Miriam Wolfe (born Miriam Wolff; January 2, 1922 – September 29, 2000) was an American actress, director, producer and writer, who worked in theatre, television and radio from the 1920s to the 1950s. She is mainly remembered for her character roles on radio's weekly ''

Let's Pretend ''Let's Pretend'', created and directed by Nila Mack, was a CBS radio series for children. Prior to being renamed ''Let's Pretend'', the program had a variety of titles and formats. In its most famous form, ''Let's Pretend'', the Peabody Award ...

.''

Early years

Wolfe was born in Brooklyn, New York. She made her professional acting debut at age four, reciting poems and reading stories on ''The Uncle Gee Bee Kiddie Hour'' on WGBS, one of New York's first radio stations. When she was six years old, she was given the First Witch's part in a children's theater's production of ''Macbeth''.

Radio roles

Although she had appeared earlier on ''The Children's Hour'', Wolfe is best remembered for her diverse roles on Nila Mack's WCBS Saturday morning children's program, ''

''. She joined the repertory acting company in 1934 and remained with the program well into her adult years, playing spooky witches, wicked and wise queens, good and bad spirits, kind and cruel mothers and stepmothers. At 12, Wolfe auditioned to succeed the 79-year-old Adelaide Fitz-Allen in the part of the ancient witch-narrator Old Nancy on Alonzo Deen Cole's '' The Witch's Tale'' (on the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

). Cole, puzzled at first when he saw a young girl in a straw hat and

Buster Brown Buster Brown is a comic-strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904, Buster Brown, along with Mary Jane, and with his dog Tige, became well known to the United States of America ...

haircut, hired her as soon as he heard the spine-chilling, cackling laugh which became her trademark. She played this part for five years, also doubling as other characters and leading women on the show. Later, Wolfe was heard regularly from New York and Hollywood on

Fletcher Markle Fletcher Markle (March 27, 1921 – May 23, 1991) was a Canadian actor, screenwriter, television producer and director. Markle began a radio career in Canada, then worked in radio, film and television in the United States. Films and television B ...

's '' Studio One'' and ''

Ford Theater ''Ford Theatre'', spelled ''Ford Theater'' for the original radio version and known, in full, as ''The Ford Television Theatre'' for the TV version, is a radio and television anthology series broadcast in the United States in the 1940s and 1950 ...

'' (CBS Network). There, she worked with actors such as

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden ...

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...

Montgomery Clift Edward Montgomery Clift (; October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to ''The New York Times''. He is best remembered ...

and

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

. She was also heard on ''American School of the Air'', ''Mystery Hall'', ''

Casey, Crime Photographer ''Casey, Crime Photographer'' (also known as ''Crime photographer''; ''Flashgun Casey''; ''Casey, Press Photographer''; ''Stephen Bristol, Crime Photographer'') was an American media franchise that lasted from the 1930s until the 1960s. Created b ...

'' and ''

Suspense Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being undecided, or being doubtful. In a dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the outcome of a plot or of the solution to an uncertainty, puzzle, or mystery, particularly as it aff ...

''. In the early 1940s, she directed and starred in numerous radio soap operas on

WGR WGR (550 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Buffalo, New York. Owned by Audacy, Inc., its studios and offices are located on Corporate Parkway in Amherst, and the transmitter site—utilized by WGR and co-owned WWKB—is in Ham ...

and WKBW in Buffalo. In the 1950s, Wolfe became a weekly regular on ''The Rayburn & Finch Comedy Hour'' and ''

Popeye the Sailor Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Olive Oyl Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar in 1919 for his comic strip ''Thimble Theatre''. The strip was later renamed ''Popeye'' after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however, Olive Oyl was a ...

and the Sea Hag for several seasons. She was featured in the U.S. Army production of ''

So Proudly We Hail! ''So Proudly We Hail!'' is a 1943 American war film directed and produced by Mark Sandrich and starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard – who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance – a ...

'', starring film and stage actor

Lee Tracy William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is known foremost for his portrayals between the late 1920s and 1940s of fast-talking, wisecracking news reporters, press agents, lawye ...

