Myrtle's Memories

1934- Sadie's Soiree- "Ahhh, my first real time in front of the camera. The Rambling Reeds, Ma and Pa's vaudeville team, had been on stages all my life, and me with them for most of it, but when we hit Hollywood I was the first of the family to get an offer, and it was my part on Sadie's. "Little Allison" was mostly just there to be cute... had the catchphrase "Sadie you stinker!" but it worked. Got me noticed. I got an Agent shortly after, and never toured with the Rambling Reeds again, just the occasional show here and there. The end of an era, though not quite yet of innocence."

1935- Suzie Q Starlight- "Oh, Suzie. She was my real start. Despite the name of the movie I wasn't top billing, that went to Mickey Rooney as Uncle Crackerjack, the guy who told the Peverton kids about me and helped them to find me. That was when I started getting asked for autographs, though, and Suzie Q dolls were a hot item for a little while there, pretty sure there's a fetishist in Germany who owns like a hundred of them. Suzie Q showed the suits I could handle a major role, and maybe even had some star power behind me."

1936- Chester and Friends- "Ugh, this album. So Suzie Q was still on everyone's minds in 1936, but my agent thought the studio was low-balling us and held me out of pictures. My folks were so scared that I was basically just a child star that they got me onto this compilation when I didn't even have a listed song. Full disclosure, though, the singing from Suzie Q meant folks knew my voice, even if I was just part of the chorus according to the liner notes. More than one biographer called it my "first album."

1937- Saddlehorn Sally- "Westerns were king in those days. If you could get one, you got it. Musicals, too. This wasn't Oklahoma, but it wasn't bad, either, and even though I wasn't in a romantic set, Missy was a solid role and my first as more of a teenager than a "kid." Of course they gave me a crush on every hero played off as lovestruck baby sister, and they didn't even let me appear in the Indian scene for fear of parents groups, but it was the first that established me as a bit more grown up. More than a couple guys confessed that my turn as Missy was where they started getting a crush on me, the dears."

1938- Palms Springs High- "My shot at TV stardom, a 16 year-old blonde not - QUITE bombshell just waiting to take the world by storm. Might have worked, too. We had the first two seasons all planned out, even knew when I would be rocking my bathing suit, and producers hoping censors would let it be a bikini. Wasn't picked up, though... CBS panicking over the attitude when war in Europe was heating up. My life might have taken a very different path if had been. Of course, my life would also probably be OVER."

1939- Sadie's Soiree- Palms Springs High might have sunk me. I'd had to leave my schedule clear for far too long. But that was when we heard that some genius had rewritten Sadie's for broadway, and here I was, old enough to play Sadie herself, instead of Allison. We jumped at it, and I took it through two seasons. Felt a bit like a step back, and New York is a LOOOONG way from Hollywood, but I jumped at the chance, and it worked. And when I got back, they were ready for me."

1941-