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Dig A Hole: Dody Goodman

June 23rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Dody Goodman as Martha Shumway in MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN

Dody Goodman, the pixyish Southern belle comedienne/character actress know for her appearances on Jack Paar’s couch as well as the mother on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Blanche Hodell in both Grease movies died Sunday at the age of 93.

Born Dolores Goodman in Columbus, Ohio on October 28, 1914 where her father ran a cigar store. For years Goodman successfully shaved 14 years off her age by listing her birth year as 1929. This minor discrepancy was upheld for decades before the past eventually caught up with her and shattered the myth.

She arrived in New York to study dance in the late 1930s. She studied at the School of American Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, and later graduated to Broadway musicals.

According to the Associated Press, Goodman gained a measure of success for her dancing solos in such ’40s Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes and Wonderful Town. In 1955, she stopped the show in the off Broadway production Shoestring Revue with the novelty song Someone’s Been Sending Me Flowers. She returned to Broadway in 1974 to appear in Lorelei with Carol Channing.

Jack Paar & Dody Goodman

Goodman first appeared on television in the recurring role of a waitress on The Phil Silvers Show. Adopting a scatterbrain persona, Goodman eventually caught the attention of talk show pioneer Jack Paar. Her ditzy aura and seemingly spontaneous malaprops delighted Paar and gaine national attention for Goodman who was soon invited to become a semi-regular on The Tonight Show.

“I was just thrown into the talking,” Goodman said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press. “I had no idea how to do that. In fact, they just called me up and asked me if I wanted to be on ‘The Jack Paar Show.’ I didn’t know who Jack Paar was. They said, ‘We just want you to sit and talk.”‘

Jack Paar did not take well to being upstaged and Dody’s impeccable ad-libs eventually resulted in a permanent falling out. In 1958 she was dropped from The Tonight Show’s roster, but invitations from other talk shows soon began pouring in.

She began making regular appearances on Virginia Graham’s Girl Talk, Merv, and The Mike Douglas Show. In 1970, with Paar safely out of the picture, she once again began appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

She hit her stride plating Louise Lasser’s mother on the dotty serial Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Her high-pitched voice could be heard announcing the show’s title at the beginning of each episode.

Following Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Goodman’s career gained momentum. She picked up where Marion Lorne left off playing addled neighbor ladies or eccentric housekeepers on TV’s Diff’rent Strokes and Punky Brewster, as well as movie roles in both Grease films and cartoon voiceovers on a slew of Chipmunk Adventures.

Goodman, who never married, is survived by seven nieces and nephews, 11 great nieces and nephews and 15 great-great nieces and nephews.

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Dig A Hole: Insult Comedienne Beverly Wines Cardella aka PUDGY!

December 30th, 2007 by Scott Marks

pudgy.jpg

Kup’s Column How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, Kup’s Column begins tonight with the report of a tragic end to 2007. The entertainment world is mourning the loss of Beverly Wines Cardella, better known to…as, I should say, the great Pudgy! I can hear her now grazing at that giant Vegas buffet in the sky.

Pudgy’s pudgy body was found in her Las Vegas home the day before Christmas. Best known as the female Don Rickles, or as Essie used to call her, “Totie Fields with a vagina,” Pudgy! died of natural causes while watching television in her living room. Hopefully it wasn’t a video tape of one of the many Kup’s Shows that she guested on.

Lone before Roseanne Barrnold hit it big, Pudgy! started out as a wisecracking waitress working the tables in a restaurant near City Hall. Sadly, Essie and I never witnessed her skill as a waitstaff personnel because she worked in low grade Greek truck stops compared to the class joints the Kup’s dined at. Many of her regular patrons suggested that the corpulent cutie belonged on the stage. She agreed, and her first performing job came at Punchinello’s on trendy Rush Street. After years of hard work she became a fixture on the Chicago nite club circuit where she lived up to her nickname, “The Queen of Tease.”

Pudgy! always put her family before her career…something that this reporter was a miserable failure at…and worked her performing gigs round her home life. I can’ tell you how much pleasure her performances at the legendary Pump Room brought Essie and myself, particularly since all the meals were on the arm.

In 1993, with her three children old enough to make the trip, Pudgy! moved her family to Las Vegas where she began a longstanding series of engagements in local hot spots. I tell ya’ nobody knew how to host a tit show revue better than our girl Pudgy! Whenever Essie and I were in Vegas two spots were a constant: Sig Sackowicz’s home and The Riviera Hotel to check out Pudgy! in the Crazy Girls revue. Pudgy! frequently joked about how hard it was to win over an audience who didn’t pay to see a fully-clothed fat broad hurl insults at them.

I’d like to publicly point out that Pudgy! did all of this without once resorting to blue material or uttering smutty four-letter words. Not like those filthy scum-idians Howard Sterns or Sam Kingston. No sir, that Pudgy! was one classy broad, I should say.

Up until last year Pudgy! was working the X-Burlesque show at the Flamingo. Although I was unable to track down Pudgy’s age, I can report that she will be buried in Chicago.

Requiescat In Punchinello’s, dear funny lady!

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