Les Mitchel

Lester Mandiville Mitchel (October 27, 1904 – January 12, 1975 ) was an American film actor and radio producer, director and actor, known for directing Stars over Hollywood and Backstage Wife, as well as hosting, producing and directing Skippy Hollywood Theatre.

Early life Born in Malinta in Henry County, Ohio, Mitchel was the son of Jeremiah Ezekiel Mitchel and Myrtle Lucy Fairbank. later serving as producer, actor, writer and announcer on several Detroit stations. He joined WBBM in Chicago as a producer in 1939 and four years later was appointed assistant program director in charge of commercial broadcasts in 1943.

In August 1942, Mitchel succeeded Blair Walliser as director of The Romance of Helen Trent. In June 1944, he was hired as director of The Dreft Star Playhouse. At approximately the same time, Mitchel succeeded Paul Pierce as producer-director of Stars Over Broadway.

From 1947 to 1950, Mitchel produced, directed and hosted Skippy Hollywood Theatre; he also occasionally starred on the show.

In 1951, he directed 26 episodes of Orson Welles's The Adventures of Harry Lime.

As of October 1958, Mitchel was an instructor at the Virginia Rose School of Arts in Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles. The following year he produced, directed, and starred in a revival of Death Takes a Holiday, playwright Walter Ferris's English-language adaptation of Alberto Casella's La morte in vacanza.

Film and television Mitchel's 1951 documentary short subject, Maya Are People, was acquired the following year by the San Diego Museum of Man and screened on April 22, 1952.

A second short subject, People of Oaxaca (likely made during the same visit to Mexico and presumably now lost), concerns the Zapotec peoples of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. It next surfaced with Mitchel's Maya on October 17, 1954, as the two formed the back end of a trio of shorts screened at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York. It returned to the Gallery three weeks later, minus Maya and grouped intentionally with two utterly unrelated shorts. Subsequent sightings extend at least as far as February 1959, when the film was screened at the main branch of the Cincinnati Public Library.

Later career Beginning in 1961 and continuing through 1973, Mitchel was a prominent figure in the Religious Science movement. At his death, Variety reported that this portion of his career was "headquartered, variously, in Oklahoma City, Cleveland and Alburquerque." Contemporaneous newspaper listings indicate that, for at least one six month period (December 1964–May 1965), Mitchel hosted a 30-minute, weekly, eponymous Sunday evening radio program on KTOK in Oklahoma City. The Sacramento Bee confirms that he founded Religious Science Churches in Oklahoma City in 1964—during which time he also helped establish one in Albuquerque—and Cleveland in 1968, before settling in Sacramento in 1971, where he succeeded the outgoing Rev. Lester M. Bashara as minister of the Sacramento Church of Religious Science. Upon his death, he was succeeded by his then wife, the former Tracy Parsons.

Personal life and death Mitchel was married at least five times: to Florence Lillian Aubry in 1925; to Elaine Beeson, as of 1939; to Madelon Grayson (née Baker) from 1942 to 1952, to Lovita Pauline Scrydloff (née Lohbach) in March 1953, and, from 1971 until his death, Tracy Parsons, with whom he had a daughter, Leslie Mitchel.

A longtime resident of Sunland-Tujunga, Mitchel attained a double distinction in 1950: becoming both the neighborhood's first honorary mayor and the president of the local chamber of commerce.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1949 Once More, My Darling None Dialogue director (uncredited) 1950 The Return of Jesse James None Dialogue director, assistant producer (uncredited) 1951 Maya Are People Self (uncredited) Documentary short subject, directed by Mitchel 1951 People of Oaxaca Self (uncredited) Documentary short subject, directed by Mitchel

Television Year Title Role Notes 1956 Dragnet, episode "The Big Revision" Unknown 1956 The Roy Rogers Show, ep. "Head for Cover" Unknown 1956 The Roy Rogers Show, ep. "Paleface Justice" Unknown 1956 Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, ep. "Emergency on Scarface Flat" Basil Ogden 1956 The Roy Rogers Show, ep. "Fighting Sire" Outlaw 1957 The Adventures of Jim Bowie, ep. "The Beggar of New Orleans" Gorley 1958 Dragnet, ep. "The Big Gent" Unknown