Maisie Ravier is a popular fictional character, the star of ten films and a radio show. She was played by Ann Sothern

Ann Sothern

Ann Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...

.

After a string of films that failed to attract an audience, Sothern left RKO Radio Pictures and was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

, making her first film for MGM in 1939. In a role originally intended for Jean Harlow

Jean Harlow

Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...

, Sothern was cast in Maisie

Maisie (film)

Maisie is a 1939 comedy film starring Robert Young and Ann Sothern, based on the novel Dark Dame by Wilson Collison. It was the first of ten films starring Ann Sothern as Maisie Ravier. In Mary C...

as brassy Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

 dancer Mary Anastasia O'Connor, who also goes by the stage name Maisie Ravier.

After years of trying, Sothern had her first real success, and a string of "Maisie" comedy sequels followed, beginning with Congo Maisie (1940) and continuing until Undercover Maisie (1947) in which Maisie infiltrates a gang of con men headed by a phony swami. Reviewing Swing Shift Maisie (1943), Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

praised Sothern and described her as "one of the smartest comediennes in the business".

Movies

• Maisie
  Maisie (film)
  Maisie is a 1939 comedy film starring Robert Young and Ann Sothern, based on the novel Dark Dame by Wilson Collison. It was the first of ten films starring Ann Sothern as Maisie Ravier. In Mary C...
  
  (1939)
• Congo Maisie
  Congo Maisie
  Congo Maisie is a 1940 comedy-drama film directed by H. C. Potter and starring Ann Sothern for the second time as showgirl Maisie Ravier.-Cast:* Ann Sothern as Maisie Ravier* John Carroll as Dr. Michael Shane* Rita Johnson as Kay McWade...
  
  (1940)
• Gold Rush Maisie
  Gold Rush Maisie
  Gold Rush Maisie is a 1940 drama film starring Ann Sothern as a woman who travels to a ghost town to look for gold. The film was directed by Edwin L. Marin.-Cast:*Ann Sothern - Maisie Ravier*Lee Bowman - Bill Anders*Slim Summerville - Fred Gubbins...
  
  (1940)
• Maisie Was a Lady (1941)
• Ringside Maisie (1941)
• Maisie Gets Her Man (1942)
• Swing Shift Maisie
  Swing Shift Maisie
  Swing Shift Maisie is a 1943 romantic comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod. It is the seventh in a series of ten films starring Ann Sothern as Maisie, preceded by Maisie Gets Her Man and followed by Maisie Goes to Reno...
  
  (1943)
• Maisie Goes to Reno (1944)
• Up Goes Maisie (1946)
• Undercover Maisie (1947)

Radio

On November 24, 1941, Sothern appeared in the Lux Radio Theater

Lux Radio Theater

Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...

adaptation of Maisie Was a Lady, and the popularity of the film series led to her own radio program, The Adventures of Maisie

The Adventures of Maisie

The Adventures of Maisie was a radio comedy series starring Ann Sothern as underemployed entertainer Maisie Ravier, a spin-off of Sothern's successful 1939-1947 Maisie movie series...

, broadcast on CBS Radio

CBS Radio

CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...

 from 1945 to 1947, on the Mutual Broadcasting System

Mutual Broadcasting System

The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...

in 1952 and in syndication from 1949 to 1953.