Ann Sothern - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Sothern was born in Valley City, North Dakota, but was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she graduated from Minneapolis Central High School in 1926. Sothern left home and began her film career as an extra in the 1927 film Broadway Nights at the age of 18. During 1929 and 1930, she appeared as a chorus girl in such films as The Show of Shows and Whoopee! (as one of the "Goldwyn Girls"). She appeared on Broadway and had a trained voice, occasionally singing in films.

On Broadway in 1931, she had leading roles in America's Sweetheart (135 performances in which she sang "I've Got Five Dollars" and "We'll Be The Same") and in Everybody's Welcome (139 performances).

In 1934, Sothern signed a contract with Columbia Pictures, but after two years the studio released her. In 1936, she was signed by RKO Radio Pictures and after a string of films that failed to attract an audience, Sothern left RKO and was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, making her first film for them in 1939.

MGM cast Sothern in the film Maisie (1939), as brassy Brooklyn burlesque dancer Mary Anastasia O'Connor who also goes by the stage name Maisie Ravier. In Mary C. McCall Jr.'s screenplay of Wilson Collison's novel, Maisie is stranded penniless in a small Wyoming town, takes a job as a ranch maid and becomes caught in a web of romantic entanglements. After years of struggling, Sothern had her first major success, and a string of "Maisie" comedy sequels followed, beginning with Congo Maisie (1940), and ending with Undercover Maisie (1947) in which Maisie infiltrates a gang of con men headed by a phony swami. A review of Swing Shift Maisie (1943) by Time magazine praised Sothern and described her as "one of the smartest comediennes in the business".

On November 24, 1941, Sothern performed in the Lux Radio Theater adaptation of Maisie Was a Lady, and the popularity of the film series led to her own radio program, The Adventures of Maisie, broadcast on CBS from 1945 to 1947, on Mutual Broadcasting System in 1952 and in syndication from 1949 to 1953.

In 1949, Sothern appeared in the Academy Award-winning film, A Letter to Three Wives. The film earned her excellent reviews, but failed to stimulate her career. During the 1950s, she made a few movies, including The Blue Gardenia (1953), but mainly appeared on television shows. In 1953, she landed the lead in the series Private Secretary. After Private Secretary ended in 1957 due to a contract dispute between Sothern and producer Jack Chertok, she appeared in her own show, The Ann Sothern Show, from 1958 to 1961. Both were successful and earned Sothern four Emmy Award nominations. Ann Tyrrell and Don Porter were her co-stars in both series.