Jane Withers

Jane Withers (April 12, 1926 – August 7, 2021) was an American actress and children's radio show hostess. She became one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s, with her films ranking in the top ten list for box-office gross in 1937 and 1938.

She began her entertainment career at the age of three and, during the Golden Age of Radio, hosted her own children's radio program in her home city of Atlanta, Georgia. In 1932, 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. She made 38 films before retiring at age 21 in 1947. Ruth had had her own aspirations to be an actress denied by her parents. Ruth taught Sunday school and Walter taught Bible classes in their local Presbyterian church. The family recited blessings at mealtime and devoted themselves to charitable works, which stayed with Jane her entire life. Both in Atlanta and in Hollywood, the family would invite "six busloads of orphan children" to come to their home after church and Sunday school for lunch and afternoon entertainment.

When Jane was two, Ruth enrolled her in a tap dance school, She was cast on Aunt Sally's Kiddie Revue, a Saturday-morning children's program broadcast on WGST radio in Atlanta, in which she sang, danced, and did impersonations of film stars such as W. C. Fields, ZaSu Pitts, Maurice Chevalier, Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, and Greta Garbo.

Move to Hollywood

After two years of her radio work, Ruth took Jane to Hollywood before her sixth birthday in 1932 to explore opportunities in film. Walter remained in Atlanta, sending them $100 a month on which to live. She also charmed the casting director with her impersonations. Her character, Joy Smythe, is spoiled and obnoxious, a perfect foil for Temple's sweet personality. Withers was concerned that filmgoers would hate her for being so mean to Temple, but the film was a box-office hit. Withers said that director Butler confided to her, "You stole the picture".

Former child star Dickie Moore, in his memoir, wrote that Gertrude Temple was very protective of Shirley. While performing together in the film Bright Eyes with Shirley, Jane was prohibited from speaking to Shirley except in character.

After filming wrapped, Withers signed a seven-year contract with Fox Film Corporation. Included in her contract was the right to choose the crew members who would work on her productions. Her crew, dubbed the "Withers Family", worked on all her subsequent films. This included "ice skating lessons, voice training, horsemanship, dancing, French, Spanish, and swimming lessons".

Withers began filming her first starring vehicle, Ginger (1935), on her ninth birthday. She received two baskets of flowers on the set that day—one from Fields, to whom she had written about her casting in Bright Eyes, and one from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had seen her impersonate him on a newsreel. In 1936, she starred in Paddy O'Day, Gentle Julia, Little Miss Nobody, and Pepper. In 1937, she performed in comedies, dramas, and a Western with lead roles in The Holy Terror, Angel's Holiday, Wild and Woolly, Can This Be Dixie?, 45 Fathers, and Checkers. In 1938, she filmed three comedies for Fox: Rascals, Keep Smiling, and Always in Trouble. In 1939 she appeared in four more comedy roles: The Arizona Wildcat, Boy Friend, Chicken Wagon Family, and Pack Up Your Troubles. Withers often received top billing even over other established stars. Since all but one of her films were low-budget B movies, In 1937 and 1938, Withers's films made the top 10 list in box-office gross receipts. In addition to her studio contract, Withers made personal appearance tours for which she received $5,000 a week. She had her first screen kiss in the 1939 film Boy Friend. Her other films this year for 20th Century Fox were comedies: Golden Hoofs and A Very Young Lady. Her last films for Fox were the war drama Young America and the comedy film The Mad Martindales, both in 1942. She also made Her First Beau (1941) for Columbia Pictures. Her Republic films were Johnny Doughboy (1942), My Best Gal and Faces in the Fog (both 1944), and Affairs of Geraldine (1946). Her other films in the 1940s were The North Star (1943) for RKO Pictures and Danger Street (1947) for Paramount Pictures.

Screen persona

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salign=right She endeared herself to audiences with her seemingly limitless energy and impish charm. — Leonard Maltin Zierold noted that Withers's characters are "often in trouble, or 'fixes', and prone to brawls". Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons described Withers as "a natural clown". As a child, Withers's "stocky and sturdy" build and straight black hair also contrasted with Temple's "pudgy but delicate" figure and blonde ringlets. Both Withers and Temple usually played orphans and had a transformative effect on those around them. But while Temple was cared for by father figures, Withers was usually under the protection of uncles, both real and imaginary; according to Pamela Wojcik, author of Fantasies of Neglect: Imagining the Urban Child in American Film and Fiction, this introduced the narrative of queerness through alternative family structures.

Withers's bratty screen persona continued into her teens. According to Farley Granger, Withers was "cast as the obnoxious, smart-aleck teen as opposed to Deanna Durbin's or Judy Garland's plucky and adorable adolescent".

Parents and home life

While Withers typically played a brat onscreen, off-screen she was said to be "one of Hollywood's most charming and well-behaved juveniles". Her parents closely supervised her upbringing to make sure she did not grow up spoiled or entitled. In a 1942 newspaper article, Ruth described how she and her husband encouraged Jane to develop a generous personality and avoid the egotism and self-centeredness that a child star might accrue as the object of adoring fans and studio "sycophants". In 1938, her allowance was reported as $5 a week; this was raised to $10 a week in 1941. Her afternoon swim parties continued into her teens and were the subject of many a fan magazine. When she became a teenager, her parents built a second-floor addition that included a beauty salon and soda fountain where Withers could entertain her friends. As a child, she also accumulated a menagerie of two horses, three kittens, "eight turtles, three baby alligators, 24 white Leghorn chickens, 12 turkeys, 2 Chinese hens", a rooster, six bantams, two ducks, seven frogs, and six dogs. At the family's cabin in Lake Arrowhead, where they vacationed on weekends and holidays, Withers had two motorbikes and a boat.

