Episode 39: Cool Chicks

Hollywood's first stunt woman! Betty Boop! The first Native American Prima Ballerina!

See Mary Wiggins Connor be adorable here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JT0RQhsOwk 

Transcript

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Hey everybody, I'm Shannon, and welcome to the They Hid What Podcast. On this podcast, I explore parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing some cool chicks. Let's get into it. I think I had one of these people on my list to research. And then I don't remember what I was doing, but a second name came up and I added it. And then I just started working on one person, thinking I could make a whole episode out of it. But then I thought it would be more fun, and I enjoy doing these episodes, where it's kind of one topic with a bunch of different little subtopics. So we're going to be talking about a bunch of really cool ladies today, specifically three ladies. We are going to start with Mary Wiggins Connor. Mary Wiggins Connor was born on November 8th, 1909, in Plant City, Florida, and joined a traveling carnival straight out of high school. Mary headed to Hollywood in 1927 after winning the state high diving competitions for two years while in high school. Mary is quoted as saying, I guess I like thrills. And this is an understatement. Mary Wiggins could perform any number of stunts, including diving into a shallow pool, crashing cars, parachuting, flying, and walking on the wings of planes, jumping from horses, climbing tall buildings, and falling downstairs. Due to her build, she was able to double for a lot of popular actresses like Barbara Stanwyck and Loretta Young. One of Mary's top stunts and specialties was flying a plane. And she learned this from the pioneering female pilot Bobby Trout in 1930. Evelyn Bobby Trout was a very accomplished woman. Bobby's love for flying began the first time she heard a plane fly overhead in 1918 at about 12 years old. At 16 years old, Bobby had her first plane ride and promptly saved up money to enter flying school. Bobby went on to be a world record holder for a non-refueling endurance flight for a woman in 1929 and was a participant in the first women's air derby. But back to Mary. While performing a stunt in the 1930s, Mary had jumped into a pool of water. She ended up hitting her head on the bottom of the pool and damaged her spine. But this didn't stop her. In 1943, Mary had an uncredited role in her final film, No Time for Love. Later that year, Mary joined the United States Army as one of the first women in Air Force service pilots, affectionately known as WASPs. Mary flew as a ferry pilot, which is someone that moves planes from one place to another, whether it be delivering a new plane or moving one for maintenance. Mary was then promoted to a group commander position and finally an instructor at the Army Airfield in Hondo, Texas. The WASP disbanded in 1944 at the conclusion of World War II. After the war, in about November of 1945, Mary decided to start a business with a paint-refinishing man. Don't know what that means, but it had fallen through. Mary's mother said that a few days after this deal went sour, Mary appeared in a film called Face of Marble. But I don't see her credited anywhere for this film. Mary had become despondent after the war and her failed business deal. Also, the injury to her spine that she incurred a decade earlier may have hindered her from performing stunts as she had before. On December 19, 1945, Mary went into the backyard of her home and ended her life with a gunshot at the age of 36. From 1928 through 1943, Mary had appeared in 11 films as a stunt performer and a stunt double. In 1940, she appeared in a short film called Spills for Thrills from Warner Brothers, which was a tribute to the stunt men of Hollywood. Mary's clip, which I will share in the episode descriptions, showed just how talented and adorable she was. Born September 13, 1908, in the Bronx, New York, May Questel, K-W-E-S-T-E-L, if you cared, attended Morris High School and studied acting at the American Theater Wing and with the Theater Guild. It was obvious that May wanted to be an entertainer. However, her Orthodox Jewish parents did not want that and actively discouraged her. They even forced her to leave the Theater Guild school. At 17 years old, May began using the surname Questel, Q-U-E-S-T-E-L, and won a talent contest held at the RKO Fordham Theater in the Bronx. She won by imitating actress and singer Helen Kane, who was famous for the song I Wanna Be Loved by You, and we'll come back later in the story. May won the talent contest, was signed by an agent, and began performing in vaudeville as an impersonator. She was billed as Mae Questil, personality singer of personality songs, and did impressions of Fanny Bryce, Marlene Dietrich, Eddie Cantor, Mae West, and Maurice Chevalier, as well as animal imitations. She also took time out to study drama at Columbia University. No big deal. Let's talk about Max Fleischer for a second. Max was an animator and studio owner that he co-founded with his brother, Dave. Max found a way to improve animation. He created