Myrtle Vail
Encyclopedia
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
fixture from 1932-1946 thanks to the popular soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Myrt & Marge, playing the elder half of the title as well as having created and written the show.
Radio Show
Vail thought of the idea while living in the ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
area, after having spent several years as a vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performer (often with her husband, George Damerel), basing it almost entirely on her own vaudeville experiences. She cast herself as Myrtle and her real-life daughter Donna Damerel as Marge, with Myrt the elder, experienced chorus girl taking young, inexperienced, and innocent Marge under her wing. The sponsor,Wrigley liked the idea and Myrt & Marge debuted in 1932.
Tragedy twice affected Myrt & Marge directly. In 1933, Vail was injured seriously in an automobile accident, forcing her to turn the show's writing over to a colleague named Charles Thomas, who wrote a storyline having Myrt kidnapped by gangsters, allowing Vail to recuperate completely.
But in 1941, Damerel died while giving birth to her third son. The role was recast to Helen Mack
Helen Mack
Helen Mack was an American actress. Mack started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving on to Broadway plays, and touring the vaudeville circuit. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s...
, who'd been seen as a streetwalker in His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur...
. Myrt & Marge continued until 1946.
After radio
After the show ended, Vail became a low-keyed supporting actress in films, best known for roles in the low-budget cult filmCult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
s A Bucket of Blood
A Bucket of Blood
A Bucket of Blood is a 1959 American comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in beatnik culture. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days, and shares many of the low-budget filmmaking aesthetics commonly associated with Corman's work....
and The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on a 1932...
, written by her grandson Charles Griffith
Charles B. Griffith
Charles B. Griffith was a Chicago-born screenwriter, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of Myrt and Marge...
, and directed by Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
, for whom Griffith has written and/or directed several films.
The grandmother of two more grandsons, Vail was never known to have remarried after her husband's death in 1936. She appeared on television's This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience including friends and family.Edwards...
in 1960. She can be heard in her radio heyday today thanks to the survival of approximately fifty episodes of Myrt & Marge.