After cleaning up the mess Miranda Sommerfield made of VWRS HQ, I’m finally ready for Monday’s TODAY IN GINNY!

The first lady gets two photograph just to show you what great range she had. Henrietta Crosman (1861) was a leading lady on the stage beginning in 1883. She came to Hollywood more than three decades later and worked  into her late 70s. She specialized in playing high class women, like Mrs. Cosgrove Dabney, Henrietta Lowell, and Broadway legend Fanny Cavendish. Her being cast in GIRL OF THE OZARKS (1936) as Granny Moseley, a tobacky spittin’ frontier woman who hunts for her family’s only food is pretty amazing. And, as someone who has actually seen the film I can say the performance is pretty amazing as well. She’s the only actor in the film who gives Ginny a run for her money. In the photos you see the society matron Crosman and Granny side by side.

Actor Thomas Monk (1877) was born in England and had but four uncredited movie roles. I found little information about him, make that none, and a photo search just brings up Tony Shalhoub. He was a clerk in PETER IBBETSON (1935). A photo from the film of a blonde Virginia with Dickie Moore will substitute.

Jack Norton (1889) was born Mortimer J. Naughton and was a teetotaler who played drunks. Supposedly, he actually followed drunks out of bars and restaurants to study them. In THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT (1939), he played Charlie Fenton, a guy so drunk that Michael Lanyard is able to convince him that Michael, not Charlie, is Charlie Fenton. Amazingly, he played in LOVE IS A HEADACHE (1938) from the other side of the bar as he did at least two other times. He also appeared in THE PALM BEACH STORY, THE BANK DICK (as A. Pismo Clam), and A DAY AT THE RACES. 

Ralph McCullough (1895) was in two ginnyfilms. He was a reporter in MEN WITH WINGS (1938) and the postman in THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA (1942). Yes, that means he was Miranda’s postman. The grainy photo is from a group shot in the film. I don’t think he was ever on screen alone. Like a lot of these actors, he had larger roles in the silent era, then his talkie roles were virtually all uncredited. He was also in MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, and SOPHIE LANG GOES WEST. I don’t know that third one, but it fit with the other two.

Comedienne Barbara Jo Allen (1906) was billed almost as often as her character and she was as herself. She allegedly created Vera Vague after attending a lecture where the speaker changed the subject with every sentence. She thought this was a funny idea for a character and Vera was born. The only problem was it typecast her on radio and in films and Barbara Jo Allen never got to shine through. Pre-Vera, she played a receptionist in THE WOMEN (1939). In another small connection to Virginia, Vera Vague (not Barbara Jo) played Miss Hazy in the 1942 remake of MRS. WIGGS OF THE CABBAGE PATCH.