SHIRLEY MITCHELL

November 4, 1919

Shirley Mitchell was born in Toledo, Ohio, on November 4, 1919. She started her acting career on radio in Chicago but soon moved to Los Angeles. Mitchell was a regular on radio in series such as “Fibber McGee and Molly” and “The Great Gildersleeve”. She became friends with Lucille Ball in the late 1940s when she was featured in four episodes of “My Favorite Husband.”

She made her screen debut in 1944′s Jamboree, about two rival bands competing for the same spot on a radio show. Mitchell played Alice Darling. 

She made her television debut on August 17, 1951 on an episode of “Hollywood Theatre Time” (aka “Hollywood Premiere Theatre”) an anthology series. “I Love Lucy” writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh were writers on the series, and had also been writers of “My Favorite Husband.” That was quickly followed by an episode of “Personal Appearance Theatre” (December 1951) opposite Jane Darwell. 

In 1952 and 1953, Mitchell made four appearances as different characters on “I Married Joan,” NBC’s answer to “I Love Lucy.”  There she worked with “Lucy” alumni Margie Liszt, Ross Elliott, Hal March, and Joseph Kearns. “Lucy” and “Joan” were both filmed at General Service Studio. 

Starting in 1953, and for the next ten years, Mitchell would make a total of eight appearances on “Make Room for Daddy” aka “The Danny Thomas Show”.  The series was filmed at Desilu, and Danny Thomas and Lucille Ball had a long-lasting work relationship. When the series moved to CBS for the final years of its run, it took the timeslot of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” The two shows did reciprocal crossover appearances. 

Mitchell reunited with Lucille Ball on “I Love Lucy” playing Marion Strong, a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League. Her first episode was “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3) in October 1953. This is not, however, the character’s first appearance. Marion was previously played by Margie Liszt, an actress Mitchell worked with on “I Married Joan.” 

Mitchell went on to play the character twice more. In “Lucy Tells the Truth” (ILL S3;E6) three weeks later, Lucy has to tell the honest truth to Marion about her featured hat and inane cackling:

LUCY: “I’ve been waiting ten years for you to lay that egg.”

In “Lucy’s Club Dance” (ILL S3;E25) Lucy creates an all-girl band. Marion is the troupe’s publicist and doesn’t play in the band. This is the character’s last appearance on the series, but we learn her husband’s name is Bill.  The need to have actresses who could play specific instruments probably side-lined Mitchell from the main action of this episode. 

Even though the character never appeared again, Marion was someone Lucy sometimes mentioned, as in this telephone conversation from “Staten Island Ferry” (ILL S5;E12) in 1956.  In real life, Marion Strong was a high school friend of Lucille Ball’s who later married Norman Van Vlack. Lucy Ricardo interchangeably uses Marion’s surnames and mixes her fictional and real husbands! 

In early 1956, Mitchell did two episodes (playing two different characters) on “Our Miss Brooks” opposite Gale Gordon and Eve Arden. The series was produced at Desilu Studios and Lucille Ball counted Arden and Gordon as two of her most cherished co-stars. Desi Arnaz even appeared on one episode of the series. 

In 1957, Mitchell did a day on the Desilu series “The Real McCoys” starring Richard Crenna.  Although Crenna was a regular on “Our Miss Brooks,” he did not appear on either of Mitchell’s episodes. 

In 1954 and 1958 she appeared on episodes of Desilu’s “December Bride” starring Verna Felton and (in one episode) Elvia Allman. Like “Our Miss Brooks” Desi also made an appearance on this show as well. 

In 1960 and 1961, Mitchell re-teamed with Doris Singleton (Caroline Appleby) on the Desilu series “Angel”. Mitchell played Blanche and Doris played Susie on this short-lived comedy. 

In 1960, she became a recurring character on “Pete and Gladys” a sequel sitcom to Desilu’s “December Bride” that was otherwise not connected to Desilu. Mitchell played Janet Colton in 13 episodes of the series. 

In 1962 and 1964, Mitchell made appearances on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” which was filmed at Desilu. 

In 1968 Mitchell played Sally on two episodes of “My Three Sons” shot on the Desilu backlot. 

That saem year she did two episodes of Desi Arnaz’s sitcom “The Mothers-in-Law” where she was reunited with Desi and Eve Arden. She played Margaret Cornell in both appearances. In one, she was joined by June Whitely Taylor who had also been a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League!  Taylor here played a character named Mrs. Trumbull!  This is not surprising as Desi had managed to employ his “I Love Lucy” writers to pen the series. 

In 1970, she again played a character named Marion on “The Debbie Reynolds Show”.  Naturally, the writer was “Lucy” scribe Jess Oppenheimer. 

Mitchell continued to act up through her final screen appearance in 1990 on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire.”

In 1946, she married Dr. Julian Frieden. The engagement party was held at the home of Dinah Shore. They had two children and were divorced in 1974.  In 1992, she married songwriter Jay Livingston, and the two remained married until his death in 2001. 

Shirley Mitchell died of heart failure on November 11, 2013, seven days after her 94th birthday.