Arlene Harris (July 7, 1896 – June 12, 1976) was a Canadian-born American radio, film, and television actress. (Another source gives her date of birth as July 7, 1898.) She was best known for her role as "the human chatterbox" on Al Pearce's

radio program A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

Early years

Harris was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and was educated primarily in England. During the first three years of Harris's life, she was unable to hear. At age 5, she was entertaining her family with comedy sketches. When she was older, she "branched out into the art of impersonating."

Vaudeville

Harris toured in vaudeville as Arlene Francis in the 1920s.DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 121. She had to retire after being injured in an automobile accident, but the

Great Depression in the United States In the United States, the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and then spread worldwide. The nadir came in 1931–1933, and recovery came in 1940. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high un ...

caused her to return to entertaining—this time in radio.

Radio

Before her career in film, Harris was well known as a comic actress on the radio program, ''The Chatterbox''. She first appeared on radio on

KFWB KFWB (980 AM) is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. It airs a classic Regional Mexican music format. KFWB is owned by Lotus Communications. The station has a colorful history, being the radio voice of Warner Bros. Studios i ...

in Hollywood, California. She was a regular on ''Al Pearce and His Gang'',Sies, Luther F. (2014). ''Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 15. where she was known as "The Human Chatterbox" in monologues that involved telephone conversations with an unheard friend. A

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

statistician once calculated that she averaged four words per second during one of her rapid-fire monologues. She also co-starred with Pearce in ''Here Comes Elmer''. Harris played Mummy Higgins on ''

The Baby Snooks Show ''The Baby Snooks Show'' was an American radio program starring comedian and ''Ziegfeld Follies'' alumna Fanny Brice as a mischievous young girl who was 40 years younger than the actress who played her when she first went on the air. The series b ...

'' and was heard on Ina Ray Hutton's program and ''Fare for Ladies''.

Television

Harris played herself in an episode of ''

The Dick Van Dyke Show ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' is an American television sitcom created by Carl Reiner that initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 to June 1, 1966, with a total of 158 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. It was produced by Calvada Product ...

'' in 1964,. She also appeared on ''Panorama Pacific'' and made guest appearances on several TV programs.

Recognition

Harris has a star at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard in the Radio section of the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...

. It was dedicated February 8, 1960.

Personal life

Harris was married to Dr. Harry G. Harris.

Death

Harris died June 12, 1976, at the

Motion Picture Country Home The Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) is a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries and their families with limited or no resources, including services such as temp ...

in Woodland Hills, California.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Arlene 1896 births 1976 deaths Canadian emigrants to the United States American film actresses American radio actresses American television actresses People from Greater Los Angeles Actresses from Toronto 20th-century American actresses