something called the Rotoscope. It was a combined projector and easel for tracing images from a live-action film. This enabled Max to produce the first realistic animation, and he patented the rotoscope in 1917. Max introduced the character of Betty Boop in the series Talk Our Tune Dizzy Dishes in 1930. She was modeled after actress Helen Kane. Remember her from Two Seconds Ago? Helen Kane had created the boop-boop-be-doop style of singing, and this inspired Max's Betty Boop. Betty Boop was originally a poodle human hybrid, but she was such a huge hit in the New York previews that Paramount encouraged Max Fleischer to develop her into a continuing character. She became the human form of Betty that we know today under Bernie Wolfe and five other animators. The Betty Boop series began in 1932 and was Max's most famous character. Helen Kane, however, wasn't thrilled. She filed a lawsuit in May 1932 against Max Fleischer, Fleischer Studios, and Paramount, claiming that the Betty Boop cartoon was a deliberate caricature of herself and that the character created unfair competition and ruined her career. The suit went to trial in 1934, where Judge Edward McGoldrick ruled that the baby technique of singing did not originate with Helen Kane. We should note that Helen Kane based her baby singing style off of African American performer Baby Esther Jones, who was known for impersonating Florence Mills. The Fleischers even used Baby Esther as evidence during the trial. That was a lot, so let me take it back for you. So Esther Jones started singing in that kind of baby style voice that Betty Boop is known for. She started performing that style at the Cotton Club. Helen Kane heard about it, saw her, I'm not entirely sure, was inspired, quote unquote, and stole it altogether and claimed it as her own. Then, when Mae Questrel comes along and starts to voice Betty Boop, Helen gets pissed and files a lawsuit. Then during the trial, we learn all about Baby Esther. But back to May. The human version of Betty Boop was introduced in 1931, and Mae Questrel was one of many women who lent their voice to Betty. May's first appearance as Betty Boop was in the animated short Silly Scandals in 1931. May voiced Betty exclusively from 1931 until 1938, and she appeared in over 80 animated shorts May also released a recording of On the Good Ship Lollipop, which sold more than two million copies. She also starred in more than 100 short films, but gave the role of Betty Boop back over to the original voice, Margie Hines, in 1938. This change was only made because the producers moved from New York to a studio in Miami, Florida. However, in 1988, Mae Questrel voiced Betty Boop in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? While working on Betty Boop, Max Fleischer created the Popeye cartoons and needed a voice for Popeye's love interest, Olive Oil. May made her olive oil debut with I Eats Me Spinach and was the permanent voice for olive oil until 1938. May said that she based Olive's nasal voice and expression, oh dear, on character actress Zazu Pitts. May returned to voice olive oil in 1944 and continued until 1962. She would also occasionally fill in for Popeye's Jack Mercer when Mercer was called, you know, into World War II. In 1978, Hannah Barbera began making the all-new Popeye cartoon for TV. May auditioned for the role of Olive Oil, but lost to another actress. The nerve to deny the original voice. May continued her voice acting as Little Lulu, Little Audrey, who was a knockoff of Little Lulu after the production of the cartoon ended, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Good Witch, and various characters from the Flintstone spin-off shows. She appeared on screen in TV shows, movies, soap operas, and commercials, and appeared four times on Broadway. May Questrel's last screen role was as Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. May had married twice, had two children, and died of complications of Alzheimer's at 89 years old on January 4th, 1998. In case you didn't know it before, Aunt Bethany from Clark Griswold's Christmas is Betty Boop. Elizabeth Marie Tallchief was born on January 24th, 1925, in Fairfax, Oklahoma. Her father was Alexander Joseph Tallchief and was a member of the Osage Nation. Elizabeth's mother was Ruth and was of Scottish-Irish descent. Elizabeth was their third child. Now, stick with me here. Alexander was a widower and met Ruth when she was visiting her sister, who was Alexander's mother's housekeeper. Alexander was the grandson of Peter Bickhardt, and Peter helped negotiate for Osage's rights to mineral resources found on their lands. When oil was discovered, the Osage nation prospered, and Alexander ended up never working a day in his life. His words. Elizabeth went by Betty Marie at this time and explained that growing up, she felt that her father owned the town of Fairfax, Oklahoma. Apparently he owned property everywhere. She says in her autobiography, quote, the local movie theater on Main Street and the pool hall opposite belonged to him. Our 10-room terracotta brick house stood high on a hill overlooking the reservation. End quote. As we all know, money doesn't