Judy Canova (November 20, 1913 – August 5, 1983), born Juliette Canova, was an American comedienne, actress, singer, and radio personality.She appeared on Broadway and in films. She hosted her own network radio program, a popular series broadcast from 1943 to 1955.

Biography

Early career

Born in Starke, Florida to Henrietta Perry, a singer, and Joseph Francis Canova, a businessman. Judy Canova began her show-business career with a family vaudeville routine. She joined her sister Annie and brother Zeke, and their performances as the Three Georgia Crackers took them from theaters in Florida to a club in Manhattan, the Village Barn. Canova sang, yodeled, and played guitar and she was typed as a wide-eyed likable country bumpkin, often barefoot, and wearing her hair in braids, sometimes topped with a straw hat. Sometimes, she was introduced as The Ozark Nightingale, although she had no connection to the region.

Radio and films

When bandleader Rudy Vallée offered her a guest spot on his radio show in 1931, The Fleischmann Hour, the door opened to a career that spanned more than five decades. The popularity of the Canova family led to numerous performances on radio in the 1930s, and they made their Broadway theater debut in the revue Calling All Stars. An offer from Warner Bros. led to several bit parts before she signed with Republic Pictures. She recorded for the RCA Victor label and appeared in more than two dozen Hollywood films, includingScatterbrain (1940), Joan of Ozark (1942), and Lay That Rifle Down (1955).

In 1943, she began her own radio program, The Judy Canova Show, that ran for twelve years—first on CBS and then on NBC. Playing herself as a love-starved Ozark bumpkin dividing her time between home and Southern California, Canova was accompanied by a cast that included voicemaster Mel Blanc as Pedro (using the accented voice he later gave the cartoons' Speedy Gonzales) and Sylvester (using the voice that later became associated with the Looney Tunes character), Ruth Perrott as Aunt Aggie, Ruby Dandridge as Geranium, Joseph Kearns as Benchley Botsford and Sharon Douglas as Brenda—with Gale Gordon, Sheldon Leonard, and Hans Conried also making periodic appearances. The Sportsmen Quartet joined the show in 1943 and backed Judy on most of her songs, and the Charles Dant Orchestra provided the rest, usually supporting Canova's country warble. Western singer and actor Eddie Dean also appeared with Canova on numerous occasions during the 1930s.

During World War II, she closed her show with the song "Goodnight, Soldier" ("Wherever you may be... my heart's lonely... without you") and used her free time to sell U.S. War Bonds. After the war, she introduced a new closing theme that she once said she remembered her own mother singing to her when she was a small child:

Go to sleep-y, little baby.

Go to sleep-y, little baby.

When you wake

You'll patty-patty cake

And ride a shiny little pony.

Canova recorded the song in 1946. While a hit with her own show, Canova made frequent appearances on other popular radio programs of the day, including and especially, those hosted by Abbott and Costello and Fred Allen.

Television

By the time her radio program ended in 1955, Canova easily made a smooth transition to television with appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour,The Steve Allen Show, Matinee Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Make Room For Daddy,and other shows. In 1967, she portrayed Mammy Yokum in an unsold TV pilot adapted from Al Capp's Li'l Abner. She also worked on Broadway and in Vegas nightclubs through the early 1970s, touring with No, No Nanette in 1971. She appeared as a mystery guest on the TV show What's My Line on July 18, 1954.

Personal life

Her hayseed character developed as radio's female equivalent of her first husband, comedian Bob Burns. A nationally known cracker-barrel radio and film personality during the 1930s and 1940s, Burns was recognized by his own hillbilly origins as "The Arkansas Traveler" and "The Arkansas Philosopher." The couple were married in 1936, but the marriage lasted only three years. Briefly, Canova then was married to James Ripley, but the union soon was annulled during 1941. Her third marriage was to Chester B. England in 1943, which ended in divorce by 1950. Her fourth and final husband was musician Filberto Rivero in 1950. The union produced a daughter Diana in 1953, but the marriage ended in 1964. Her daughter, Diana Canova, is an actress best known for her role as Corine on the ABC television sitcom, Soap.

Death

In 1983 at age 69, Judy Canova died from cancer and her ashes were interred in the secluded Columbarium of Everlasting Light section, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Her ashes are among those of her siblings Anne (1901–1994), and Zeke Canova (1898–1980).

Canova is honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to the film industry (6821 Hollywood Boulevard) and a second star for her radio career (6777 Hollywood Boulevard).

Source: Wikipedia