Myrtle Vail (January 7, 1888 – September 18, 1978), sometimes credited as Myrtle Damerel, was an American vaudevillian, and radio and film actress and writer. She was a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

fixture from 1932 to 1946 thanks to the popular

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

'' Myrt and Marge'', playing the elder half of the title as well as having created and written the show.

Early life

When Vail was 15, she left her home to become an entertainer. After she married and had two children, the family had its own act, traveling from one locality to another to perform during the 1910s and 1920s. When their investments were lost in the 1929 economic crash, she turned her attention to radio.

Career

Radio show

Vail thought of the show while living in the

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area, after having spent several years as a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

performer (often with her husband, George Damerel), basing it largely on her own experiences. She cast herself as Myrtle and her real-life daughter, Donna Damerel Fick, as Marge. Myrt was the elder, experienced chorus girl taking the young, inexperienced, and innocent Marge under her wing. The sponsor, Wrigley liked the idea and ''Myrt and Marge'' debuted in 1932. In 1933, Vail was injured seriously in an automobile accident. This forced her to turn the show's writing over to a colleague named Charles Thomas, who wrote a storyline in which Myrt was kidnapped by gangsters, allowing Vail to recuperate completely. When ''Myrt and Marge'' ended in 1942, Vail came up with ''Myrt, Ltd.'', but the program was unsuccessful. She made one last effort with the original concept in 1946, creating a transcribed version of ''Myrt and Marge'' that used refurbished scripts. It found little success.

After radio

After the show ended, Vail became a low-key supporting actress in films, best known for roles in the low-budget

cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...

s ''

A Bucket of Blood ''A Bucket of Blood'' is a 1959 American comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in West Coast beatnik culture of the late 1950s. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days and shares ...

'' (1959) and ''

The Little Shop of Horrors ''The Little Shop of Horrors'' is a 1960 American horror comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood. The fi ...

'' (1960), written by her grandson

Charles B. Griffith Charles Byron Griffith (September 23, 1930 – September 28, 2007) was an American screenwriter, actor and film director, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of ''Myrt and Marge'', along with Charles' grandmother, Myrtle Vail, and was best known ...

, and directed by

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

, for whom Griffith had written and/or directed several films. Vail apparently never remarried after her husband's death in 1936. She appeared on television's '' This Is Your Life'' in 1960. She can be heard in her radio heyday today thanks to the survival of approximately fifty episodes of ''Myrt and Marge''.

Death

Vail was a longtime resident of

Haworth, New Jersey Haworth ( ) is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 3,382,Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

in 1978, aged 90.

Personal life

Vail also had a son, George Damerel, who acted on radio, as well as two grandsons, one of whom was director and screenwriter Charles B. Griffith.

Other

''Myrt and Marge'', "Myrt Has Her First Fitting"
April 3, 1946.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vail, Myrtle 1888 births 1978 deaths American radio actresses People from Haworth, New Jersey People from Joliet, Illinois Actresses from Illinois Vaudeville performers 20th-century American actresses