solve problems. Betty Marie's parents often fought about money, and her dad was a binge drinker. Now I mentioned that Alexander was a widower when he met Ruth. Of his first marriage, he had three children who were all under the age of 20 when Elizabeth was born, or Betty Marie. Her half-brother Thomas played football for the University of Oklahoma and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ruth had wanted to be a performer, but her parents couldn't afford the lessons. So she made sure that her two daughters, Betty Marie and older sister Marjorie, got the opportunity to learn dance. Betty Marie and Marjorie were enrolled in summer classes at Colorado Springs when Betty Marie was three years old. Betty, as I will continue to call her for now, also studied piano and considered becoming a concert pianist. In 1930, when Betty was about five years old, a ballet teacher from Tulsa visited Fairfax looking for students. Mrs. Sabin took Betty and Marjorie on as students, but apparently this wasn't a blessing. Betty said, quote, she was a wretched instructor who never taught the basics, and it's a miracle I wasn't permanently harmed. Mrs. Sabin also put Betty on point shoes shortly after taking her on as a student, which is incredibly dangerous. Also at the age of five, Betty enrolled at Sacred Heart Catholic School and was allowed to skip the first two grade levels because of her advanced reading ability. Betty was kept far too busy to have much of a childhood, but she did say that she loved to be outdoors and liked to hunt for arrowheads in the grass. In 1933, it was decided that the family would move from Oklahoma to Los Angeles so that the kids could get into Hollywood musicals. It was said that, quote, the day they arrived in Los Angeles, their mother asked the clerk at a local drugstore if he knew any good dance teachers. The clerk recommended Ernest Belcher, father of dancer Marge Champion. An anonymous man in an unfamiliar town decided our fate with those few words. End quote. The kids enrolled in a new school, and Betty was placed in the correct grade for her age, but was in the opportunity class for advanced learners. According to Betty, she was still way ahead of those other kids and spent a lot of her school time wandering the schoolyard. After enrolling in ballet classes, Betty was thankfully taken out of point shoes. Betty was devoted to dance at the new studio and also learned tap, Spanish dance, and acrobatics. The family moved again, this time to Beverly Hills, where Betty first experienced discrimination. She then decided to make her last name Tall Chief with no space in between the words. So before it was Tall Space Chief, now it is one word. She had also kept up with her piano lessons and was a guest soloist with small symphony orchestras. By the age of 12, under the direction of Branslava Ninska, Betty decided that she wanted to devote her life to ballet. When she was 15 years old, she was discouraged to be cast as part of the core of her performance at the Hollywood Bowl, but her mother encouraged her, and Betty worked her way up to the lead role in Chopin's Concerto. If you don't know or are unfamiliar, a ballet core is kind of like the chorus group in a play. So it's those people that are in the big dance numbers, and they also do multiple roles throughout one show. It's a very, very busy role. Anywho, Betty was fortunate enough to receive instruction from a few distinguished ballet teachers of the time and even auditioned for the Ballet Russe in Monte Carlo. In 1942, Betty graduated high school and wanted to go to college. Her father, however, told her, quote, I've paid for your lessons all your life. Now it's time for you to find a job. Betty won a small role in the Judy Garland music presenting Lily Mars, but decided that dancing in the movie wasn't gratifying. That summer, a family friend Tatiana, asked Betty if she wanted to go to New York City, and soon the two headed off. When they made it to the city, Betty looked up the director of the Ballet Roofs of Monte Carlo that she had previously auditioned for. At first, the secretary told her that the company didn't need any more dancers. But a few days later, she was told there was a spot for her. She started as an apprentice and went on tour in Canada. After the tour, a dancer from the company left, which gave Betty a paid position. On her first day as a member of the company, Betty saw that her former teacher Bronislava was in town to stage Chopin's concerto, which Betty had just danced a few years before. Bronislava cast Betty as the understudy for the lead role, and this ruffled some feathers. Within the ballet ruse, the Russian dancers fought with the American dancers because the Russians deemed the Americans inferior. Now, with Betty being given such a big part, she began to be bullied by fellow company members. There was also the issue of her name. A lot of non-Russian dancers that joined the company adopted more Russian-sounding names. The director, Sergei Denham, suggested that Betty do the same, but she refused. Instead, choreographer Agnes DeMille suggested that Betty go by her middle name, and from then