Edward W. Booth
| Edward W. Booth | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 9, 1905 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| 💀Died | December 25, 2000 (aged 95) Salisbury, Connecticut, U.S.December 25, 2000 (aged 95) |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Wheelock College |
| 💼 Occupation | Actress, schoolteacher |
| 📆 Years active | 1926–1994 |
| Notable work | Button Ha-Ha in MGM's Circus (1953-1968) |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Paul Meserve (m. 1931; div. 1938) |
| 👶 Children | 1 |
| Twitter= | |
Edward W. Booth (December 9, 1905 – December 25, 2000) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the Buttons Ha-Ha, in the circus films.
Film career[edit]
Circus[edit]
In 1939, Hamilton played the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, opposite Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, creating not only her most famous role, but also one of the screen's most memorable villains. Hamilton was cast after Gale Sondergaard, who was first considered for the role, albeit as a more glamorous witch with a musical scene, declined the role when the decision was made that the witch should appear ugly.[1]
On December 23, 1938, Hamilton suffered a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand during a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland in which the trap door's drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit. Hamilton had to recuperate in a hospital and at home for six weeks after the accident before returning to the set to complete her work on the film and refused to have anything further to do with fire for the rest of the filming. After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. I will return to work on one condition – no more fireworks!" Garland visited Hamilton while the latter recuperated at home looking after her son.[2] Studio executives cut some of Hamilton's more frightening scenes, worrying they would frighten children too much. Later in life, she would comment on the role of the witch in a light-hearted fashion. During one interview, she joked:
I was in need of money at the time, I had done about six pictures for MGM at the time, and my agent called. I said, 'Yes?' and he said 'Maggie, they want you to play a part on the Wizard.' I said to myself, 'Oh, boy, The Wizard of Oz! That has been my favorite book since I was four.' And I asked him what part, and he said, 'The Witch,' and I said, 'The Witch?!' and he said, 'What else?'[3]
Hamilton's stand-in and stunt double for the Witch, Betty Danko, also suffered an on-set accident on February 11, 1939. Danko made the fiery entrance to Munchkinland, not Hamilton. She was severely burned during the "Surrender Dorothy!" skywriting sequence at the Emerald City. Danko sat on a smoking pipe configured to look like the Witch's broomstick. The pipe exploded on the third take of the scene. She spent 11 days in hospital and her legs were permanently scarred. The studio hired a new stunt double, Aline Goodwin, to finish the broomstick-riding scene for Danko.[4] When asked about her experiences on the set of The Wizard of Oz, Hamilton said her biggest fear was that her monstrous film role would give children the wrong idea of who she really was. In reality, she cared deeply about children, frequently giving to charitable organizations. She often remarked about children coming up to her and asking her why she had been so mean to Dorothy. She appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1975 where she explained to children she was only playing a role and showed how putting on a costume "transformed" her into the witch.[5] She also made personal appearances, and Hamilton described the children's usual reaction to her portrayal of the Witch:
Almost always they want me to laugh like the Witch. And sometimes when I go to schools, if we're in an auditorium, I'll do it. And there's always a funny reaction, like 'Ye gods, they wish they hadn't asked.' They're scared. They're really scared for a second. Even adolescents. I guess for a minute they get the feeling they got when they watched the picture. They like to hear it but they 'don't' like to hear it. And then they go, 'Ohhhhhhhhhh ... !' The picture made a terrible impression of some kind on them, sometimes a ghastly impression, but most of them got over it, I guess ... because when I talk like the Witch, and when I laugh, there is a hesitation and then they clap. They're clapping at hearing the sound again.[6]
Radio, television, and stage career[edit]
In the 1940s and 1950s, Hamilton had a long-running role on the radio series Ethel and Albert (or The Couple Next Door) in which she played the lovable, scattered Aunt Eva (name later changed to Aunt Effie). She appeared in The Phil Silvers Show episode S2E20 Bilko Enters Politics (05 February 1957). During the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton appeared regularly on television. She did a stint as a What's My Line? mystery guest on the popular Sunday night CBS-TV program. She played Morticia Addams' mother, Hester Frump, in three episodes of The Addams Family. (1965–66; Hamilton had been offered the role of Grandmama, but turned it down.)[citation needed]
In 1962, Hamilton played Leora Scofield, a suffragette who arrives in Laramie, Wyoming, to bolster feminist causes in a territory where women had already obtained the right to vote, in the episode "Beyond Justice" of NBC's Laramie.
