Myrtle Vail

Myrtle Vail (January 7, 1888 – September 18, 1978),[1] sometimes credited as Myrtle Damerel, was an American vaudevillian, and radio and film actress and writer. She was a radio fixture from 1932 to 1946 thanks to the popular soap opera Myrt and Marge, playing the elder half of the title as well as having created and written the show.

Myrtle Vail in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Early career

When Vail was 15, she left her home to become an entertainer. After she married and had two children, the family had its own act, traveling from one locality to another to perform during the 1910s and 1920s. When their investments were lost in the 1929 economic crash, she turned her attention to radio.[1]

Radio show
Main article: Myrt and Marge (radio)

Vail thought of the show while living in the Chicago area, after having spent several years as a vaudeville performer (often with her husband, George Damerel), basing it largely on her own experiences. She cast herself as Myrtle and her real-life daughter, Donna Damerel Fick, as Marge.[2]

Myrt was the elder, experienced chorus girl taking the young, inexperienced, and innocent Marge under her wing. The sponsor, Wrigley liked the idea and Myrt and Marge debuted in 1932.

In 1933, Vail was injured seriously in an automobile accident. This forced her to turn the show's writing over to a colleague named Charles Thomas, who wrote a storyline in which Myrt was kidnapped by gangsters, allowing Vail to recuperate completely.[3] When Myrt and Marge ended in 1942, Vail came up with Myrt, Ltd., but the program was unsuccessful. She made one last effort with the original concept in 1946, creating a transcribed version of Myrt and Marge that used refurbished scripts. It found little success.[1]

After radio

After the show ended, Vail became a low-key supporting actress in films, best known for roles in the low-budget cult films A Bucket of Blood (1959) and The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), written by her grandson Charles B. Griffith, and directed by Roger Corman, for whom Griffith had written and/or directed several films.[4]

Vail apparently never remarried after her husband's death in 1936.

She appeared on television's This Is Your Life in 1960.

She can be heard in her radio heyday today thanks to the survival of approximately fifty episodes of Myrt and Marge.[4]

Death

Vail was a longtime resident of Haworth, New Jersey. She died in Kansas City, Missouri in 1978, aged 90.[5]

Other family

Vail also had a son, George Damerel, who acted on radio, as well as two grandsons.[6]

Other

References
  1. Ellett, Ryan (2017). Radio Drama and Comedy Writers, 1928-1962. McFarland. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-4766-6593-1. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  2. Donna Damerel profile, imdb.com; accessed December 14, 2014.
  3. Myrt and Marge profile, imdb.com; accessed December 14, 2014.
  4. Myrtle Vail at IMDb
  5. Potter, Beth. "Haworth's Notable Characters", Haworth, New Jersey; accessed December 4, 2014.
  6. Lesser, Jerry (February 7, 1942). "New York" (PDF). Billboard. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
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