on, Betty was known as Maria Talchi, and I will now refer to her as such. Maria continued to dance in the core for Ballet Roos and attended classes at the School of American Ballet when she wasn't on tour. In late 1942, Balleruse's prima ballerina, Natalie Krasowska, had been arguing with the management, and Maria was told that she would take Natalie's spot if Natalie were to quit. In the spring of 1943, Natalie left the company, and Maria was now Ballet Ruse's prima ballerina, which is the top dog, if you will. She received glowing reviews as the lead in the courting at Burnt Ranch, but was moved back to the core when the tour was over. In Maria's second year with Ballet Ruse, she was a soloist in Le Beau Danube and the lead in Ancient Russia. Also during this time, Maria began dating a fellow dancer, Sasha Godovitch. Apparently, it was true love. And Sasha even worked overtime to buy her an engagement ring. But then a new woman showed up and began to pursue him, and Sasha dumped Maria. Real class act guy. In spring 1944, George Balanchine was hired by Ballet Ruse to work on their new production of Song of Norway. George noticed Maria and gave her a solo in the performance, and the night before the show premiered, he told her she was the understudy for the lead. The ballet was a success, and George Balanchine was contracted for the rest of the season. Maria's mother fought for Maria to get a raise, and not only did she get an extra $10 a week, but she was also promoted to soloist. George continued to cast Maria in important roles and also developed a bit of a crush. At first Maria was blind to it and thought they were just becoming friends, but then George asked her to marry him. Maria said, quote, I almost fell out of my seat and was unable to respond. She eventually replied, quote, but George, I'm not sure I love you. I feel I hardly know you. But George said it didn't matter, and that he'd be happy if the marriage only lasted a few years. After some consideration, Maria said yes, and the two married on August 16th, 1946, when she was 21 and he was 42. Balanchine coached Maria to dance more in the style he is now known for, and she felt that her quote body seemed to be going through a metamorphosis. She then made it to the rank of featured soloist. Georgia Maria spent six months at the Paris Opera Ballet, where Maria again got rave reviews. She was also the first American to perform there. When the New York City Ballet reopened in 1948, Maria was the first prima ballerina of the company. George Balanchine revolutionized ballet and creative roles specifically for Maria. The lead of the Firebird from 1949 was one of them. And actually, uh I think American Ballet Theater is doing that this season. I think it's ABT. After her debut in Firebird, critics wrote, quote, Maria Tallchief made an electrifying appearance, emerging as the nearest approximation to a prima ballerina that we had yet enjoyed. And, quote, Tall Chief was asked to do everything except spin on her head, and she does it with complete and incomparable brilliance. Maria Tallchief was now the first Native American to hold the rank as Prima Ballerina. Maria and George's marriage was annulled in 1952, but they did continue to work together. In 1954, George had reworked the Nutcracker and cast Maria as the Sugar Plum Fairy. It was said that because of her performance in the role in this new version of the Nutcracker, the ballet became an annual Christmas tradition and the industry's most reliable box office draw. Along with the Sugar Plum Fairy, George and Maria also created the Swan Queen in Swan Lake, a role in Orpheus, and the lead roles in Prodigal Sun, Jones Beach, A La França, Sylvia, Pada Doo, Allegro Brilliant, Pada D, and Symphony in C. It's said that her performances helped establish Balanchine as the force we know him to be today. After traveling the world and dancing with numerous companies on numerous stages and on television, Maria Tallchief retired from dancing in 1966 because she didn't want to dance, quote, beyond her prime. Maria had a brief second marriage before marrying for a third time to a Chicago businessman, Henry Passion Jr., in 1956. They had a daughter, Elsie Marie, in 1959, who went on to become an award-winning poet and executive director of the Poetry Society of America. Maria Tallchief taught ballet after her retirement and was the artistic advisor to the Chicago Festival Ballet until her death in April of 2013. I hope you're as old as these three chicks as I was. I thought it was really cool that there was this one prominent stunt woman in the 1930s because back then it was just smaller men doing female stunt roles. Uh, and it took her, what, three tries to finally get credited. We then had May, the voice of Betty Book, the voice of so many things we know, who was denied the role that she originated as olive oil. Get out of here. And then we have Maria Tallchief, a Native American woman that became the very first prima ballerina in the States, which is wild. Anywho, I hope you enjoyed these cool chicks, these wonderful women, these lively ladies, and you come back next week to see what else has been hidden.