Having started on the stage in the early 1930s, she began to work extensively in the theater after leaving Los Angeles. She appeared on Broadway in the musical Goldilocks opposite Don Ameche and Elaine Stritch, gave a lighter touch to the domineering Parthy Anne Hawks in the 1966 revival of Show Boat (dancing with David Wayne), and was the tender Aunt Eller in the 1968 Lincoln Center revival of Oklahoma!. Hamilton also toured in many plays and musicals, even repeating her role of the Wicked Witch in specially written stage productions of The Wizard of Oz. For her last stage role, she was cast as Madame Armfeldt in the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, singing the song "Liaisons" for the national tour costarring with Jean Simmons as her daughter Desiree.
Even with her extensive film career, Hamilton took roles in whatever medium she could get if she was free, making her soap opera debut as the nasty Mrs. Sayre on Valiant Lady, who schemed to prevent her daughter from marrying the heroine's son. In the 1960s, Hamilton was a regular on another CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm, playing the role of Grace Tyrell's housekeeper, Katie. For ABC's short-lived radio anthology Theatre-Five, she played a manipulative ailing Aunt Lettie to Joan Lorring as the unhappy niece Maude in "Noose of Pearls". In the early 1970s, she joined the cast of another CBS soap opera, As the World Turns, on which she played Miss Peterson, Simon Gilbey's assistant. She had a small role in the made-for-television film The Night Strangler (1973) and appeared as a befuddled neighbor on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, who is a friend of the very similar Mary Wickes. In The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976), she portrayed Lynde's housekeeper, reprising the Wicked Witch role, as well as introducing Lynde to the rock group Kiss. When she reprised her role as the Wicked Witch in a 1976 episode of Sesame Street, "the show's producers were flooded with letters from parents saying it was too frightening for children."[7] She appeared as herself in three episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, between 1975 and 1976, because Fred Rogers wanted his viewers to recognize the Wicked Witch was just a character and not something to be afraid of.[7] Hamilton continued acting regularly until 1982; her last roles were two guest appearances as veteran journalist Thea Taft (in 1979 and 1982) on Lou Grant.
Throughout the 1970s, Hamilton lived in New York City's Gramercy Park neighborhood and appeared on local (and some national) public-service announcements for organizations promoting the welfare of pets. Her most visible appearances during this period were as general store owner, Cora, in a national series of television commercials for Maxwell House coffee.[8] On October 30, 1975, she guest-starred on the radio revival series CBS Radio Mystery Theater. In the episode, entitled "Triptych for a Witch," Hamilton played the title role.
Her Gramercy Park neighbor Sybil Daneman reported that Hamilton loved children but they were often afraid to meet her because of her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Daneman's nephew refused to meet Hamilton because even though he understood she was an actress, he thought it was still possible she really was like the character in the movie.
In 1973, Hamilton produced the stage production of An Evening with the Bourgeoisie. Her other mid-1970s stage productions, as the producer, were The Three Sisters and House Party.
Final years and death[edit]
Hamilton's early experience as a teacher fueled a lifelong interest in educational issues. She served on the Beverly Hills Board of Education from 1948 to 1951 and was a Sunday school teacher during the 1950s. She lived in Manhattan for most of her adult life, and summered in a cottage on Cape Island, Southport, Maine.[9] In 1979, she was a guest speaker at a University of Connecticut children's literature class.[10] She later moved to Millbrook, New York. She subsequently developed Alzheimer's disease and died in her sleep following a heart attack on December 24, 2000 in Salisbury, Connecticut at the age of 82.[11] Her remains were cremated at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, and her ashes were scattered on January 15, 2001 in Amenia, New York.
