“The First Lady of Radio.”  That’s the fitting appellation given to actress Lurene Tuttle, born Lurene Susie Tuttle in Pleasant Lake, Indiana on this date in 1907.  Lurene was, without question, a consummate character performer, achieving fame in the aural medium, in films and on TV. She even used her acting gifts to coach others so that they perfected their craft.  Radio Spirits’ own Elizabeth McLeod said it best: “She was one of the giants of West Coast radio drama, an actress whose career spanned the life of her medium, and an activist who helped to forge broadcasting’s first successful labor union.  Dismiss her as a mere ‘voice actress’ at your peril.”

Before becoming indispensable to West Coast radio drama, Lurene Tuttle started to develop her love of acting while in the Midwest. She hailed from a family of performers—her grandfather Frank was manager of an opera house and also taught drama.  Her father, O.V. Tuttle, performed in blackface in minstrel shows before switching his vocation to a railroad station agent (minstrelsy was on the decline).  It wasn’t until the Tuttle family moved to Glendale, Arizona, that the young Lurene started to seriously consider an acting career. We have local drama coach Mrs. Easley to thank for that—she provided much guidance and encouragement to Lurene.  At age 15, Lurene and the family moved even further westward (California was the place they had to be) and she found herself becoming quite active in her high school drama club.  Tuttle’s thespic aspirations would attract the attention of the Pasadena Playhouse, and as a member of the Playhouse’s stock company she received the equivalent of a college education in drama.  By the age of 20, Lurene was a seasoned actress. She worked briefly in vaudeville, and by the early 1930s gambled on getting into the burgeoning entertainment medium of radio.

As radio began to grow by leaps and bounds, no station in the nation would prove more beneficial to dedicated actors than Los Angeles’ KHJ. Lurene Tuttle was fortunately to be hired on there by producer-director Lindsay McHarrie.  KHJ’s productions—broadcast both locally and over the CBS Network—relied on performers who were willing to work hard and demonstrate flexibility when it came to schedules. Lurene was more than up to the task, but the hours in radio were long and the pay was short. Tuttle and actor Frank Nelson were members of the stock company on CBS’ Hollywood Hotel, where they earned the princely sum of $25…while the guest stars on the show were pulling down $5,000.  Frank announced to Lurene one day that he was going to get them a raise—$35—and although the show’s producer played hardball at first, he eventually agreed to Nelson and Tuttle’s demands.  Both actors would later be inspired to become founding members of the Hollywood chapter of the Radio Actors’ Guild—which eventually became the American Federation of Radio Artists.  Lurene would later serve as AFTRA’s first female president.

Lurene Tuttle’s voluminous radio work occurred on many of the medium’s prestigious dramatic anthology programs. At one time, she was practically a regular on The Lux Radio Theatre (one of the shows that directly influenced the activism that formed AFTRA…and also where she met her first husband, Melville Ruick). Tuttle also worked constantly on “radio’s outstanding theatre of thrills,” Suspense.  To list all of the shows Lurene did would require this essay to continue until 2020, but a partial list would include Academy Award Theatre, Arch Oboler’s Plays, The Cavalcade of America, The CBS Radio Workshop, The Clock, Columbia Presents Corwin, The Columbia Workshop, Dark Venture, Diary of Fate, Encore Theatre, Family Theatre, Favorite Story, The First Nighter Program, Forecast, The Hallmark Hall of Fame, Hallmark Playhouse, Hollywood Premier, Hollywood Star Playhouse, Hollywood Star Time, The Lady Esther/Camel Screen Guild Theatre, Lights Out, The Mercury Summer Theatre, Mystery in the Air, The NBC University Theatre, The Railroad Hour, Screen Director’s Playhouse, The Silver Theatre, Stars Over Hollywood, Strange Wills, The Theatre of Famous Radio Players, The Theatre of Romance, Twelve Players, The Unexpected, The Whistler, White Fires of Inspiration, and Your Movietown Radio Theatre.

In the fall of 1941, Lurene Tuttle was a regular on The Great Gildersleeve—portraying Marjorie Forrester, Gildy’s niece.  Tuttle was by this time in her mid-30s…and yet convincingly portrayed the high school senior until 1944, when she handed off the role to Louise Erickson.  Gildersleeve was a great showcase for Lurene’s comedy talents; the actress later appeared on such shows as The Adventures of Maisie, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (where she had a recurring role as Harriet’s mother), Good News of 1940, The Smiths of Hollywood, and The Texaco Star Theatre.  Lurene would also be afforded an opportunity to work alongside such radio personalities as Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Dorothy Lamour, and Rudy Vallee.  Her best-remembered work in comedy occurred when she joined the cast of The Red Skelton Show in the fall of 1947 to portray the female foils (like Junior the Mean Widdle Kid’s mother), which had previously been played by Harriet Nelson and GeGe Pearson.  Lurene would remain with the program until the Skelton show closed the radio curtain in 1952.

