Eve Arden (April 30, 1908 - November 12, 1990)

I think the Good Lord himself actually placed Eve Arden's voice for radio inside of her. She began appearing on the stage at the age of 16. Between 1929 and 1982 she appeared in 61 motion pictures including "Stage Door", "The Voice of the Turtle", "Grease" and Grease 2." One of her more popular appearances on Broadway was in the production "Let's Face It." The curtain went up for the first time on October 29, 1941 and closed for the last time on March 20, 1943 after 547 performances. Arden appeared along side Danny Kaye, Nanette Fabray and Vivian Vance. Her understudy was Carol Channing. In 1948 she began her legendary run as Madison High School's English Teacher Miss Connie Brooks on the sitcom "Our Miss Brooks." Joining her were Gale Gordon as Principal Conklin, Jane Morgan as Mrs. Margaret Davis, the landlady, Jeff Chandler as Mr. Phillip Boynton, the bashful biologist, Richard Crenna as dreamy eyed student Walter Denton, and Gloria McMillian as Mr. Conklin's daughter Harriet. In 1952, the show made the transition to television and lasted until 1956. A feature length version was released in theaters that same year. The radio program went off the air in 1957. In the fall of that same year Arden returned to television in "The Eve Arden Show" but that was cancelled after only one season. In 1967, Arden teamed up with Kaye Ballard in the sitcom "The Mothers-in-Law" which was developed and produced by Desi Arnaz. The show lasted until 1969. In addition to taking center stage Arden also made many guest appearances. The more notable being "The Ed Wynn Show", "What's My Line?", "Climax!", "Toast of the Town", "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show", "I've Got a Secret", "Password", "The Hollywood Squares", "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", "The Liberace Show", "The Dean Martin Show", "Alice", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "The Danny Thomas Hour", "Love, American Style", "Ellery Queen", "Maude", "Vega$", "The Love Boat", "Hart to Hart" and "B.J. and the Bear." Arden's more memorable guest appearances for me were on "Bewitched", "Falcon Crest" and of course "I Love Lucy." On "I Love Lucy" she has a very brief cameo as herself in the Brown Derby restuarant featured in the episode "L.A. at Last." While sitting in the booth Lucy can't decide if a picture on the wall is Shelley Winters or Judy Holliday. When Ethel can't figure it out either she turns to the woman in the booth behind her and asks her the same question. The woman (Arden) replies "neither it's Eve Arden" then gets up and walks away. Lucy and Ethel look on in disbelief. On "Bewitched" she played Nurse Kelton in the 1966 episode "And Then There Were Three." It is in that episode in which Samantha Stephens (Elizabeth Montgomery) gives birth to daughter Tabitha. Nurse Kelton insists that visiting hours are over and orders everyone to leave. Samantha's mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead) won't take no for an answer and reappears minutes later. When Nurse Kelton discovers her in the room she says "How'd you get in here without being seen? I didn't think Houdini could do it!" Endora responds with "Houdini had a lot to learn..." On "Falcon Crest" she played Lilian Nash Darlington the wife of a Supreme Court Justice and former school mate of Angela Channing (Jane Wyman). Angela has to track her down and get her to confess to murdering an old boyfriend so the man's brother won't kill her son Richard. The on screen battle between Jane Wyman and Eve Arden was great. They had wonderful chemistry on screen. My only bitch about this episode is that Arden didn't receive decent billing. She is credited in the closing credits with "Guest Starring" as the title. She should have been featured in the opening subtitles with "Special Guest Star" or "Special Appearance by" billing. Arden carried the mantle of Connie Brooks with her forever. In the films "Grease" and "Grease 2" she was featured as the high school principal. Even though the name wasn't Connie Brooks...you got the feeling that Connie Brooks had finally "made it after all" and assumed the principal's job. I believe that her character of Connie Brooks...with that wonderful sarcasm and quick wit was somewhat of a precursor to Beatrice Arthur's Dorothy Zbornak on "The Golden Girls" many years later. Eve Arden's battle with Jane Wyman's Angela Channing proved to be her last television appearance. She passed away three years later taking her wonderful humor and amazing voice with her. Even now in 2008 she is still "Our Miss Brooks."