1. Jane Withers was an American actress and children's radio show hostess.
72 Facts About Jane Withers
1. 2.
Jane Withers became one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s, with her films ranking in the top ten list for box-office gross in 1937 and 1938.
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Jane Withers began her entertainment career at the age of three and, during the Golden Age of Radio, hosted her own children's radio program in her home city of Atlanta, Georgia.
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Jane Withers made 38 films before retiring at age 21 in 1947.
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Jane Withers returned to film and television as a character actor in the 1950s.
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Jane Withers was interviewed in numerous documentary retrospectives of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
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Jane Withers was known for her philanthropy and her extensive doll collection.
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Jane Withers was born on April 12,1926, in Atlanta, Georgia, the only child of Walter Edward Withers and Lavinia Ruth Withers.
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Jane Withers determined before Jane was born that she would have one daughter who would go into show business, and chose the name Jane so that "even with a long last name like Withers, it would fit on a marquee".
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When Jane Withers was two, Ruth enrolled her in a tap dance school, and taught her to sing.
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Jane Withers launched her entertainment career at the age of three after winning a local amateur contest called Dixie's Dainty Dewdrop.
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Jane Withers was cast on Aunt Sally's Kiddie Revue, a Saturday-morning children's program broadcast on WGST radio in Atlanta, in which she sang, danced, and did impersonations of film stars such as W C Fields, ZaSu Pitts, Maurice Chevalier, Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, and Greta Garbo.
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In Los Angeles, Jane Withers performed on children's shows on KFWB radio, did cartoon voice-overs, and modeled.
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Jane Withers got her first film role as an extra when their neighbor invited her to come along for her daughter's interview for Handle with Care.
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Jane Withers stood to the side while the other children interviewed with director David Butler.
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Jane Withers subsequently appeared in many films as an uncredited extra, though occasionally she had a line of dialogue.
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Jane Withers stood out from the other girls at auditions because of her appearance: she had a Dutchboy bob and preferred tailored clothes to frilly dresses.
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Jane Withers was concerned that filmgoers would hate her for being so mean to Temple, but the film was a box-office hit.
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Jane Withers said that director Butler confided to her, "You stole the picture".
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Jane Withers's crew, dubbed the "Withers Family", worked on all her subsequent films.
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Jane Withers began filming her first starring vehicle, Ginger, on her ninth birthday.
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Jane Withers often received top billing even over other established stars.
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Jane Withers did not memorize her lines verbatim, but tried to think about them and draw out the "sense" from them; she often ad-libbed when she lost her way in a scene.
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Jane Withers suggested the casting of other actors for her films, including Jackie Searl, whom she had met at auditions, and 16-year-old Rita Cansino, whom she had observed dancing on an adjoining sound stage and recommended for a supporting role in Paddy O'Day.
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Jane Withers was the only child star to complete a seven-year contract.
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In 1937 and 1938, Jane Withers's films made the top 10 list in box-office gross receipts.
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Jane Withers had her first screen kiss in the 1939 film Boy Friend.
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Under the pseudonym Jerrie Walters, Jane Withers wrote the screenplay for Small Town Deb, in which she starred.
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Jane Withers explained in a 2003 interview that "her own experiences of not being allowed by the studio to grow up were translated into the story of a teenage girl whose 'mother isn't allowing her to grow up, to be herself and to find herself'".
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In 1941, Jane Withers signed her second seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox.
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Jane Withers was set to earn $2,750 a week in the first year of the contract and $3,000 per week in the second year.
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Jane Withers made Her First Beau for Columbia Pictures.
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In 1942, Jane Withers signed a three-year, $225,000 contract with Republic Pictures.
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Jane Withers endeared herself to audiences with her seemingly limitless energy and impish charm.
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In contrast to Temple's cute and charming characters, Jane Withers was usually cast as a mischievous little girl or "a tomboy rascal", leading to her being described as "America's favorite problem child".
