Jane Withers died this past
Saturday at age 95, and if you don’t know who Jane Withers was, read on … her
story is quite interesting.
The actress meant different things to different generations, and to us Baby Boomers, she was a constant presence on this new-fangled thing called television as much as to our parents’ generation she was a constant presence on the big screen.
Withers was probably the last one of her generation to survive into the current time period, one of the top Hollywood child stars of the 1930s and 1940s who pretty much set the bar high for child stars to follow in succeeding generations.
She, Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were probably the top Hollywood kids of their time period, being featured in short films and full-fledged Hollywood classics in the years just after the Depression.
Temple was an absolute whirlwind of childhood talent, and not only was she among the top kid actors of her day, but she was also one of the top overall actors of her day too.
She had an adult career in Hollywood, but tired of the grind and went on to other things, including governmental roles that had absolutely nothing to do with Hollywood.
Garland was on a level all her own, an absolute hurricane of talent, and she went on to have a major, yet very sad, career in Hollywood, with her relatively short life punctuated by the highest success and the lowest failures.
She was a rock star before rock and roll came to the fore, and she died what you can call a rock star death in 1969, full of pills and drink and despair.
Rooney lived a long life, but not only was he probably the top child star of his time, but he managed to have a long career when he actually faltered early as he grew out of his kid roles and into adult life ... both in Hollywood and personally, what with numerous marriages and also a bit of that rock and roll lifestyle thrown in for bad measure.
Like Garland, his demise a few years ago was a sad one, rife with mental problems and battles over his money.
And then you had Withers, who never reached the heights of Temple, Garland or Rooney as a Hollywood icon, but nevertheless had more staying power in the spotlight, although her path was quite a different one than the others.
Starting out as a near-Little Rascal—she was going to be the new leading lady of the Gang in the classic short “Hi Neighbor” but bowed out due to a late film commitment—Withers made a whopping total of 38 films before retiring at age 21 in 1947.
Withers often appeared with Temple in her films as a foil to the young leading lady, such as in “Bright Eyes” in 1934, but she never could break through as a leading lady, and left Hollywood for a period, until television became the newest medium.
However, Withers was extremely popular during this period, and she and Temple’s images were used on many merchandising tools, including dolls, making them among the first cross-merchandised screen actors in Hollywood, and the dolls led to her own massive life-long collection of dolls, which was in the thousands.
She returned to Hollywood in the 1950s as a character actress on many of the new medium’s earliest shows and occasionally in feature films, including the classic “Giant” in 1956.
She also married twice, and had five children of her own, none of whom followed their mother into show business.
However, she was doing mainly comedy on television, and Withers continued on that pace literally through the 1980s, and it was on television that Baby Boomers like myself got to know her.
In 1963, she started an 11-year run as “Josephine the Plumber” in a series of highly popular TV and print ads for Comet sink cleanser.
The minute-long spots were among the most popular commercials of their day, boosted the popularity of the product, and made her ubiquitous on the small screen, with more than 300 commercials produced over the 11-year run.
Withers also continued doing comedic roles on television, including appearing on a couple of classic episodes of “The Munsters.”
“Josephine the Plumber” was such a popular character that when Withers announced that she was leaving the role to care for her ill mother, a new character was created to take on the role, a young girl who supposedly learned “everything she knew” from her elder.
The younger character never took off, and “Josephine the Plumber,” along with another popular TV and print ad advertising character, “Madge the Manicurist” for Palmolive, are among the most popular advertising icons ever created.
Her character certainly set the pace for the current character of “Flo” in the Progressive Insurance commercials. In a funny way, actress Stephanie Courtney almost resembles Withers, at least facially, and the personable style of “Flo” certainly exudes a lot of “Josephine the Plumber” to the insurance market.
After his mother’s passing, Withers again returned to Hollywood in the 1980s, mainly doing voice work as she suffered with her own physical maladies, including lupus and vertigo.
Being a child of television, I kind of grew up with “Josephine the Plumber,” a character which debuted on TV when I was a little kid and then left the small careen when I was a teenager.
I remember those commercials, and those 300 of them were on all the time, and I do mean all the time, probably on every show that I watched.
Withers made her mark for my parents’ generation and for mine, and that is an accomplishment in itself, certainly something that few people can lay claim to.