By the time Lurene Tuttle went to work for Red Skelton, she was already hard at work on her other unforgettable radio gig: portraying dizzy secretary Effie Perrine on The Adventures of Sam Spade (which premiered in the summer of 1946).  The Spade people, aware that Effie usually appeared at the beginning and end of each broadcast, arranged to record the banter between her and star Howard Duff on Sunday afternoons so that Tuttle could attend the Skelton show rehearsals (which were held later in the evening).  The excellent chemistry between Howard and Lurene is the reason why Sam Spade remains a firm favorite among old-time radio devotees today, and the actress’ dedication to character can also be heard in appearances on such favorites as The Adventures of Frank Race, The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, The Adventures of Red Ryder, The Adventures of the Saint, Broadway’s My Beat, Calling All Cars, Dr. Christian, Ellery Queen, Have Gun – Will Travel, Hopalong Cassidy, Jeff Regan, Investigator, Let George Do It, The Mayor of the Town, Mr. President, Night Beat, Pat Novak for Hire, Presenting Charles Boyer, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Rocky Jordan, Rogue’s Gallery, The Silent Men, The Story of Dr. Kildare, Tales of the Texas Rangers, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Lurene Tuttle’s first credited motion picture role was in 1947’s Heaven Only Knows.  However, it wouldn’t be long before she would bring the same professionalism to the silver screen as she did before a microphone. Some of her most memorable movie appearances include Macbeth (1948), Goodbye, My Fancy (1951—a personal favorite, as she plays a college alum with a little more moxie on the ball than folks might think.), Tomorrow is Another Day (1951), Niagara (1953—she’s married to Don Wilson!), The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), The Glass Slipper (1955), Untamed Youth (1957), and Psycho (1960)—where she plays the wife of Sheriff John McIntire, her old radio crony.  On the small screen, Tuttle made guest appearances everywhere from I Love Lucy to Perry Mason to Gunsmoke, but she had regular roles on such series as Life with Father (a sitcom version of the 1947 film), Father of the Bride (another movie-to-TV transplant), and Julia—on which she played fellow nurse Hannah Yarby.

Lurene Tuttle was so devoted to acting that she literally worked until the day she died; her last show business credit was a guest appearance on TV’s Crazy Like a Fox.  When she wasn’t teaching other aspiring performers, Tuttle stayed true to her radio roots by appearing on such revival shows as The Hollywood Radio Theatre, The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, and The Sears Radio Theatre.  Her fellow artists would bestow upon her “Woman of the Year” honors at both AFRTA and the Pasadena Playhouse, and she held the Diamond Circle of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters.  She passed away in 1986 at the age of 78.

“I think she never met a part she didn’t like,” Howard Duff once reminisced about his Sam Spade co-star. “She just loved to work; she loved to act.  She’s a woman who was born to do what she was doing and loved every minute of it.”  Radio Spirits offers plenty of collections to demonstrate Lurene Tuttle’s love of performing, starting with her appearances on The Red Skelton Show—including our newest Skelton compendium, Clown Prince, and classic sets like Clowning, Mischief, and Scrapbook of Satire.  You’ll also hear our birthday girl as Effie on the Sam Spade collection Lawless and as Marjorie on The Great Gildersleeve: Family Man.  Rest assured—we’re not being stingy: we also present for your edification sets of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, Burns & Allen (As Good as Nuts, Illogical Logic, Muddling Through),  Jeff Regan, Investigator (Stand By for Mystery), Let George Do It (Cry Uncle, Sweet Poison), Lights Out (Later Than You Think), The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Cue for Murder), Night Beat (Human Interest), Richard Diamond, Private Detective (Dead Men, Mayhem is My Business), Rogue’s Gallery (Blue Eyes), The Story of Dr. Kildare, Strange Wills(I Devise & Bequeath), Suspense (At Work, Beyond Good and Evil, Ties That Bind, Wages of Sin), and The Whistler (Eleventh Hour, Root of All Evil, Skeletons in the Closet, Voices).  Happy birthday, Lurene!