DORIS SINGLETON

September 29, 1919

Dorthea ‘Doris’ Singleton was  born in New York City in 1919. She trained as a ballerina but began her career in show business as a vocalist in the late 1930s. Singleton worked as a guest star and in regular roles on numerous hit radio shows. 

During a guest appearance on the radio show “My Favorite Husband” in 1948 she met Lucille Ball and this began their long professional relationship. 

When she first appeared (in a sweater coveted by Lucy) in “The Club Election” (ILL S2;E19) in 1953, her character was named Lillian Appleby but it was decided that she should go by Caroline Appleby in all future episodes. In “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL S4;E18), Desi Arnaz made an error and called Caroline Appleby “Lillian” but the error remained in the final print. 

Caroline and Marion Strong (Shirley Mitchell) turn up for the club meeting when “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3).

A game of cards in “Lucy Is Matchmaker” (ILL S2;E27) brings out Caroline and Pauline (Peggy Rea). 

In “The Camping Trip” (ILL S2;E29), the card game has swapped out Pauline for Sally (June Whitely Taylor). 

The card game is moved to the Appleby apartment (Chinese Modern) in “Lucy Tells The Truth” (ILL S3;E6), with ‘cackling’ Marion Strong wearing a statement hat!

Caroline Appleby with her son Stevie (Steven Kaye), one of Little Ricky’s best friends. 

Caroline with her husband, local TV station manager Charlie Appleby (Hy Averback) in “Baby Pictures” (ILL S3;E5)

. The next (and last) time we see Charlie Appleby he will be played by George O’Hanlon (inset photo).

The Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League calls an emergency meeting to address the deficit in the budget in “Lucy’s Club Dance” (S3;E25). Caroline Appleby turns up in a black dress with Peter Pan collar and hat!

Visiting Hollywood, Caroline was suddenly near-sighted!  To convince Caroline that she was hob-nobbing with celebrities, Lucy and Ethel scheme to get her glasses off her in two related episodes, “The Dancing Star” (ILL S4;E27) and 

, “Lucy Meets Harpo Marx” (ILL S4;E28).

 

In 1953, Singleton made her television TV debut as Gloria Harper in the episode “Jungle Devil” on “The Adventures of Superman.” Coincidentally, Singleton’s final appearance on “I Love Lucy” was in an episode with Superman (George Reeves), “Lucy and Superman” (ILL S6;E4). 

In 1966, Singleton was teamed again with Ball on “The Lucy Show” in the episode, “Lucy and Art Linkletter”, in which she plays Ruth Cosgrove, an actress whom Linkletter hires to help Lucy with a stunt on his television series. Coincidentally, Ruth Cosgrove is the name of Milton Berle’s real-life wife, who will also guest star on “The Lucy Show” as herself. 

Her second appearance on “The Lucy Show” was in “Lucy Gets Her Diploma” (TLS S6;E5) in 1967.  Note: Doris has very little to do with the main plot of this episode.  Her one scene might have been originally meant for Mary Jane Croft but reassigned due to a conflict in Croft’s schedule or illness.

Singleton said that she had originally been hired to be a regular on Ball’s third series, “Here’s Lucy” in 1968. Ball would have played a dumb secretary and Singleton the more intelligent one, but the premise was dropped when Ball decided to cast her own children in the show. She did, however, appear in the series premiere episode, “Mod, Mod Lucy" (HL S1;E1). 

In 1971, Singleton was featured on an episode of ABC sitcom, “Make Room For Granddaddy” which had Lucille Ball as the guest star. In this installment, titled "Lucy Carter, Houseguest”, Singleton played Grace Munson, another character from “I Love Lucy,” although she is listed in the credits as Sylvia. 

In a 1973 Bob Hope Christmas Special, Lucille Ball, Gary Morton, Hope and Doris Singleton all played themselves in a sketch that finds Lucy believing Bob has a secret crush on her and buying her expensive gifts. Singleton is not given a character name but drops by to Ball’s home. 

Her final appearance on “Here’s Lucy” was as Lucille Ball’s studio secretary in  “Lucy Carter Meets Lucille Ball” (HL S6;E22) in 1974. Her character was named Doris.  (If Lucy was Lucy and Lucille was Lucille, then why shouldn’t Doris be Doris?)

Singleton and Ball were reunited one last time, again as Ball’s studio secretary, in the 1980 special “Lucy Moves to NBC.”  She played Wanda Clark, who was Lucille Ball’s real-life secretary. 

DORIS at DESILU (SANS LUCY)

Singleton did an episode of Desilu’s helicopter series “Whirlybirds” in 1957. She played Jan Revere in an episode titled “Lady Luck.”

In 1954 and 1958 she was at Desilu for two episodes of “The Danny Thomas Show”. In 1958, to symbolize the show’s move to CBS, the Williams family moved into the Ricardo home in Westport. In return, Lucy and Desi guest-starred on “The Danny Thomas Show” as the Ricardos. 

In February 1960, Doris played Mavis on Desilu’s “The Ann Sothern Show” directed by “Lucy’s” James V. Kern. In a 1959 cross-over episode of “The Ann Sothern Show”, Lucille Ball guest starred as Lucy Ricardo.

In 1960, Singleton became a regular character of Desilu’s new series “Angel” about a young woman who has moved to America from France after getting married to her sweetheart, John. Singleton played Susie for 26 of the show’s 33 episodes. It last just one season. Above, Lucille Ball attends a kick-off event featuring Jess Oppenheimer (creator), Annie Fargue (Angel) and Marshall Thopmson (Johnny). Singeton shared the soundstage with “Lucy” alumni Shirley Mitchell, Gale Gordon, Madge Blake, and many others. 

In 1960 and 1962 she was back at Desilu for two episodes of “The Real McCoys”. 

Singleton was in three episodes of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” between 1962 and 1965.  

In Fall 1967, Singleton did a day on “Gomer Pyle: USMC” filmed at Desilu Studios. A year earlier, Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) made a cameo appearances on “The Lucy Show” (TLS S5;E9) in which Lucy Carmichael is mistaken for Lou C. Carmichael and drafted!

“My Three Sons” – on which she played two different characters – was filmed on the Desilu backlot. Her first character was Helen Morrison (two episodes in 1964 and 1965), the mother of Sally Ann (Meredith MacRae)—the woman who married the eldest of the Douglas sons, Mike (Tim Considine), and both left the series shortly after the start of the 1965-66 season. Doris was pressed into service again in the 1970-71 season to play the mother (Margaret) of Polly Williams (Ronnie Troup), a girl who also nabbed herself a Douglas boy—this time eloping with youngest son Chip (Stanley Livingston).  She played the character for six episodes. 

Her final screen appearances was a small role in the ABC TV film Deadly Messages in 1985. 

Singleton married Charles Isaacs in 1941, and they remained married until he died on December 13, 2002. She died in 2012, aged 92, from complications of cancer. She had no children and left no immediate survivors.