R.I.P. Aleen Leslie

COMMENTS (7)

• I used to play bridge with Aleen and she was a lovely, occasionally eccentric lady who was a lot of fun to be with. Her home was one of those grand houses in Beverly Hills, nestled just behind the Beverly Hills Hotel. I was told that Hearst had built it as an “in-town” place for Marian Davies, but I don’t know that for certain.

  She wrote most if not all the “Date with Judy” shows for the radio and I remember seeing a whole row of bound scripts up on her shelf from those days.

  RIP, indeed.

  Comment by Greg Stewart — Monday February 8, 2010 @ 4:05pm PST  Reply to this post

• Nikki, thanks so much for posting this. Ms. Leslie was indeed a pioneer in both film and radio. She also created the long-running (and very popular) 1940s radio sitcom, “A Date With Judy,” which is now almost entirely forgotten but at the time was a cornerstone of the emerging bobby soxer culture. It was a teen comedy and the main character was, in essence, the Hannah Montana of the 1940s. Not only did Ms. Leslie create the show, but she recruited her friend Helen Mack to produce and direct it, at a time when women almost never worked behind the mike in such senior positions.

  Alas, most of Ms. Leslie’s movies haven’t been released on DVD, but it’s worth tracking down a VHS copy of “Father Was A Fullback.” It’s a charming little comedy with Fred Macmurray, a very young Natalie Wood and a great Betty Lynn as a lovestruck teenager (she would go on to fame as “Thelma Lou” on the Andy Griffith Show).

  Comment by David — Monday February 8, 2010 @ 4:30pm PST  Reply to this post

• For what it’s worth, The Three Stooges never worked at Universal. By 1938 they were firmly entrenched at Columbia Pictures where they remained for the rest of their career, with the exception of a couple of independent productions for minor-leaugue studios.

  Comment by Patrick Juvet — Monday February 8, 2010 @ 5:27pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Actually, the Three Stooges came to Columbia Pictures in 1934 for a musical novelty short subject called “Woman Haters” and remained exclusively under contract to that studio for short subjects until 1957/58 after having starred in a total of 190 short subjects. The individual stooges made a smattering of appearances in a few “B” pictures, practically all of which were from Columbia. Beginning in 1959 with the syndication of the short subjects to American television, the Three Stooges enjoyed a rebirth which they then capitalized on in a series of low-budget –but extremely profitable — motion pictures which were mostly produced and directed by Moe Howard’s son-in-law, Norman Maurer.

    With respect to Universal Pictures, Moe Howard has stated that Larry Fine signed a contract on behalf of the group with Universal Pictures the same day that Moe Howard signed a contract on behalf of the group with Columbia Pictures, but that Columbia ended up prevailing because a comparison of a “date-time” stamps showed that the Columbia contract was signed an hour earlier than the Universal contract.

    Comment by ewk — Tuesday February 9, 2010 @ 3:00am PST  Reply to this post

• RIP, Ms. Leslie. You blazed trails for the rest of us to follow.

  Comment by HelenofPeel — Monday February 8, 2010 @ 6:26pm PST  Reply to this post

• R.I.P Aleen.

  Comment by jack — Monday February 8, 2010 @ 6:42pm PST  Reply to this post

• God speed, my dear. God speed. bb

  Comment by babz — Wednesday February 10, 2010 @ 12:45pm PST  Reply to this post