Fibber McGee and Molly - Recurring Characters

Recurring Characters

Fibber McGee and Molly was one of the earliest radio comedies to use regular characters, nearly all of whom had recurring phrases and running gags. These included:

• Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve (Harold Peary) - the pompous next-door neighbor with whom Fibber enjoyed twitting and arguing. Introduced in 1939. In the 20 June 1939 episode, Fibber Has a Toothache, their dentist is Dr. Gildersleeve, although Molly calls him Wilbur, McGee calls him "Wilberforce", and he once had a "thing" for Molly, so it might be a relative to Throckmorton?. In the episode "Gildersleeve's Diary" (10/22/40), it is revealed that his middle name is Philharmonic. Many of his interactions with Fibber include the catchphrase "You're a hard man, McGee", in response to a harsh or critical statement from Fibber. His wife is frequently mentioned, never heard, and dropped when Peary moved on to his own show.
• The Old-Timer (Bill Thompson) - a hard-of-hearing senior citizen with a penchant for distorting jokes, prefacing each one by saying, "That ain't the way I heared it!" For no apparent reason, he refers to Fibber as "Johnny" and Molly as "Daughter". A recurring joke is that he refuses to tell his real name. In the 1940 episode "Mailing Christmas Packages", he is referred to by another character as "Roy", while in one episode (01/29/1946 and reiterated in the episode a week later) he claims his name is "Rupert Blasingame." In the 3/25/41 episode, "Fibber Changes His Name", he appears as Mr. Fumble, a lawyer. Also, in the 3/14/39 episode, Fibber calls him Mr. Sims, but he's having trouble with his memory in this episode, so this may be just an error in remembering, as he also calls Mr. Wilcox "Harpo" for perhaps the first time instead of Harlow, due to poor memory tricks. The Old-Timer's girlfriend is named Bessie, and she usually refers to him as "O.T.".
• Teeny, also known as "Little Girl" and "Sis" (Marian Jordan) - a precocious youngster who frequently tried to cadge loose change from Fibber (often in cahoots with her rarely heard best friend Willie Toops). She often ended her sentences with "I betcha!", and when someone mentioned food, or a word that sounded like a food, she usually responded "I'm hungry." Teeny was also known to lose track of her own conversations. When Fibber showed interest in what she was saying, she would forget all about it, and her conversation would switch from telling to asking. After Fibber repeated everything she had been telling him, Teeny would reply "I know it!" in a condescending way. Her appearances were sometimes foreshadowed by Molly excusing herself to the kitchen or to have a nap and Fibber wistfully delivering a compliment to her starting, "Ah, there goes a good kid", upon which the doorbell would ring and Teeny would appear. On rare occasions Molly and Teeny would interact.
• Mayor LaTrivia (Gale Gordon) - the mayor of Wistful Vista, whose name was inspired by New York's famous mayor Fiorello La Guardia. In later episodes, Fibber occasionally addresses the mayor as "Homer", although it is unclear whether this is his actual first name, or just another of the show's random unexplained naming gags, as The Old Timer's calling Fibber "Johnny". In one episode, we learn that Fifi Tremaine's pet name for the mayor is "Chuckie". The McGees' regular routine with LaTrivia entailed Fibber and Molly misunderstanding a figure of speech, in much the same vein as Abbott & Costello's Who's On First? routine. LaTrivia would slowly progress from attempting patient explanation to tongue-tied rage, in Gale Gordon's classic slow-burn. Occasionally, after LaTrivia exited a scene, Fibber and Molly's dialogue makes it clear that they were deliberately winding him up.
• Foggy Williams (Gordon) - local weatherman and next-door neighbor who tells fanciful stories, lets Fibber borrow his tools, takes credit or blame for the present weather conditions, and usually exits with the line "Good day... probably."
• Billy Mills - wisecracking leader of Billy Mills and the Orchestra, who led the show's ensemble through musical numbers in each episode. In addition to standards and popular tunes, Mills occasionally showcased his own original compositions, including "I'm In Love With The Sound Effects Man" (in the episode "Amusement Park" (06/17/41) and later covered by Spike Jones), and "The Cocky Cuckoo" (in the episode "Businessmen's Symphony", (06/12/51)).
• Dr. George Gamble (Arthur Q. Bryan) - a local physician and surgeon with whom Fibber had a long-standing rivalry and friendship. The two often come up with creative insults for each other's excessive weight. Before Bryan joined the cast, Gale Gordon played the part of the town doctor in several episodes.
• Ole Swenson (Richard LeGrand, who also played Mr. Peavey on The Great Gildersleeve) - a Swedish-born janitor at the Elks Club, often complaining that he was "joost donatin' my time!". His wife's name is Helga, and their children include Kristina, Sven, Lars, and Ole.
