SID MELTON

May 22, 1917 – November 2, 2011

Sid Melton (born Sidney Meltzer) played the roles of incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe in the CBS sitcom “Green Acres” and Uncle Charlie Halper, proprietor of the Copa Club, on “The Danny Thomas Show” and its spin-offs. He appeared in about 140 film and television projects in a career that spanned nearly 60 years. In addition to his work with Lucille Ball, he appeared in flashback on several episodes of “The Golden Girls” as Salvadore Petrillo, the long-dead husband of Sophia (played by Estelle Getty) and father of Dorothy (played by Beatrice Arthur). 

His father was a Yiddish theater comedian. Sid was known for his short stature, 5′3″.  

In 1950, Melton appeared in the feature film remake The Lemon Drop Kid, also featuring “Lucy” actors William Frawley, Bob Hope, Ida Moore, Hazel Boyne, and Ben Weldon.  

In 1954, he made two appearances on the Desilu series “Our Miss Brooks” playing two different characters. He appeared alongside “Lucy” actors Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Richard Crenna, and Hy Averback. 

Melton’s first encounter with Lucille Ball was in “Lucy Wins a Racehorse”  (LDCH S1;E4) aired on February 3, 1958. His short stature made him ideal to play one of the jockeys at Roosevelt Raceway. Although the show featured second unit footage on location, Melton’s riding sequences with Ball were filmed in Hollywood, without live horses. 

In November 1958, Melton returned to the “Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse” for Lucille Ball’s only non-Lucy Ricardo performance on the anthology series, “K.O. Kitty.”  Melton played a crooked fight manager who later pulls a gun on Kitty (Lucille Ball)!  His partner in crime is played by Jesse White (above).  

Melton stayed on the Desilu lot to film two episodes of “The Ann Sothern Show” in early 1959. He played different characters in each episode and acted opposite Lucy’s pal Ann Sothern (naturally) and “Lucy” regular Charles Lane. To kick off the show’s second season in October 1959, Lucille Ball played Lucy Ricardo on a cross-over episode. 

In his second appearance on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” “Lucy Goes To Alaska” (LDCH S2;E3), Melton played a bellboy at an unprepossessing hotel in Nome, Alaska. (Was Bobby Jellison not available?) Despite the location, Melton’s scenes were filmed in Hollywood. Red Skelton guest-starred on the episode, which was timed to coincide with Alaska’s statehood. 

In his final acting appearance with Lucille Ball, Melton was again cast for his diminutive stature as a construction worker named Shorty (although the nickname appeared only in the credits) in “Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos” (LDCH S3;E1). He asks Milton Berle to autograph a photo, giving him a list of names for the inscription, the last being ‘Ruth’, which was the first name of Milton Berle’s wife. 

Two months later, Melton played a Cab Driver on Desilu’s helicopter drama, “Whirlybirds.” 

1959 was a busy year for Melton.  That year he also began playing Charlie Halper on “The Danny Thomas Show”.  He did 93 episodes of the series over four years. 

Perhaps most memorably, Sid Melton played Alf Monroe on 30 episodes of CBS’s “Green Acres.” Alf and his sister Ralph (Mary Grace Canfield) were construction workers perennially working on the Douglas’s ramshackle home, particularly their sliding bedroom door. On the series, Melton worked alongside Lucille Ball’s dear old Barbara Pepper, as well as “Lucy” actors Bea Benadaret, Shirley Mitchell, Eleanor Audley, Jerry Hausner, and Parley Baer. The show’s stars, Eddie Arnold and Eva Gabor, both guest-starred on “Here’s Lucy.” 

CROSS-OVER CRAZINESS!

“Green Acres” was one of CBS’s rural sitcoms and existed in the same ‘world’ as “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Petticoat Junction”.  It was not uncommon for characters to turn up on the other shows. During his stint on “Green Acres,” Melton did one 1968 episode of “Petticoat Junction,” although in this case he did not play Alf Monroe!

Just prior to his joining “The Danny Thomas Show,” The Ricardos and the Williams’ did a cross-over episode titled “Lucy Makes Room for Danny” (LDCH S2;E2) and Lucy and Desi returned the favor with “Lucy Upsets the Williams Household” (S6;E14). In 1970, Melton returned to the role of Charlie Halper for “Make Room for Granddaddy,” a series that Lucille Ball also guest-starred on in January 1971, playing Lucy Carter, her character from “Here’s Lucy.” To add to the meta-madness, from 1966 to 1969 Melton did four episodes of “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C” as Friendly Freddy. The character of Gomer Pyle (played by Jim Nabors) turned up on “The Lucy Show” in November 1966, a month after Pyle confronted Lucy Carmichael.  

“For years I auditioned for producers and directors who would fall on the floor laughing, but then I’d never hear from them again. Go ask them why I’m not working. Believe me, there’s a lot more to working steadily than being a name and delivering the laughs. There’s a certain – let’s call it kowtowing – that I’m not prepared to do.”

Sid Melton on “The Golden Girls”