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For example, as Jane Withers began to receive gifts of dolls from fans to add to her collection, her parents insisted that for every two dolls she received, she give away one to a needy child.
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Jane Withers joined the Girl Scouts and her parents hosted the meeting in their home.
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When she became a teenager, her parents built a second-floor addition that included a beauty salon and soda fountain where Jane Withers could entertain her friends.
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At the family's cabin in Lake Arrowhead, where they vacationed on weekends and holidays, Jane Withers had two motorbikes and a boat.
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Jane Withers had her eighteenth birthday party at Madison Square Garden with a circus theme and invited US servicemen and their dates to be her guests.
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Jane Withers was allowed to go on chaperoned dates with boys of her age in her early teens; by age 16 she was permitted to go on solo dates.
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Jane Withers was usually present on the sound stage but did not watch Jane film her scenes; nor did she ever issue instructions or objections to studio personnel.
43.
Walter Jane Withers did not involve himself in the movie business at all, but worked as a representative for a California wholesale furniture company.
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Jane Withers' parents licensed her name and image to numerous product lines.
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Jane Withers was the star of best-selling paper doll books issued by Whitman Publishing, Saalfield Publishing, and Dell in the late 1930s and 1940s, which later became popular collectables.
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Jane Withers was featured in several Big Little Books published by Whitman Publishing.
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Jane Withers retired from film at age 21 in 1947, shortly after completing Danger Street and nine days before her marriage to William Moss, a Texas entrepreneur and film producer.
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In 1955, a year after her divorce, Jane Withers returned to Los Angeles and enrolled in the University of Southern California film school with the intention of becoming a director.
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Jane Withers returned to the screen when George Stevens asked her to take a supporting role in his 1956 film Giant.
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In 2006, Jane Withers participated in a 50th-anniversary screening of the film for 700 attendees in Marfa, Texas, where location shooting had taken place.
51.
Jane Withers appeared in television episodes of Pete and Gladys; General Electric Theater; The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; The Love Boat; and Murder, Jane Withers Wrote.
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Jane Withers invested much of her own personality into the character of Josephine, making her friendly, caring, and helpful.
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Jane Withers selected the type of work clothes a woman plumber would wear based on what she herself wore at home.
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Jane Withers took a course in plumbing to play her part realistically.
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Jane Withers retired as Josephine after her mother Ruth was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
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Jane Withers cared for her mother for eight years until Ruth's death in 1983.
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In late 1944, Jane Withers made her stage debut in the musical comedy Glad To See You directed by Busby Berkeley.
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Jane Withers sang the Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn torch song "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" written for the play; this was after covered by Frank Sinatra and Kate Smith and became a jazz and pop standard.
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In 1971, Jane Withers co-starred in the Broadway musical comedy Sure, Sure, Shirley which brought Shirley Temple Black out of retirement.
60.
Jane Withers reprised the role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame II.
61.
Jane Withers suffered from the disease over ten years, after which she went into remission.
62.
Jane Withers began collecting dolls as a young child in Atlanta.
63.
In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported Jane Withers had distributed more than 42,000 items for safekeeping among friends.
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Jane Withers involved President Roosevelt in this initiative, requesting from him the loan of a train on which she had the dolls arranged in museum-like displays to be seen by children across the country.
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Jane Withers served as a board member of the local branch of the American Cancer Society and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, and was instrumental in the development of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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On November 6,1939, Jane Withers was invited to place her handprints and signature in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
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In 1979, Jane Withers was the first recipient of the Young Artist Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1st Youth in Film Awards ceremony.
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In May 1947, Jane Withers announced her engagement to William Moss, a Texas entrepreneur and film producer, after a two-year courtship.
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In October 1955, Jane Withers remarried, to singer Kenneth Errair of The Four Freshmen, with whom she had two more children.
70.
Jane Withers taught Sunday school at the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church together with the actresses Eleanor Powell and Gloria Stewart.
71.
Jane Withers was a trustee of the Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles.
72.
Jane Withers died in Burbank, California, on August 7,2021, at the age of 95.