Withers's birthday parties, described as "the social event of the season for movietown's small fry", were annually covered by the media. Withers's "sweet sixteen" party in 1942, with 150 invited guests and a hayride and barn dance on the program, was filmed by Paramount Pictures for the Hedda Hopper's Hollywood series. Withers had her eighteenth birthday party at Madison Square Garden with a circus theme and invited U.S. servicemen and their dates to be her guests. Her twenty-first birthday party was planned for a nightclub with 200 guests, but after she came down with the flu, Withers instead served cake and ice cream and watched movies in her personal suite at home with 12 close friends. After a 1936 kidnapping threat, she was always accompanied by round-the-clock bodyguards.

During Withers's first 15 years in film, Ruth "handled all negotiations with producers, supervised publicity, [and] completely managed Jane's off-screen life". However, Ruth was not a typical stage mother. She was usually present on the sound stage but did not watch Jane film her scenes; nor did she ever issue instructions or objections to studio personnel. Walter Withers did not involve himself in the movie business at all, but worked as a representative for a California wholesale furniture company.

Product licensing

Withers's parents licensed her name and image to numerous product lines. and girls' handbags and jewelry were also branded with her name. She was the star of best-selling paper doll books issued by Whitman Publishing, Saalfield Publishing, and Dell in the late 1930s and 1940s, which later became popular collectables. She was also featured in several Big Little Books published by Whitman Publishing. Numerous dolls were made in her likeness,

In the 1940s, Withers was featured as the heroine of three mystery novels published by Whitman Publishing, which produced 16 authorized editions featuring notable film actresses of that era. was said to "star some version of the real Jane Withers". The books were reprinted by Literary Licensing in the 21st century.

Retirement at age 21 In the early 1940s, Hollywood's child-star genre that had catapulted Withers to fame was on the decline. a Texas entrepreneur and film producer. The same month, her parents turned over to her the deed to their home, valued at $250,000 (equivalent to $ in ), and other real estate worth $75,000, plus annuities totaling $10,000, all purchased from Withers's earnings.

Her father died the following year. Ruth remarried to Louis D. Boonshaft, a physician.

Return to the screen and television work

In 1955, a year after her divorce from Moss, Withers returned to Los Angeles and enrolled in the University of Southern California film school with the intention of becoming a director. In 2006, Withers participated in a 50th-anniversary screening of the film for 700 attendees in Marfa, Texas, where location shooting had taken place.

Josephine the Plumber fame

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salign=right I put a lot of myself into Josephine. I felt that any lady who was going to become a plumber cared an awful lot about her fellow man because when you need a plumber you need help. — Jane Withers, 1979 The character of Josephine was described by the Los Angeles Times as being "one of the longest-running continuing characters in TV." Before retiring, Withers filmed two installments of the commercial introducing a young girl who had learned everything she knew about plumbing from "my aunt Josephine".

Stage work In late 1944, Withers made her stage debut in the musical comedy Glad To See You directed by Busby Berkeley. The show, intended for Broadway, closed after seven weeks of tryouts in Philadelphia and Boston. Withers sang the Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn torch song "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" written for the play; this was soon after covered by Frank Sinatra and Kate Smith and became a jazz and pop standard.

In 1971, Withers co-starred in the Broadway musical comedy Sure, Sure, Shirley which also brought Shirley Temple Black out of retirement. The performance, which featured a tap dancing sequence with 50 chorus dancers, was staged as an opening-night benefit for diabetics.

Voice work In the 1990s, Withers did voice acting for Disney animated films.

In 1990, Withers began experiencing symptoms of lupus. She suffered from the disease over ten years, after which she went into remission. She began experiencing vertigo in 2007.

Other activities Doll collection Withers began collecting dolls as a young child in Atlanta. The collection, enlarged by contributions from her fans, grew into one of the largest in the world. A small part of the doll collection was sold at auction, and Withers participated in tours of her collection held in conjunction with these auctions. She involved President Roosevelt in this initiative, requesting from him the loan of a train on which she had the dolls arranged in museum-like displays to be seen by children across the country.

Withers donated 800 books from her personal library to start the Jane Withers Collection at the Thousand Oaks Library in Thousand Oaks, California.

Affiliations Withers was active in dozens of charities.

In 1979, Withers was the first recipient of the Young Artist Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1st Youth in Film Awards ceremony.

In 2003, she was the recipient of a Living Legacy Award from the Women's International Center, a non-profit education and service organization.

Personal life

Marriages and children In May 1947, Withers announced her engagement to William (Bill) P. Moss Jr., a Texas entrepreneur and film producer, after a two-year courtship. They married on September 20, 1947. The couple lived on ranches in Midland, Texas, and New Mexico Withers' son, Randall Craig Moss, later died of cancer.

Religion Withers was a devout Christian.

Filmography