Jane Withers
Encyclopedia
Jane Withers is an American actress best known for being one of the most popular child film stars of the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as for her portrayal of "Josephine the Plumber" in a series of TV commercials for Comet cleanser
in the 1960s and early 1970s.
as "Dixie's Dainty Dewdrop". By the age of three, she was singing and imitating adult celebrities. In the early 1930s Withers and her family moved to Hollywood; she worked as an extra and a bit part player in several films in 1932 and 1933.
Withers's big break came when she landed a supporting role in the 1934 Shirley Temple
film Bright Eyes. Her character Joy Smythe was spoiled and obnoxious, a perfect foil to Temple's sweet personality. In a 2006 interview on TCM
's Private Screenings with Robert Osborne
, Withers recalled that she was hesitant to take this role because she had to be so "mean" to Shirley Temple and she thought the public would hate her for it (video clip). In the movie, she tells Temple: "There ain't any Santa Claus, because my psychoanalyst told me!" Withers received positive notices for her work, and was awarded a long-term contract with Fox.
Through the remainder of the 1930s she starred in several movies every year, including Ginger (1935), The Farmer Takes a Wife
(1935) and Little Miss Nobody (1936), usually cast as a wholesome, meddlesome young girl in films less sugary than Temple's vehicles. Moviegoers flocked to see her films, and Withers became one of the top 10 box-office stars in 1937 and 1938. Her popularity was such that Fox gave her "name" co-stars: the Ritz Brothers
(in Pack Up Your Troubles) and Gene Autry
(in Shooting High). Withers also took a flyer in screenwriting: she wrote the original story filmed as Small Town Deb, under the pseudonym "Jerrie Walters."
Withers was the heroine of two novels, Jane Withers and the Hidden Room (1942, by Eleanor Packer) and Jane Withers and the Phantom Violin, (1943, by Roy J. Snell), published by Whitman Publishing Company, where "the heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." However, in 1944's Jane Withers and the Swamp Wizard (1944, by Kathryn Heisenfelt), "the heroine is identified as a famous actress". The stories were probably written for a young teenage audience and are reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew
. They are part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.
Withers kept working in the 1940s; she made 16 films for Fox, Columbia
, and Republic Pictures
. Her "sweet sixteen" birthday party was filmed by Paramount for the Hedda Hopper
's Hollywood series. Withers received excellent notices for her dramatic performance in Lewis Milestone's The North Star.
In 1947, in her early twenties, Withers retired for several years from acting, after marrying wealthy Texas oil man, William P. Moss Jr., and had three children by him—William, Wendy, and Randy. The marriage was not a happy one and lasted only six years. Though she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, it never stopped Jane's spirit.
In 1955, she remarried, this time to Kenneth Errair, one-quarter of the harmonizing group "The Four Freshmen
." They had two children, Ken and Kendall Jane. The same year, she earned a supporting role in the film classic, Giant.
In 1955, while filming the movie Giant Jane developed a friendship with James Dean
. In the DVD special features she tells the story that Dean had a favorite pink cowboy shirt he wore all the time. He never let it go the laundry for fear it would be lost like the other shirts he had. Withers convinced him to let her wash it for him. She did this often and when he left to go to the race he gave her his shirt to wash and have ready for him when he came back. James Dean died that day in the fateful fatal car wreck in California. Withers still keeps his shirt and the fond memories of him.
By the mid-1960s, Withers gained fame again as "Josephine the Plumber," a character in a long-running and popular series of television
commercials for Comet
cleanser, and the veteran TV-ad pitchwoman's beloved character lasted into the 1970s, and even further in the '80s when her niece, JoAnn or Jo, would show her customers a picture of her Aunt Josephine. Withers continued to do voice-over work and occasionally guest stars on television shows.
Tragically in June 1968, her husband of 14 years, Errair was killed in a plane crash in California. And sadly, Withers lost adult son Walter Randall “Randy” Moss (from her first marriage) on Jan. 15, 1986, just two days after his 34th birthday. Miss Withers often claimed, a strong spiritual faith got her through many personal challenges.
A December 15, 2008, Advertising Age
article about Flo
, the Progressive Insurance TV commercial character played by Stephanie Courtney
, said that Flo, "... is a weirdly sincere, post-modern Josephine the Plumber who just really wants to help. She has: The brand is flourishing."
Comet (cleanser)
Comet is a powdered cleaning product sold in North America and distributed in the United States by Prestige Brands. Scratch Free Comet with Bleach Disinfectant Cleanser contains 1.2% sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione dihydrate and 98.8% "other" ingredients...
in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Biography
Withers began her career as a child actress, first on local radio broadcasts in Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
as "Dixie's Dainty Dewdrop". By the age of three, she was singing and imitating adult celebrities. In the early 1930s Withers and her family moved to Hollywood; she worked as an extra and a bit part player in several films in 1932 and 1933.