R.I.P.
The actress meant different things to different generations, and to us Baby Boomers, she was a constant presence on this new-fangled thing called television as much as to our parents’ generation she was a constant presence on the big screen.
Withers was probably the last one of her generation to survive into the current time period, one of the top Hollywood child stars of the 1930s and 1940s who pretty much set the bar high for child stars to follow in succeeding generations.
She, Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were probably the top Hollywood kids of their time period, being featured in short films and full-fledged Hollywood classics in the years just after the Depression.
Temple was an absolute whirlwind of childhood talent, and not only was she among the top kid actors of her day, but she was also one of the top overall actors of her day too.
She had an adult career in Hollywood, but tired of the grind and went on to other things, including governmental roles that had absolutely nothing to do with Hollywood.
Garland was on a level all her own, an absolute hurricane of talent, and she went on to have a major, yet very sad, career in Hollywood, with her relatively short life punctuated by the highest success and the lowest failures.
She was a rock star before rock and roll came to the fore, and she died what you can call a rock star death in 1969, full of pills and drink and despair.
Rooney lived a long life, but not only was he probably the top child star of his time, but he managed to have a long career when he actually faltered early as he grew out of his kid roles and into adult life ... both in Hollywood and personally, what with numerous marriages and also a bit of that rock and roll lifestyle thrown in for bad measure.
Like Garland, his demise a few years ago was a sad one, rife with mental problems and battles over his money.
And then you had Withers, who never reached the heights of Temple, Garland or Rooney as a Hollywood icon, but nevertheless had more staying power in the spotlight, although her path was quite a different one than the others.
Starting out as a near-Little Rascal—she was going to be the new leading lady of the Gang in the classic short “Hi Neighbor” but bowed out due to a late film commitment—Withers made a whopping total of 38 films before retiring at age 21 in 1947.
Withers often appeared with Temple in her films as a foil to the young leading lady, such as in “Bright Eyes” in 1934, but she never could break through as a leading lady, and left Hollywood for a period, until television became the newest medium.
However, Withers was extremely popular during this period, and she and Temple’s images were used on many merchandising tools, including dolls, making them among the first cross-merchandised screen actors in Hollywood, and the dolls led to her own massive life-long collection of dolls, which was in the thousands.
She returned to Hollywood in the 1950s as a character actress on many of the new medium’s earliest shows and occasionally in feature films, including the classic “Giant” in 1956.
She also married twice, and had five children of her own, none of whom followed their mother into show business.
However, she was doing mainly comedy on television, and Withers continued on that pace literally through the 1980s, and it was on television that Baby Boomers like myself got to know her.
In 1963, she started an 11-year run as “Josephine the Plumber” in a series of highly popular TV and print ads for Comet sink cleanser.
The minute-long spots were among the most popular commercials of their day, boosted the popularity of the product, and made her ubiquitous on the small screen, with more than 300 commercials produced over the 11-year run.
Withers also continued doing comedic roles on television, including appearing on a couple of classic episodes of “The Munsters.”
“Josephine the Plumber” was such a popular character that when Withers announced that she was leaving the role to care for her ill mother, a new character was created to take on the role, a young girl who supposedly learned “everything she knew” from her elder.
The younger character never took off, and “Josephine the Plumber,” along with another popular TV and print ad advertising character, “Madge the Manicurist” for Palmolive, are among the most popular advertising icons ever created.
Her character certainly set the pace for the current character of “Flo” in the Progressive Insurance commercials. In a funny way, actress Stephanie Courtney almost resembles Withers, at least facially, and the personable style of “Flo” certainly exudes a lot of “Josephine the Plumber” to the insurance market.
After his mother’s passing, Withers again returned to Hollywood in the 1980s, mainly doing voice work as she suffered with her own physical maladies, including lupus and vertigo.
Being a child of television, I kind of grew up with “Josephine the Plumber,” a character which debuted on TV when I was a little kid and then left the small careen when I was a teenager.
I remember those commercials, and those 300 of them were on all the time, and I do mean all the time, probably on every show that I watched.
Withers made her mark for my parents’ generation and for mine, and that is an accomplishment in itself, certainly something that few people can lay claim to.
R.I.P.
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