. In 1952, as a regular on the television version of ''Studio One'', Wolfe played the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

in Markle's television production of the medieval mystery play ''The Nativity'', one of the few times that such a play has been presented on commercial network television.

CBC

In 1956, Wolfe moved to Canada and became active as a performer, writer and director with the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

(CBC). While at CBC she co-authored, produced, directed and played all the roles in the children's series, ''Miss Switch'', and adapted, directed and played all the roles in a one-woman radio version of

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

' ''You Are Not I''. She was also featured on many CBC commercials, comedy hours and dramas. For Canadian television, she performed featured, leading and starring roles on ''

Wayne and Shuster Wayne and Shuster were a Canadian double act, comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. They were active professionally from the early 1940s until the late 1980s, first as a live act, then on radio, then as part of ''The Army Show'' ...

'', ''Ford Star Time'', ''General Motors Presents'' and several other well-regarded programs.

Films

During her career, Wolfe worked as a scriptwriter, dubbed more than 50 films and cartoons, appeared in films and made recordings. Notable stage performances include the Broadway production of ''Make Momma Happy'' with

Molly Picon Molly Picon ( yi, מאָלי פּיקאָן; born Malka Opiekun; February 28, 1898 – April 5, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, radio and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller. She began her career in Yidd ...

, a Hollywood production of

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

' ''

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'' and a Toronto Crest Theatre production of

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

's ''

Ah, Wilderness! ''Ah, Wilderness!'' is a comedy by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on October 2, 1933. It differs from a typical O'Neill play in its happy ending for the central character, and depiction of a ...

'' She was elected a member of the Board of the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Actors (

ACTRA The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) is a Canadian trade union representing performers in English-language media. It has 25,000 members working in film, television, radio, and all other recorded media. The org ...

) in 1958–59. In 1956, she married Canadian architect John Forrest Mackay Ross. The couple had a child and moved to Paris, where they resided from 1961 to 1980 and where she conducted a series of improvisational workshops. Upon her return to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Wolfe concentrated on writing and teaching, developing an original method of teaching the English language and its pronunciation, which later formed the basis of her book, ''Listening to Language: The Sounds of English.'' Wolfe also learned

Blissymbolics Blissymbols or Blissymbolics is a constructed language conceived as an ideographic writing system called Semantography consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symb ...

, wrote teachers' guides and directed a weekly workshop for the Ontario Gifted Children's Program. She also worked with the Young People's Theatre. Her involvement with performance continued through her membership from 1981 to 1986 on the Board of the ACTRA Awards. On September 29, 2000, Wolfe died at her home in Toronto, of breast cancer.

Awards

In 1981, Wolfe received an award from Friends of Old Time Radio USA for her contribution to Radio's Golden Age. In July 2022, Wolfe was inducted into The Worldwide Television And Radio Horror Host Hall Of Fame for her contributions made as horror host "Old Nancy" on WOR, the Mutual Radio Network's "The Witch's Tale".

Bibliography

*Anderson, Arthur: ''Let's Pretend: A History of Radio's Best Loved Children's Show by a Longtime Cast Member'', McFarland & Company, 1994. *Anderson, Arthur: ''Let's Pretend and the Golden Age of Radio'', BearManor Media, 2004. *Cole, Alonzo Deen, edited by David S. Siegel with introduction by Miriam Wolfe: ''The Witch's Tale: Stories of Gothic Horror from the Golden Age of Radio,'' Dunwich Press, 1998, . *Delong, Thomas A: ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960,'' McFarland & Company, 1996, . *Hand, Richard J: ''Terror on the air!: horror radio in America, 1931–1952,'' McFarland & Company, 2006, . *Maltin, Leonard: ''The Great American Broadcast: A Celebration of Radio's Golden Age,'' Dutton, 1997, . s Miriam Wolf

References

External links

Obituary
''The New York Times,'' October 5, 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Miriam 1922 births 2000 deaths American radio actresses American film actresses American television actresses Film producers from New York (state) American people of Ukrainian descent American people of Belarusian descent Deaths from breast cancer People from Brooklyn Actresses from New York City Actresses from Toronto Businesspeople from New York City Businesspeople from Toronto Film directors from New York City Film directors from Toronto American women film producers 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen