Verna Felton - Radio and Television

Radio and Television

She also worked extensively in radio, notably playing the Mean Widdle Kid's grandmother on Red Skelton's radio series and Dennis Day's mother on The Jack Benny Program. In addition, she performed on radio as a regular on The Abbott and Costello Show. Felton was married to radio actor Lee Millar (1888–1941), who also did animation voices (notably for Disney's Pluto, and their son, Lee Carson Millar Jr. (1924–1980), appeared as an actor on a variety of TV shows between 1952 and 1967. Felton appeared too in a recurring role as the mother of Ruth Farley, a young woman played by Gloria Winters in the 1953-1955 ABC sitcom with a variety show theme, Where's Raymond?, renamed The Ray Bolger Show. The series starred Ray Bolger as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who was repeatedly barely on time for his performances. While some sitcom aficiandos assume that her guest appearances on I Love Lucy led to a regular supporting role as Hilda Crocker on the CBS sitcom December Bride, the truth is that Felton had played that character on the radio incarnation two years prior to the television production. The latter also starred Spring Byington, Dean Miller, Frances Rafferty and Harry Morgan. Verna continued her Hilda Crocker role on the December Bride spin-off, Pete and Gladys, with Harry Morgan and Cara Williams. She was also the original voice of Pearl Slaghoople (Wilma Flintstone's mother), voicing the character as a semi-regular on The Flintstones from 1960 to 1964.