20 Facts About Sara Berner

Sara Berner starred in her own radio show on NBC, Sara's Private Caper, and was best known as telephone operator Mabel Flapsaddle on The Jack Benny Program.

Sara Berner was the oldest of four children, and her family relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma when she was a teenager.

Sara Berner became interested in performing after watching silent movies and vaudeville shows at a theater and then imitating scenes in front of the women's restroom attendant.

Sara Berner performed in an adaptation of Abie's Irish Rose after graduation, and she studied drama for two years at the University of Tulsa.

Sara Berner worked in a Broadway millinery in the meantime, and studied dialect by observing customers' Brooklyn accents.

Sara Berner sneaked out during a shift to audition for Major Edward Bowes' amateur hour, and was hired the next day.

Sara Berner was cast alongside Rudy Vallee on his show The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour; however, she sued Vallee in 1945 for $19,500 in damages over claims he reneged on an "oral agreement" that he would hire her for 39 appearances on his show at $500 weekly.

Sara Berner returned to supporting roles, but was temporarily removed from The Jack Benny Program for an eighteen-month period between 1954 and 1955 due to an undisclosed dispute with Benny, and was substituted by Shirley Mitchell as Mabel Flapsaddle in that duration.

Sara Berner was active in vocal characterization for animated cartoons, working with several studios from the late 1930s through the 1940s.

Sara Berner was initially utilized for her imitations of Hollywood film actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Martha Raye.

Sara Berner's mimicking of Hepburn led to her being hired by Lantz as the debut voice of Andy Panda, which she played only twice, in Life Begins for Andy Panda and Knock Knock.

Sara Berner focused on voicing animals thereafter, with her work for Warner Bros.

Sara Berner filmed supporting roles in motion pictures from 1942 to 1957, including voicing a camel named Mabel in Road to Morocco.

Sara Berner worked little in the 1960s, aside from performing at the 1961 Grammy Awards in a comic-relief role alongside Mort Sahl, and appearing as a guest on Gypsy Rose Lee's daytime talk show in November 1966.

Sara Berner's final acting role was on an episode of CBS Playhouse that aired on January 29,1967.

In November 1950, Sara Berner was photographed outside a mobile X-ray unit as part of an awareness campaign by the Los Angeles County X-ray Survey Foundation that encouraged screenings to help combat the spread of tuberculosis.

Sara Berner adhered to Judaism and was a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.

Sara Berner married her theatrical agent, Milton Rosner, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 11,1951; the couple had one daughter, Eugenie, whom they adopted two years later at eight months old.

Sara Berner died at age 57 on December 19,1969, and was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, but her death was not made public until her family placed a memorial in the Van Nuys News in November 1970.

Sara Berner had been recovering from major surgery at a Culver City convalescent home two months before her death.