Marjorie Main

Marjorie Main
Main in 1940
Born	Mary Tomlinson (1890-02-24)February 24, 1890 Acton, Indiana, U.S.
Died	April 10, 1975(1975-04-10) (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California
Occupation	Actress, Singer
Years active	1916–1959
Spouse(s)	Stanley LeFevre Krebs ​ ​ (m. 1921; died 1935)​

Mary Tomlinson (February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975), professionally known as Marjorie Main, was an American character actress and singer of the Classical Hollywood period, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the 1940s and 1950s, and for her role as Ma Kettle in ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.^[1] Main started her career in vaudeville and theatre and appeared in films classics, such as Dead End (1937), The Women (1939), Dark Command (1940), The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and Friendly Persuasion (1956).

Early life[]

Mary Tomlinson was born on February 24, 1890, near Acton, in rural Marion County, Indiana. She was the second daughter of Reverend Samuel J. Tomlinson, a Disciples of Christ minister, and Jennie L. (McGaughey) Tomlinson. Mary's maternal grandfather, Doctor Samuel McGaughey, was the Acton physician who delivered her.^[2][3]

At the age of three, Tomlinson moved with her family to Indianapolis, Indiana, where her father was pastor of Hillside Christian Church. Four years later they moved to Goshen and then Elkhart, Indiana. In the early 1900s the Tomlinson family settled on a farm near Fairland, Indiana.^[4]

After attending public schools in Fairland and Shelbyville, Tomlinson spent a year (1905–06) at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, where she was a charter member of what became the present-day Delta Delta Delta sorority, before transferring to the Hamilton School of Dramatic Expression in Lexington, Kentucky. She completed a three-year course of study in 1909 at the age of nineteen. After graduation Tomlinson took a job as a dramatics instructor at Bourbon College in Paris, Kentucky, but stayed only a year. Tomlinson later claimed that she was fired from the position after asking for a salary increase.^[5][6]

After Tomlinson left Kentucky she spent the next several years studying dramatic arts in Chicago and New York City, despite her father's disapproval of her career choice. Tomlinson adopted the stage name of Marjorie Main during her early acting career to avoid embarrassing her family.^[7][8]

Marriage[]

Main married Doctor Stanley LeFevre Krebs, a psychologist and lecturer, on November 2, 1921.^[2] They met while she was performing on the Chautauqua circuit. Main's husband was a widower with a grown daughter named Annabelle. Main accompanied her husband on the lecture circuit, handling the details of their life on the road. The couple had no children together, and made their home in New York City.^[9] Main performed with touring companies and in New York theaters on a part-time basis throughout her marriage. She also began her Hollywood film career in 1931. Main considered this period "the happiest years of her life."^[4] She returned to a full-time acting career after Krebs died of cancer on September 26, 1935.^[9]

The Krebs' marriage was a non-traditional one. By her accounts the marriage was happy, but not particularly close. Main claimed to be "brokenhearted" following her husband's death,^[10] but also explained that his death was "like losing a good friend. Like part of the family."^[9] Main's biographer, Michelle Vogel, quotes a later interview in which the actress related: "Dr. Krebs wasn't a very practical man. I didn't figure on having to run the show, I kinda tired of it after a few years. We pretty much went our own ways but we was still in the eyes of the law, man and wife."^[11]

Career[]

Early years[]

Main began her professional career as a performer touring in Chautauqua presentations with a Shakespearean repertory company. After performing for five months in a stock company in Fargo, North Dakota, she began working in vaudeville.^[8][9]

Stage actress[]