Withers's big break came when she landed a supporting role in the 1934 Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
film Bright Eyes. Her character Joy Smythe was spoiled and obnoxious, a perfect foil to Temple's sweet personality. In a 2006 interview on TCM
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
's Private Screenings with Robert Osborne
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne is an American actor and film historian best known as the primary host for Turner Classic Movies, and previously a host of The Movie Channel.-Life and career:...
, Withers recalled that she was hesitant to take this role because she had to be so "mean" to Shirley Temple and she thought the public would hate her for it (video clip). In the movie, she tells Temple: "There ain't any Santa Claus, because my psychoanalyst told me!" Withers received positive notices for her work, and was awarded a long-term contract with Fox.
Through the remainder of the 1930s she starred in several movies every year, including Ginger (1935), The Farmer Takes a Wife
The Farmer Takes a Wife
The Farmer Takes a Wife is a 1934 play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly based on the novel Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds. It was well-received upon its opening night on Broadway on October 30, 1934 at the 46th Street Theatre. The production was directed by Marc Connelly and used set designs by...
(1935) and Little Miss Nobody (1936), usually cast as a wholesome, meddlesome young girl in films less sugary than Temple's vehicles. Moviegoers flocked to see her films, and Withers became one of the top 10 box-office stars in 1937 and 1938. Her popularity was such that Fox gave her "name" co-stars: the Ritz Brothers
Ritz Brothers
The Ritz Brothers were an American comedy team who appeared in films, and as live performers from 1925 to the late 1960s.Although there were four brothers, the sons of Austrian-born haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline, only three of them performed together. There was also a sister,...
(in Pack Up Your Troubles) and Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
(in Shooting High). Withers also took a flyer in screenwriting: she wrote the original story filmed as Small Town Deb, under the pseudonym "Jerrie Walters."
Withers was the heroine of two novels, Jane Withers and the Hidden Room (1942, by Eleanor Packer) and Jane Withers and the Phantom Violin, (1943, by Roy J. Snell), published by Whitman Publishing Company, where "the heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." However, in 1944's Jane Withers and the Swamp Wizard (1944, by Kathryn Heisenfelt), "the heroine is identified as a famous actress". The stories were probably written for a young teenage audience and are reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for all ages. She was created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm. The character first appeared in 1930. The books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published...
. They are part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.
Withers kept working in the 1940s; she made 16 films for Fox, Columbia
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, and Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
. Her "sweet sixteen" birthday party was filmed by Paramount for the Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
's Hollywood series. Withers received excellent notices for her dramatic performance in Lewis Milestone's The North Star.
In 1947, in her early twenties, Withers retired for several years from acting, after marrying wealthy Texas oil man, William P. Moss Jr., and had three children by him—William, Wendy, and Randy. The marriage was not a happy one and lasted only six years. Though she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, it never stopped Jane's spirit.
In 1955, she remarried, this time to Kenneth Errair, one-quarter of the harmonizing group "The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen is a multiple Grammy-nominated American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmony jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires , The Pied Pipers , and The Mel-Tones , founded in the barbershop tradition...
." They had two children, Ken and Kendall Jane. The same year, she earned a supporting role in the film classic, Giant.
In 1955, while filming the movie Giant Jane developed a friendship with James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
. In the DVD special features she tells the story that Dean had a favorite pink cowboy shirt he wore all the time. He never let it go the laundry for fear it would be lost like the other shirts he had. Withers convinced him to let her wash it for him. She did this often and when he left to go to the race he gave her his shirt to wash and have ready for him when he came back. James Dean died that day in the fateful fatal car wreck in California. Withers still keeps his shirt and the fond memories of him.
By the mid-1960s, Withers gained fame again as "Josephine the Plumber," a character in a long-running and popular series of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
commercials for Comet
Comet (cleanser)
Comet is a powdered cleaning product sold in North America and distributed in the United States by Prestige Brands. Scratch Free Comet with Bleach Disinfectant Cleanser contains 1.2% sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione dihydrate and 98.8% "other" ingredients...
cleanser, and the veteran TV-ad pitchwoman's beloved character lasted into the 1970s, and even further in the '80s when her niece, JoAnn or Jo, would show her customers a picture of her Aunt Josephine. Withers continued to do voice-over work and occasionally guest stars on television shows.
Tragically in June 1968, her husband of 14 years, Errair was killed in a plane crash in California. And sadly, Withers lost adult son Walter Randall “Randy” Moss (from her first marriage) on Jan. 15, 1986, just two days after his 34th birthday. Miss Withers often claimed, a strong spiritual faith got her through many personal challenges.
A December 15, 2008, Advertising Age
Advertising Age
Advertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...
article about Flo
Flo (Progressive Insurance)
Flo is a fictional character that appears in commercials for Progressive Insurance. The character was created by the Boston-based agency Arnold Worldwide, specifically copywriter John Park and art director Steve Reepmeyer...
