Sweet Oddball The Story Of Alice Pearce

Alice Pearce, once called “the adenoidal lass with the most beautiful, homely face on Broadway,” carved a unique career playing wallflowers, nitwits, nags, and other oddball characters, all of whom contrasted sharply with their portrayer. As the shy daughter of an international banker, she experienced a privileged upbringing, attending exclusive schools in both Europe and the United States. Against her parents’ wishes, she pursued acting, eventually enlivening thirteen Broadway productions and winning acclaim for her smash act at New York’s chicest nightclub, the Blue Angel. Although Alice’s Hollywood career was comparatively fleeting, the Emmy-winning actress was featured in fourteen films and in dozens of top television series. She achieved her greatest fame—ironically, at the very end of her brief life—for playing Gladys Kravitz, the snoopy neighbor on the TV sitcom Bewitched. Sweet Oddball, exhaustively researched and illustrated with 225 rare photos, chronicles the public and private lives of a lady much beloved by her fellow actors and fans. Fredrick Tucker is a retired educator who enjoys studying character actors of stage and screen. Sweet Oddball, the culmination of research begun in 1975, is his second book for BearManor Media. His biography Verna Felton was published in 2010. "Many of us fondly recall actress Alice Pearce (1917-1966) as the nasal oddball Lucy Shmeeler in the MGM musical ON THE TOWN (1949) and as the often hysterical nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz on TV’s BEWITCHED during its first two seasons (1964-1966). But there was far more to character star Pearce who came from a privileged background including a fine college education. During her impressive career Alice—who was not conventionally pretty—performed in NYC clubs, on Broadway, on road tours, in summer stock, and on radio, TV, and the movies. "In a true labor of love accomplished over several decades, author Fredrick Tucker has done a remarkable job of researching his subject to the nth degree. During this lengthy period of digging into the world of Alice Pearce he gained the assistance of several of her show business coworkers, perceptions from many of her friends, and personal recollections from her extended family that encompassed two marriages. And seemingly Tucker has documented most every media mention of this offbeat talent who typically played wallflowers, spinsters, and eccentric individuals in a long list of memorable performances. As a result he has produced a marvelous, dimensional, well-written biography of Pearce. Equally of interest Tucker has provided in his book an informative background of the times in which Alice worked in various media. Thus SWEET ODDBALL: THE STORY OF ALICE PEARCE is not only a richly textured narrative but it provides a cultural history of bygone decades of various arenas of American show business. Completing this outstanding chronicle are over 200 photos documenting the professional and private lives of gifted Alice Pearce whose time with us was sadly cut short by cancer. This book is a highly recommended read!" - James Robert Parish

Sweet Oddball, exhaustively researched and illustrated with 225 rare photos, chronicles the public and private lives of a lady much beloved by her fellow actors and fans.

Today Verna Felton is most remembered for the voice characterizations she created for six Walt Disney features, but this biography reveals a varied career spanning sixty-five years. Twice nominated for an Emmy, Verna endeared herself to TV audiences of the 1950s as Hilda Crocker on Desilu's December Bride. Before that, she was in constant demand as a radio voice artist, supporting the likes of Jack Benny, Judy Canova, and Red Skelton. Fredrick Tucker chronicles her rise to fame, from phenomenal child actress to her final quarter century as one of Hollywood's most beloved character actresses. The book also features an abundance of rare photographs and several appendices, including a never-before-published episode guide for December Bride.

Eleven-year-old Polly Peabody knows her family?s world-famous rhubarb farm is magical. The plants taste like chocolate, jewels appear in the soil, bugs talk to her, and her best friend is a rhubarb plant named Harry. But the most magical thing is that every single Monday, at exactly 1:00, it rains. Until the Monday when the rain just stops. Now it?s up to Polly to figure out why?and whether her brother?s mysterious illness and her glamorous aunt Edith?s sudden desire to sell the farm have anything to do with it. Most of all, Polly has to make it start raining again before it?s too late. Her brother?s life, the plants? survival, and her family?s future all depend on it. Kathleen Van Cleve has woven an unforgettable comingof- age tale with all the heart and wonder of a Roald Dahl novel.

Once London's top thief, Barclay Pearce has turned his back on his life of crime and now uses his skills for a nation at war. But not until he rescues a clockmaker's daughter from a mugging does he begin to wonder what his future might hold. Evelina Manning has constantly fought for independence, but she certainly never meant for it to inspire her fiancé to end the engagement and enlist in the army. When the intriguing man who saved her returns to the Manning residence to study clockwork repair with her father, she can't help being interested. But she soon learns that nothing with Barclay Pearce is as simple as it seems. As 1915 England plunges ever deeper into war, the work of an ingenious clockmaker may give England an unbeatable military edge--and Germany realizes it as well. Evelina's father soon finds his whole family in danger--and it may just take a reformed thief to steal the time they need to escape.