In the mid-1910s Main appeared in several plays, which included touring in Cheating Cheaters with John Barrymore in 1916. She also debuted in the Broadway theatre in Yes or No in 1918. In addition, Main returned to vaudeville to perform at the Palace Theater in a skit called The Family Ford with comedian W. C. Fields. Not all of the early plays in which she appeared were a success. A House Divided closed in 1923 after just one performance, but Main continued to find work on the Broadway stage. In 1927 she played Mae West's mother in The Wicked Age, and in 1928 played opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the long-running stage hit Burlesque. Main also appeared in several other Broadway productions: Salvation in 1928, Scarlet Sister Mary in 1930, Ebb Tide in 1931, Music in the Air in 1932, and in Jackson White.^[4][9]

One of Main's best-known stage performances was in 1935's Dead End as Mrs. Martin, the mother of gangster Baby Face Martin. She played the role in 460 performances before leaving the show in 1936 to play Lucy, a hotel-keeper/dude-ranch operator, in The Women. Main re-created these two roles in film versions of the plays in 1937 and 1939, respectively.^[10][12]

Film career[]

One of Main's first feature film appearances was as an extra in A House Divided (1931).^[8][6][13] She also appeared in Take A Chance and Crime Without Passion (1934), and re-created her stage role as a servant in the film version of Music in the Air (1934), but most of her performance was cut from the film. Main also made a few more films in Hollywood, California, in the 1930s before returning to the stage in New York City.^[9][10]

Samuel Goldwyn signed Main to reprise her stage role as the mother of a gangster for the film version of Dead End (1937). Humphrey Bogart was cast as her son. She transferred another strong stage performance to film as the dude-ranch operator in The Women (1939).^[10][14]

Main portrayed a diverse set of characters in subsequent films for different studios. These included roles where she was cast as a mother, prison matron, a landlady, aunt, secretary, and a rental agent, among others.^[10] Main was ultimately typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinctive voice was well suited.^{[citation needed]}

Main was signed to a seven-year Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1940, after starring with Wallace Beery in Wyoming (1940).^[8] She also co-starred in Dark Command (1940) with Walter Pidgeon, and appeared in six major films in 1941.^[14][15]

During World War II, Main used her stage and film notoriety to help promote the sale of war bonds for the U.S. War Department. In December 1942 she returned for a visit to central Indiana, where she helped in the sale of more than $500,000 in war bonds.^[14]

In the mid-1940s, in an attempt to repeat the great success Wallace Beery had in teaming with Marie Dressler in the early 1930s, MGM cast Main opposite Beery in six more films, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946).^[16] She also played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946).^[17] Director George Sidney remarked in the commentary for the film that Main was a "great lady," as well as a great actress who donated most of her paychecks over the years to the support of a school.^{[citation needed]}

Main's best-known role was Ma Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle film series.^[8] She had renewed her contract with MGM for another seven years, which continued until the mid-1950s, when the studio loaned her to Universal Pictures to play Ma Kettle for the first time in The Egg and I (1947), starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. Main played opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in the film.^[15][16]

The two Kettle characters proved to be so popular among film audiences that Universal decided to do a series. Main portrayed the Ma Kettle character in nine Ma and Pa Kettle films between 1949 and 1957. Kilbride was her co-star in most of the films, but left after Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955), the seventh in the series.^[18] Main filmed The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956) without Kilbride. Parker Fennelly played the Pa Kettle role opposite Main in the final film of the series, The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957)^[17] Each film grossed Universal about $3 million, which helped save the troubled studio from a financial collapse. In addition to acting in the films, Main wrote some of the dialogue for her memorable character and created her costumes and make-up.^[14]

During this time, Main shuttled back and forth between Universal Studios and MGM. She appeared in several Metro musicals during the 1940s and early 1950s, including, Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and The Belle of New York (1952). She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio's all-star film It's a Big Country (1951). Main played her last roles for MGM as Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer (1954) and as Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie (1954). Main's performance as the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion (1956) was well-received, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress..^{[citation needed]} Main's final film appearance was in her best-known role as Ma Kettle in The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957)^[6]

Radio and television appearances[]

On December 15, 1941, she was part of the cast of Norman Corwin's radio program We Hold These Truths.^[19] She also performed in The Goldbergs.^{[citation needed]}

