| Joan Alexander | |
|---|---|
 National (DC) Comics Publisher Harry Donenfeld (left) with Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander from The Adventures of Superman |
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| Born | Louise Abrass April 16, 1915 St. Paul, Minnesota, United States |
| Died | May 21, 2009 (aged 94) New York City, New York, United States |
| Other name(s) | Joan Stanton |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1940s - 1960s |
| Spouse(s) | Arthur Stanton (widowed) |
Joan Alexander (born Louise Abrass,[1] April 16, 1915 – May 21, 2009) was an American actress known for her role as Lois Lane on radio's The Adventures of Superman from the early 1940s to 1951.[2]
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Biography
Early life and career
Joan Alexander was born as Louise Abrass in St. Paul, Minnesota to a Lebanese American family.[3] Her father died when she was 3,[3] and when her mother remarried, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York[1] and young Louise was sent to attend a convent school on Long Island.[3]
She became a model and actress, and studied acting in Europe with Benno Schneider, a director in the Yiddish theater.[3] Though Abrass later took the first name Joan after the actress Joan Crawford, the origin of the name Alexander is unknown, according to the actress' family.[1] An early, first marriage in 1944[3] to actor John Sylvester White, who would become best-known as Principal Woodman on Welcome Back Kotter, was also unknown to Alexander's family until two years before Alexander's death.[1]
Voice of Lois Lane
Joan Alexander portrayed newspaper reporter Lois Lane in the superhero radio program The Adventures of Superman for more than 1,600 episodes.[2] The series began in 1940, two years after Superman's debut in the modern-day DC Comics' Action Comics #1 (June 1938), with Lane first appearing in the seventh episode.[1] Though most sources indicate she was not the first actress cast,[1] Alexander was cast early in the series' run and became the radio role's signature performer.[1]
Initially, the show, which ran through to 1951,[1] was syndicated through the Mutual Broadcasting System's cornerstone station, WOR in New York, subsequently taken up by the Mutual network and finally to ABC.[2] Alexander also was heard on Dimension X and Philo Vance,[4] Against the Storm[2] and on Perry Mason, in the first portrayal of supporting character Della Street, secretary to defense attorney Mason.[5]
Alexander additionally provided Lois Lane's voice in the 1940s Fleischer Studios/Paramount Pictures (Famous Studios) animated Superman shorts. She reprised the role of Lois Lane for one season of the 1966 Filmation animated series The New Adventures of Superman.[6]
Later life and career
Following her divorce from White, Alexander married surgeon Robert Crowley. Future author and screenwriter Jane Stanton Hitchcock (born as Jane Crowley) is their daughter.[7] After that second marriage ended in divorce, Alexander in 1954[1] or 1955[3] married Arthur Stanton, chairman of the Orangeburg, New York-based World-Wide Volkswagen, at the time the distributor of Volkswagen and Audi vehicles in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut,[7] and which helped introduce the Volkswagen Beetle to the U.S.[3] Stanton, who died January 20, 1987,[7] adopted Jane when the girl was 9.[8] The couple's other children were sons Jonathan, Adam (died 1993) and Timothy. The Stantons entertained lavishly at their Manhattan apartment on the Upper East Side and their home in East Hampton, New York; their daughter told The New York Times that author George Plimpton proposed to his future wife, Freddy Espy, at one party there, that composer Leonard Bernstein sometimes performed at the piano, and that comedy playwright Neil Simon wrote a sketch for the daughter's 21st birthday.
Alexander appeared on television as a regular panelist on the 1951-1955 ABC-TV game show The Name's the Same.[9] She published a small novelty book about pregnancy entitled Grin and Bear It in 1954, reprinted twice in the U.S., in 1960 and 1982.[10][11] Alexander appeared on Broadway in Poor Richard by Jean Kerr in 1964.[12] In April 2008, Alexander filed a lawsuit against financial adviser Kenneth Ira Starr, alleging the late Stanton had left Alexander a $70 million estate which, according to court paper, Starr used inappropriately and squandered.[13]
Death
Alexander died on May 21, 2009, aged 94, from an intestinal blockage. She is survived, immediately, by her son, Timothy Stanton, and her daughter, Jane Stanton Hitchcock.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Weber, Bruce. "Joan A. Stanton, Radio Voice of Lois Lane, Dies at 94", The New York Times, May 22, 2009
- ^ a b c d Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-time Radio. US: Oxford University Press. pp. 14, 17. ISBN 0195076788.
- ^ a b c d e f g Bernstein, Adam. "Joan Alexander, 94: 1940s Radio Actress Portrayed Lois Lane", The Washington Post, May 23, 2009
- ^ Lackman, Ron. "Philo Vance". The Encyclopedia of American Radio. New York: Checkmark Books. p. 222. ISBN 0816041377.
- ^ Cox, Jim. "Perry Mason". The Great Radio Soap Operas: The 31 Classic Daytime Dramas, 1930-60. McFarland. p. 176. ISBN 0786405899.
- ^ Scivally, Bruce. Superman on Film, Television, Radio and Broadway. McFarland & Co.,. p. 72. ISBN 0786431660.
- ^ a b c "Arthur Stanton, 69, Chairman Of Distributor of Volkswagen". January 22, 1987. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7D9143EF931A15752C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink. Retrieved October 14, 2008.
- ^ Norwich, William. "At home with: Jane Stanton Hitchcock: In the Land of Toile, Murder Most Foul", June 6, 2002,The New York Times, (retrieved: Oct, 15, 2008)
- ^ Brooks, Tim (1999). "Name's the Same". The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-present. Earle Marsh. Ballantine Books. p. 712. ISBN 0345429230.
- ^ Stanton, Joan (1982). Grin and Bear It (illustrated ed.). Albert Saifer Publisher. ISBN 0875563279.
- ^ Google Books Page
- ^ "Poor Richard Internet Broadway Database". 2008-10-10. http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2842 Poor Richard.
- ^ Associated Press via 1010wins.com (April 16, 2008). "Radio's 'Lois Lane', now 90, accuses money adviser of losing and stealing millions". http://www.1010wins.com/pages/2016974.php?.
External links
- Joan Alexander at the Internet Movie Database
- Public Domain Radio: archive for radio's The Adventures of Superman
- Info on What's My Line? Ep#65, 1952 TV Digest article about Joan Alexander
- "Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane" (fan site)
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