Tonight we’ll be recapping a controversy we spent a little bit of time on earlier this year at our Facebook location. Our new tumblr fans have a right to be let in on the situation as well.

Before I start, I want to salute the many actors from TV as I was growing up who had birthdays today. They aren’t TIGers, but they all had an effect of ginnyfan’s childhood. Among them, William Conrad (who is the real Matt Dillon to me), Roger C. Carmel, Greg Morris, and Kathleen Nolan (the first woman president of SAG). I thank them all.

First up today we have Harry A. Bailey (1879). No, he’s not the Harry Bailey you see each Christmas. This one was a character actor from 1926 to 1947. He played Senators in THE ACCUSING FINGER, UNION PACIFIC, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, and GOVERNMENT GIRL as well as the more generic politician in GERONIMO. He had the unique “bit role” in OUTSIDE THESE WALLS (1939). An OTW poster fills in.

Unlike Harry A. Bailey, Charles Williams (1898) actually was in that movie you watch every Christmas. He played Cousin Eustace. He also played a telegraph operator in MEN WITH WINGS (1938). During a career of over thirty years, he played a lot of reporters. He also played Morty in the Gasoline Alley series. The photo is of him with Mary Treen and James Stewart in that movie you watch every Christmas.

Now for the controversy. Mary Brodel (1917) was the older sister of Joan Leslie who, as a child actress, had gone by Joan Brodel. Starting at the beginning, Virginia was in the movie MEN WITH WINGS playing Louise Campbell character as a child. Paramount needed another child actress to play Ginny/Louise’s daughter Patricia later in the film. Marilyn Knowlden won the part and was actually listed as being in the film on IMDb. When I contacted her to ask if she knew Ginny-she did from auditions and waiting rooms-she and I determined that she was never in that film. She said she tried to tell IMDb she wasn’t in it and they told her she was wrong. Marilyn was an independent; she never signed with a studio and her father was her agent. According to newspaper accounts, while the MWW role was still pending he signed her to another picture at a different studio. So when Marilyn didn’t report Paramount signed Joan Leslie, still Brodel at this point I think, to replace her. Director William Wellman quickly realized he had two problems with Joan. First, she didn’t look old enough to play the daughter at age 17 as the part required her to age from 11 to 17. Second, since she was 13 Joan couldn’t work the hours he needed to get the film finished. He decided to replace Joan and reshoot everything when Mrs. Brodel came up with the solution.  They should hire Joan’s older sister Mary to play Patricia at age 17 and they could still use Joan’s earlier stuff. Mary was running lines with Joan already and knew the part. Mary was reluctant to replace her sister, but when Wellman explained that Joan was done in the part either way, she took the role. So IMDb showed three girls playing the same part, but it actually should be two. IMDb has now removed Marilyn from the cast based on my research. They still also show Juanita Quigley as playing the role at age 6 and I don’t know if that one is true or not. I need to see the film, I’ve only seen Virginia’s scenes.

I’ve cheated Mary out of her own bio here. Mary started out with Joan and their other sister Betty as the Brodel Sisters. Like the Gumms, the little one made it and the others not so much. There are several cheesecake photos of Mary on the internet, so I guess she did get some modeling work.

Mary McCarty (1923) played the role Ginny used to play in her early career, that of “girl” in THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION (1943). Her child career was spent doing small roles in Jane Withers films as well as those of another child actress. Her breakthrough was on Broadway in the late 1940s and she continued to have stage and television roles right up until her death in 1980. The photo is of McCarty recording the cast album for MISS LIBERTY.