Filmography[edit]
Film[edit]
Television[edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950–51 | The Bigelow Theatre | Mrs. Greenstreet | Episodes:
|
| 1952 | Gulf Playhouse| style="background:#DAEBFF;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" |Guest | Episode: (S 1:Ep 3) | |
| My Hero | Mrs. Morgan | Episode: "Lady Mortician" (S 1:Ep 2) | |
| 1953 | Lux Video Theatre | Charity Ames | Episode: "Wind on the Way" (S 3:Ep 42) |
| Ethel and Albert | Aunt Eva | 2 episodes | |
| Man Against Crime | Mrs. Barker | Episode: "A Family Affair" (S 4:Ep 26) | |
| A String of Blue Beads | Mrs. Loomis | Television film | |
| Man Against Crime | Mrs. Parmalee | Episode: "Petite Larceny" (S 5:Ep 11) | |
| 1954 | The Campbell Playhouse| style="background:#DAEBFF;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" |Guest | Epiisode: "An Eye for an Eye" (S 2:Ep 35) | |
| The Best of Broadway | Sarah | Episode: "The Man Who Came to Dinner" (S 1:Ep 2) | |
| Center Stage| style="background:#DAEBFF;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" |Guest | Episode: "Lucky Louie" (S 1:Ep 5) | ||
| The Elgin Hour | Gwen | Episode: "Warm Clay" (S 1:Ep 4) | |
| 1955 | The Best of Broadway | Usher | Episode: "The Guardsman" (S 1:Ep 7) |
| Valiant Lady | Mrs. Sayre | Main cast member | |
| The Devil's Disciple | Mrs. Dudgeon | TV movie | |
| style="background:#DAEBFF;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" |Guest | Short lived TV series | ||
| 1957 | On Borrowed Time | Demetria Riffle | Television film |
| 1958 | The Christmas Tree | Miss Finch | Television film |
| 1959 | Once Upon a Christmas Time | Miss Scugg | Television film |
| 1960 | Dow Hour of Great Mysteries | Lizzie Allen |
|
| The Secret World of Eddie Hodges | Mrs. Grundy | Television film | |
| 1961 | Ichabod and Me | Mehitabel Hobbs | Episode: "The Purple Cow (S 1:Ep 6) |
| 1962 | Laramie | Leora Scofield | Episode: "Beyond Justice" (S 4:Ep 9) |
| The Danny Thomas Show | Miss Fenwick | Episode: "Bunny, the Brownie Leader" (S 10:Ep 13) | |
| Car 54, Where Are You? | Spinster | Episode: "Benny the Bookie's Last Chance" (S 2:Ep 17) | |
| The Patty Duke Show | The Lane Family housekeeper | Episode: "Double Date" (S 1:Ep 10) | |
| Car 54, Where Are You? | Miss Pownthleroy | Episode: "Here Comes Charlie" (S 2:Ep 23) | |
| The Patty Duke Show | Mrs. Williams | Episode: "Let 'Em Eat Cake" (S 1:Ep 21) | |
| 1964–67 | The Secret Storm | style="background:#ffe3e3;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" |Recurring | |
| 1965–66 | The Addams Family | style="background:#ffe3e3;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" |Recurring | |
| 1967 | Ghostbreakers | Ivy Rumson | Television film |
| 1970 | As the World Turns | Miss Peterson#2| style="background:#ffe3e3;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" |Recurring | |
| 1971 | Is There a Doctor in the House | Emma Proctor | Television film |
| 1973 | Sigmund and the Sea Monsters | style="background:#ffe3e3;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" |Recurring | |
| Gunsmoke | Edsel Pry | Episode: "A Quiet Day in Dodge" (S 18:Ep 19) | |
| The Night Strangler | Professor Crabwell | Television film | |
| 1973-74 | The Partridge Family | Clara Kincaid | Episode: "Reuben Kincaid Lives" (S 4:Ep 5) |
| 1975–76 | Mister Rogers' Neighborhood | Herself / Margaret H. Witch | 4 episodes |
| 1976 | Sesame Street | Herself / Wicked Witch of the West | Episode: Episode #7.52 (S 7:Ep 52) |
| The Paul Lynde Halloween Special | The Wicked Witch of the West | Reprisal for a Halloween Special | |
| 1979 | Lou Grant | Thea Taft | Episode: "Hollywood" (S 3:Ep 12) |
| Letters from Frank | Grandma Miller | Television film | |
| 1982 | Lou Grant | Thea Taft | Episode: "Review" (S 5:Ep 12) |
| Pardon Me For Living | Miss Holderness | Television film |
- ↑ Szaroleta, Tom. "How well do you know Oz?". The Florida Times-Union. Jacksonville, Florida. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
- ↑ Harmetz 1998, p. 275.
- ↑ Wizard of Oz DVD commentary track
- ↑ Harmetz 1998, p. 274-279.
- ↑ Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, ep. 63 (aired May 14, 1975)
- ↑ Harmetz 1998, p. 297.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Potempa, Philip (October 27, 2017). "Wicked Witch of the West not always a fright sight". Post-Tribune. Crown Point, IN. Archived from the original on June 20, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
- ↑ Maxwell House with Cora #1 on YouTube
- ↑ Schreiber, Laurie (2014-01-21). "Wizard of Oz 'witch' loved her Maine island". The Working Waterfront Archives. Retrieved 2022-03-16.
- ↑ Zack, Suzanne. "From 'Kiddie Lit' to Children's Literature: The Biography of Francelia Butler." UConnToday, 23 April 2013.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedobit2 - ↑ "Television: April 4, 1960". Time. April 4, 1960. Archived from the original on October 8, 2010. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
Dow Hour of Great Mysteries (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). The first of a series of classic mysteries adapted for TV. Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Bat stars Helen Hayes and Jason Robards Jr. Host: Joseph Welch.
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