio." (1978)
- Jane Withers: "And then I did the voices for the Looney Tunes cartoons." (1978)
- Jane Withers: "And I have to tell Mae Questel this." (1978)
- Jane Withers: "I wanted to tell you this for years, dear lady." (1978)
- Jane Withers: "You was such an inspiration to me as Betty Boop, you'll never know." (1978)
- Jane Withers: "I used to listen to Mae Questel and watch Betty Boop and I love her very much for what she did for me." (1978)
Death
- Jane Withers died age 95, on August 7, 2021 in Burbank, California.
Trivia
- Mae Questel was her inspiration when she started doing the voices for the Looney Tunes cartoons.
- While Withers told Mae Questel how much she was inspired by her, Questel responded to her by telling her that she loved her too.
- Jane started her career as a child star, but was often cast in the role of a troublemaker.
- She appeared in several movies that featured Shirley Temple.
- During the 1960s she was best known as Josephine the Plumber.
- She was asked in 1995 to record a few lines of speech in the style of Mary Wickes, who had recorded the voice of Laverne the gargoyle in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and had passed away during post-production. Wickes' vocal tics were imitated. The Hunchback of Notre Dame II had Withers reprising the part. The role originally was for Cyndi Lauper but she was consequently fired.
- When Withers was a little child growing up in Atlanta, she started collecting dolls. The collection became one of the biggest in the world as a result of contributions from her fans.
Links
- Jane Withers at the IMDb