, the Progressive Insurance TV commercial character played by Stephanie Courtney
Stephanie Courtney
Stephanie Courtney is an American actress and comedienne, best known for playing the advertising character Flo in television commercials for Progressive Insurance and is noted for her recurring roles on several television shows, including the voices of Renee the Receptionist and Joy Peters on the...
, said that Flo, "... is a weirdly sincere, post-modern Josephine the Plumber who just really wants to help. She has: The brand is flourishing."
Features
- Handle with Care (1932)
- Zoo in BudapestZoo in BudapestZoo in Budapest is a film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Loretta Young, Gene Raymond, O.P. Heggie, and Paul Fix.- Plot :Flamboyant Zani is a kindly young man who grew up entirely and works in the zoo in Budapest. His only true friends are the zoo's animals, and indeed Zani has been...
(1933) - Tailspin TommyTailspin TommyTailspin Tommy was an air adventure comic strip about a youthful pilot, "Tailspin" Tommy Tompkins. Originally illustrated by Hal Forrest and initially distributed by John Wheeler's Bell Syndicate and then by United Feature Syndicate, the strip had a 14-year run from 1928 to 1942.In the wake of...
(1934) - It's a GiftIt's a GiftIt's a Gift is a 1934 comedy film starring W. C. Fields, considered by film historians to be one of Fields' best and funniest films.It concerns the trials and tribulations of a grocery store owner as he battles a shrewish wife, an incompetent assistant, and assorted annoying children, customers,...
(1934) - Imitation of LifeImitation of Life (1934 film)Imitation of Life is a 1934 American drama film directed by John M. Stahl. The screenplay by William Hurlbut, based on Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel of the same name, was augmented by eight additional uncredited writers, including Preston Sturges and Finley Peter Dunne...
(1934) - Bright Eyes (1934)
- The Good FairyThe Good Fairy (film)The Good Fairy is a 1935 romantic comedy film written by Preston Sturges, based on the 1930 play A jó tündér by Ferenc Molnár as translated and adapted by Jane Hinton, which was produced on Broadway in 1931...
(1935) - Ginger (1935)
- The Farmer Takes a WifeThe Farmer Takes a WifeThe Farmer Takes a Wife is a 1934 play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly based on the novel Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds. It was well-received upon its opening night on Broadway on October 30, 1934 at the 46th Street Theatre. The production was directed by Marc Connelly and used set designs by...
(1935) - Redheads on Parade (1935)
- This Is the Life (1935)
- Paddy O'Day (1935)
- Can This Be Dixie? (1936)
- Gentle Julia (1936)
- Little Miss Nobody (1936)
- Pepper (1936)
- The Holy Terror (1937)
- Angel's Holiday (1937)
- Wild and Wooly (1937)
- 45 Fathers (1937)
- Checkers (1937)
- Rascals (1938)
- Keep Smiling (1938)
- Always in Trouble (1938)
- The Arizona Wildcat (1939)
- Boy Friend (1939)
- Chicken Wagon Family (1939)
- Pack Up Your Troubles (1939)
- High School (1940)
- Shooting High (1940)
- Girl from Avenue A (1940)
- Youth Will Be Served (1940)
- Small Town Deb (1941)
- Golden Hoofs (1941)
- Her First Beau (1941)
- A Very Young Lady (1941)
- Young America (1942)
- The Mad Martindales (1942)
- Johnny Doughboy (1942)
- The North Star (1943)
- My Best Gal (1944)
- Faces in the Fog (1944)
- Affairs of Geraldine (1946)
- Danger Street (1947)
- Giant (1956)
- The Right Approach (1961)
- Captain Newman, M.D.Captain Newman, M.D.Captain Newman, M.D. is a 1963 film starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, Eddie Albert and Bobby Darin. It was directed by David Miller and filmed on location at Fort Huachuca, Arizona....
(1963) - The Hunchback of Notre DameThe Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released to theaters on June 21, 1996 by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirty-fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is inspired by Victor Hugo's novel of...
(1996) (vocal "stand-in" for Mary WickesMary WickesMary Wickes was an American film and television actress.-Career:Wickes was born as Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, of German Irish Protestant extraction. She graduated at the age of eighteen with a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where she...
after her death) (voice) - The Hunchback of Notre Dame IIThe Hunchback of Notre Dame IIThe Hunchback of Notre Dame II is a 2002 direct-to-video sequel to the 1996 Disney animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was produced by Walt Disney Animation Japan...
(2002) (voice) (direct-to-video)
Short subjects
- Hollywood Hobbies (1939)
- Meet the Stars #1: Chinese Garden Festival (1941)
- Meet the Stars #6: Stars at Play (1941)
- Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 2 (1941)
- Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4 (1942)
- Screen Snapshots: Fashions and Rodeo (1945)
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Small Fry (1956)
- Boxes (2005)