1. Minerva Pious was an American radio, television and film actress.
16 Facts About Minerva Pious
1. 2.
Minerva Pious was best known as the malaprop-prone Pansy Nussbaum in Fred Allen's famous "Allen's Alley" current-events skits.
3.
Minnie Minerva Pious, as she was originally known, was born in Odessa, Russian Empire, and moved to the United States with her parents when she was 2 years old, becoming a US citizen in 1918 through her naturalized citizen father.
4.
Minerva Pious attended high school in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she was active in the Players Club dramatic organization.
5.
Minerva Pious's excellent typing and shorthand in high school led to a job as a stenographer for a judge in Bridgeport.
6.
Minerva Pious spent the majority of her life and career in New York City and worked extensively as a radio comedian.
7.
Minerva Pious obtained her first regular job as part of Allen's Mighty Allen Art Players in the 1930s when Allen hosted the hour-long Town Hall Tonight.
8.
Minerva Pious became a fixture in the routines until Allen's show ended in 1949.
9.
Minerva Pious was often invited to play Nussbaum on other radio programs, such as The Jack Benny Program and Duffy's Tavern.
10.
Minerva Pious was cast in the radio plays of Norman Corwin and on the Columbia Workshop.
11.
Minerva Pious was very concerned about television; she never worked very much.
12.
The hip condition didn't stop Minerva Pious from making occasional television appearances, on shows such as The Colgate Comedy Hour and The Chevrolet Television Theatre.
13.
Minerva Pious appeared briefly in the television soap The Edge of Night in 1956, playing a landlady.
14.
Minerva Pious had small roles in the films Joe MacBeth and Love in the Afternoon.
15.
Minerva Pious recorded with Bud Freeman a skit based on Noel Coward's Private Lives called "Private Jives" for the Commodore Records label in 1938.
16.
Minerva Pious died March 16,1979, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, aged 76.