If you ever mean Fbber McGee’s persistent
heckler, Mrs. Uppington, this is the way she’ll look at you.
Not So Fashionable
AS any listener to Fibber McGeeand Molly knows, there is one mystery that fitfully agitates the entire
population of Wistful Vista, but which probably never will be solved. It is the
puzzle of Who Threw the Rock Through Mrs. Uppington’ Window?
The center of the controversy, of
course, is Mrs. Uppington herself—Wistful Vista’s self-appointed dictator on
etiquette, social position, fashions, and anything else she happens to think
about. Mrs. Uppington isn’t the nicest woman who ever lived, and so it’s only
fair to point out that Isabel Randolph, who originated the character on the air
and still plays it, is friendly, clever, and not at all supper-fashionable.
Isabel—or “Uppy,” as Fibber always
calls her both on and off the air—is a born and bred actress. Her first
appearance on the stage wasn’t even a “walk-on”—it was a “carry-on” at the age
of sic months. Her mother did the carrying while she and Isabel’s father were
acting in a Chicago theater. As a child actress she was already playing roles
that sometimes called for gray wigs, and as a young woman she acted with such
stars as Blanche Ring, Richard Bennett, Walter Connolly, and Lenore Ulric.
Then she married J. C. Ryan, a
Chicago newspaperman, and retired from the stage to become the mother of two
daughters. After she saw the children through the baby stages she went back to
acting on a part-time basis, mostly for amusement. The hobby turned into a real
profession, though, when her husband died and she shouldered the task of
supporting herself and the two little girls. That was when she entered radio,
in Chicago.
Isabel didn’t realize the
importance of the day in 1937 when she first played Mrs. Uppinfton on the McGeeand Molly program, which was then broadcasting from Chicago. But it was the
popularity of Uppy that kept her on the show and eventually brought about her
departure to Hollywood, where she not only kept right on broadcasting but began
appearing in movies too. You’ve seen her in the McGees’ picture, “Look Who’s
Laughing,” as well as in “Take a Letter, Darling,” “My Favorite Blonde,” and “Ride
‘Em Cowboy.”
Her two daughters are grown up
now. Lenore, the elder, works in a motion picture studio, but not as an
actress. Isabel, Jr., besides bearing her mother’s name, is trying to follow in
her footsteps, and has acted in several Max Reinhardt productions.
Isabel is an animal fancier. She has
a jet black alley cat, Sir Peter, who has made three transcontinental trips,
and a pedigreed white Persian, called Puddin’ who has won her weight in blue
ribbons. Patty, a cocker spaniel, is a queen of the household. Maybe you’ve
noticed that the names of all her pets begin with P. That’s on purpose, and
when a new addition, another cocker, joined the family, Isabel considered
Patience and Penny, among other names. But the course of events in the world
changed her mind—and the new cocker was christened Victory.
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