• Mrs. Abigail Uppington (Isabel Randolph) - a snooty society matron whose pretensions Fibber delighted in deflating. Fibber often addressed her as "Uppy". In the episode "Fibber Hires A Surveyor" (3/26/40) it is revealed that she is having a romantic relationship with orchestra leader Billy Mills, and in the episode "Gildersleeve's Diary" (10/22/40), we learn that she also has a romantic past with Gildersleeve. In several episodes, there are references to the fact that Mrs. Uppington wasn't always rich. In the episode "The Circus Comes to Town" (5/28/40), it is revealed that she met the wealthy Mr. Uppington when she was a circus bareback rider known as Mademoiselle Tootsie Latour. Her horse got scared during a trick, and she accidentally did a double back flip into Mr. Uppintgon's lap, and he proposed on the spot.
• Mrs. Millicent Carstairs (Bea Benaderet) - another of Wistful Vista's high society matrons, known to Fibber as "Carsty". Like Mrs. Uppington, Mrs. Carstairs doesn't come from a wealthy lineage. In "Fibber Thinks He's the Governor's Pal" (12/11/45), she lets slip that before she met Mr. Carstairs she was a blackjack dealer in a gambling joint.
• Wallace Wimple (Thompson) - a hen-pecked husband in the Casper Milquetoast vein constantly dominated and physically battered by "Sweetieface," his "big ol' wife", Cornelia, who never appeared on the show. Wimple's job was writing poems for greeting cards, and he sometimes read his poems on the show. Surprisingly, this key character was not introduced until the first show of their seventh year on the air, 4/15/41. This character may have contributed to the use of the word "wimp" to describe a weak-willed person.
• Alice Darling (Shirley Mitchell) - a ditzy and boy-crazy young aircraft-plant worker who boarded with the McGees during the war.
• Horatio K. Boomer (Thompson) - a con artist with a W. C. Fields-like voice and delivery. His appearances typically included him rummaging through a pocket or bag or other container and listing the things inside, usually ending with "a check for a short beer".
• Nick Depopoulous (Thompson) - a Greek-born restaurateur with a tendency toward verbal malapropisms. He normally refers to Fibber and Molly as "Fizzer and Kewpie".
• Milt Spilkt - the nephew of Kramer from Kramer's Drugstore.
• The Toops Family - Mort and Mabel Toops, and their son Willie, live in the McGee's neighborhood next door to Dr. Gamble. They are rarely heard on the show, but have occasional lines (for example, Mabel has several lines during "Fibber Cooks Dinner for Molly's Birthday" (10/23/51), Mort has some lines in "Halloween Party" (10/28/35), and Willie is heard in "Soapbox Derby Racer for Teeny" (4/24/51)). Willie Toops is most often mentioned in conjunction with Teeny, who sometimes refers to him as her boyfriend or future husband. The character of Beulah first appeared when she stopped at the McGee's on her way to her first day of work at the Toops' house.
• Myrtle, also known as "Myrt" - a never-heard-from telephone operator that Fibber is friends with. A typical Myrt sketch started with Fibber picking up the phone and demanding, "Operator, give me number 32Oooh, is that you, Myrt? How's every little thing, Myrt? What say, Myrt?" Commonly, this was followed with Fibber relaying what Myrt was telling him to Molly, usually news about Myrt's family, and always ending with a bad pun. Myrtle made one brief on-air appearance on June 22, 1943 when she visited the McGees to wish them a good summer—the McGees did not recognize her in person.
• Fred Nitney - another never-heard character, Fibber's old vaudeville partner from Starved Rock, Illinois.
• Aunt Sarah - Molly's rich aunt who always sends useless gifts for Christmas, a silent character.
• Fifi Tremaine - another never-heard-from character, Fifi was an actress and was courted by both Doc Gamble and Mayor LaTrivia, and Fibber enjoyed pitting the two against each other in their competition for Fifi's affections.
• Herbert Apple - a stock boy at the hardware store, his character is distinguished by his odd speech patterns. By putting non-standard emphasis on syllables and sounds, his sentences can be confusing and/or humorous (what would now be considered mondegreen). For example, "I had to get up at eight o'clock" is heard by Fibber and Molly as "I had to get a potato clock", "I got up too early" comes out as "I got up twirly", and his own name sounds like "Herber Tapple" (in "Fibber Puts Up Christmas Lights", 12/20/49).
• Lena - the McGee's first maid during the series, before Beulah joined the cast.
• Beulah - the McGee's black maid and possibly the series' most unusual character. Unlike the situation on The Jack Benny Program, where black actor Eddie Anderson played "Rochester", Beulah was voiced by a Caucasian male, Marlin Hurt. The character's usual opening line, "Somebody bawl fo' Beulah??", often provoked a stunned, screeching sort of laughter among the live studio audience; many of them, seeing the show performed for the first time in person, did not know that the actor voicing Beulah was neither black nor female, and expressed their surprise when Hurt delivered his line. Her other catchphrase was "Love that man!" after a fit of laughter over a Fibber gag. Hurt had created the Beulah character independently and had portrayed her occasionally on other shows prior to his joining the Fibber McGee and Molly cast.
• Uncle Dennis (Ransom Sherman) - Molly's hard-drinking uncle, Dennis Driscoll, who was the subject of a running gag (see below) and was generally never heard. He did appear in a few episodes in 1943-44, including "Renting Spare Room" (October 5, 1943), "Fibber Makes His Own Chili Sauce" (November 9, 1943), and "Dinner Out to Celebrate" (January 25, 1944).