Sometimes I'm startled by my own ignorance...
Am I the only person around who didn't know that Grandmama on The Addams Family was Jeannette MacDonald's big sister? The two are seen here on the set of Jeannette's 1942 epic Cairo. At that time the future TV ghoul was a moderately successful character actress and bit-part player under the name Marie Blake (not the cabaret singer of sainted memory, of course). She was born Edith Marie Blossom, and she ended her career using her real married name, Blossom Rock.
The two were apparently devoted, although Marie/Blossom's film career never got much beyond "Woman Helping to Look for Ring (uncredited)" and ""Hilda, the maid" (that was kind of a theme for her - her last two movie roles were "Servant (uncredited)" and "Cleaning Woman"). Still, she was in some interesting pictures, from an Andy Hardy entry to The Snake Pit to Roz Russell's Mourning Becomes Electra, and because of her last hurrah as the Addams's demented matriarch, she's probably more familiar to a large swathe of modern audiences than her once pre-eminent sister.
If nothing else, it's nice to know that not every Hollywood sibling relationship was characterized by a Fontaine-de Havilland level of acrimony, no?
i always thought that switching it up to read..
ReplyDelete..."rock blossom" had a lovely ring to it.
I didn't know till now!
ReplyDeleteWell, if you of all people didn't know, darling, I don't feel nearly so dim!
DeleteAnd don't forget that Uncle Fester had been married to Betty Grable (no joke).
ReplyDeleteNext thing we'll find out that "Thing" was Luise Rainer's brother-in-law!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5C6xhQZymA This is Your Life, Jeanette MacDonald. "Marie Blake" makes an appearance at about 16:20. They are delightful together.
ReplyDeleteYup, count me in as mind blown as well.
ReplyDeleteYou learn something new every day - fascinating! Jx
ReplyDeleteColor me informed. I had not known this.
ReplyDeleteBut I did hear that Wednesday Addams was married to a porn star (Jerry Butler anyone?).
And now that I've IMDB'd, here's the real good one: Puglsey is a nephew to Ruby Keeler
I've known about the Jeanette/Blossom Rock connection for years but Pugsley and Ruby Keeler being aunt & nephew is news to me. Learning something new mission for today completed. Thanks!
DeleteFriggin' nepotism!
DeleteAnd Jerry Butler is the great-nephew of Trotsky! All of this has to mean something...
DeleteLoved her in the old Dr. Kildare movie series with Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. She played the receptionist who traded wise cracks with lovable lug Nat Pendleton! Fun series of movies except when Lorraine Day would get all Lorraine Day.
ReplyDeleteAnd considering I've seen maybe 3 episodes of the Addams Family even after all these years, that she played Grandmama dumbfounds me more than being sisters with Jeannette.
BrianB
I miss Marie Blake and The Five Oaks so deeply. I was on Grove Street a couple of weeks ago, and the old Oaks is still empty. Marie's Crisis filled a void to a small degree.
ReplyDeleteOh, Lord, it was was a place, wasn't it? Someday I'll have to write about the nights there. Days gone by. I wonder if we didn't cross paths...
DeleteMOPP MOP MOP MOP MOP!
DeleteIt looks so forlorn now, and I asked the muscle-boys working at the chic cosmetic shop over the road if they had heard of The Five Oaks. They hadn't, but were eager to. Perhaps it was genuine interest; perhaps my charm!
I like to think we've crossed paths often; maybe again one day! x
She gets to bark the legendary line in The Women, as one of the salesladies, "She'll get 'im, sure!"
ReplyDelete