TV Trivia
by Michael Karol
& Craig Hamrick

Sitcom Queens: Joan Davis
By MICHAEL KAROL; Originally posted 09.01.06

Joan Davis
Birthplace: St. Paul, Minn.

Birth Name: Madonna Josephine Davis

Died: May 22, 1961

Cause of Death: Heart attack (buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California)

Key TV Program: I Married Joan, 98 episodes, 1952-1955; co-starring Jim Backus, Mary Jane Croft, Sandra Gould

Joan Davis was a popular radio and movie comedian (in fact, the highest-paid radio comedienne of her day) of the 1930s and 1940s who also scored big on television in the early 1950s. With a slapstick style of comedy often described as "rubbery," Davis enlivened nearly 50 films and was usually better than her material -- and was often guilty of stealing the picture from whomever was supposed to be the "star." Some tidbits follow. (For more, click on the book cover to Sitcom Queens, below.)

• • •
Joan herself once noted, "I've been afraid all along that I just wouldn't be funny or pretty enough for the long-time big time. I've kept going on a mixture of gall, guts, and gumption." There's also no denying her life, cut short by a heart attack when she was only 49 (or 53, depending on the source), denied her the opportunity to keep working and be "rediscovered" in the 1960s and 1970s. • • •

It was only natural that Joan land in television once movie parts began to dry up, but unlike many movie stars who tried the new medium, Davis was a hit. Her show I Married Joan (1952-1955) cast her as the screwball wife of staid judge (the wonderful Jim Backus, who gave needed ballast to Davis' physical comedy). Comparisons to I Love Lucy were inevitable, but that does a disservice to Davis, who took a backseat to no one when it came to being funny. • • •

Joan's Movie Highlights:
If You Knew Susie (1948) - Susie Parker
She Wrote the Book (1946) - Jane Featherstone
She Gets Her Man (1945) - Jane "Pilky" Pilkington
Hold That Ghost (1941) - Camille Brewster (see pic with Lou Costello, above)
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) - Miss Carstairs
Two Latins from Manhattan (1941) - Joan Daley
Free, Blonde and 21 (1940) - Nellie
Hold That Co-Ed (1938) - Lizzie Olsen
Sally, Irene & Mary (1938) - Irene Keene
Thin Ice (1937) - Orchestra Leader
• • •
Interestingly, Joan's daughter, Beverly Wills, was a regular on the show, playing Joan's sister! Davis spent the rest of the 1950s trying to find another project to showcase her comedy, and died of a heart attack in Palm Springs, California in 1961. Tragically, daughter Beverly, Joan's two grandsons, and Joan's mother perished in a Palm Springs fire two years later. • • •
But this bio shouldn't end on a sad note; that would miss the point of Davis's entire career, which was spent making people laugh and forget their problems. She was the champ of the "hard (sit-down) fall," which she estimated she'd performed more than 20,000 times throughout her career on stage, radio, films, and TV. So grab a tape of I Married Joan, or watch for one of her movies (see partial list, above) at your local video store or on the late show -- and enjoy the slapstick stylings of a true original.

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Michael Karol has written four books about Lucille Ball: Lucy A to Z, The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia, the revised, expanded 4th Edition, published in 2008, with exclusive pictures for the first time; Lucy in Print, looking at press coverage of Lucy and her costars over the past 60 years; The Lucille Ball Quiz Book; and The Comic DNA of Lucille Ball: Interpreting the Icon. He has also written the best-selling TV Tidbits book The ABC Movie of the Week Companion. A date gone wrong sparked his vampire/mystery novel Kiss Me, Kill Me. Its prequel, Sleeps Well With Others, was published in the fall of 2006. All are currently available on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, and many other online and in-store sources. Visit here for more information.