In 1958, Main appeared as a rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes "The Cassie Tanner Story" and "The Sacramento Story" of the television series Wagon Train. In the first segment, she joins the wagon train, casts her romantic interest on Ward Bond as Major Adams, and helps the train find needed horses despite threats from the Paiute.^{[citation needed]}

Later years[]

After her retirement from acting, Main lived a quiet, secluded life, in Los Angeles. She became interested in spiritualism and the Moral Re-Armament movement.^[17]

In 1974, a year before her death, Main attended the Los Angeles premiere of the MGM documentary film That's Entertainment. It was her first public appearance since she retired from films in 1958. At the televised post-premiere party, she was greeted with cheers of enthusiasm and applause from the crowd of spectators.^{[citation needed]}

Death and legacy[]

Main died of lung cancer on April 10, 1975 at the age of 85 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been admitted on April 3.^[20][21] Main is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California beside her husband Doctor Stanley Krebs.^[22][23]

Main, who is best known for playing "raucous, rough, and cantankerous women" on-screen, was characterized as "soft-spoken, shy," and "dignified" when she was off-screen.^[5] Main became a popular character actress of the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in diverse roles on the stage and in more than 80 films, including some that became classics, such as Dead End (1937), Dark Command (1940), The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and Friendly Persuasion (1956), but is best known for her Ma Kettle role in the Ma and Pa Kettle film series. The "cornball humor" of the Kettle films endured in television shows, such as The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres, of the 1960s.^[17]

Theatre performances[]

Year	Play	Character	Notes
1916	Cheating Cheaters[9]		A touring show
1918	Yes or No [9]
1923	A House Divided [9]		Closed after one show
1927	The Wicked Age[10]
1928	Salvation[9]
1928	Burlesque[9]
1930	Scarlet Sister Mary[9]
1931	Ebb Tide[9]
1932	Music in the Air[9]
1935	Jackson White[9]
1935	Dead End[10]
1936	The Women[12]

Filmography[]

Film[]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1929	Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties	Statler Hotel Beauty	Short, Uncredited
1931	A House Divided[8]	Woman at wedding	Uncredited
1932	Broken Lullaby	Frau Schmidt	Uncredited
1932	Hot Saturday	Gossip in Window	Uncredited
1933	New Deal Rhythm	Delegate from Arizona	Short, Uncredited
1933	Close Relations	Woman in Depot	Short, Uncredited
1934	Art Trouble	Woman Who Sits on Painting	Short, Uncredited
1934	Crime Without Passion[9]	Backstage Wardrobe Woman	Uncredited
1934	Music in the Air[10]	Anna
1935	Naughty Marietta	Casquette Girl	Uncredited
1937	Love in a Bungalow	Miss Emma Bisbee
1937	Stella Dallas	Mrs. Martin
1937	Dead End[10]	Mrs. Martin
1937	The Man Who Cried Wolf	Amelia Bradley
1937	The Wrong Road	Martha Foster
1937	Boy of the Streets	Mrs. Mary Brennan
1937	The Shadow	Hannah Gillespie
1938	City Girl	Mrs. Ward	Uncredited
1938	Penitentiary	Katie Matthews	Uncredited
1938	King of the Newsboys	Mrs. Stephens	Uncredited
1938	Test Pilot	Landlady
1938	Three Comrades	Old Woman by Phone	Uncredited
1938	Romance of the Limberlost	Nora
1938	Prison Farm	Matron Brand
1938	Little Tough Guy	Mrs. Boylan
1938	Under the Big Top	Sara Post
1938	Too Hot to Handle	Miss Kitty Wayne	Alternative title: Let 'Em All Talk
1938	Girls' School	Miss Honore Armstrong
1938	There Goes My Heart	Fireless Cooker Customer	Uncredited
1939	Lucky Night	Mrs. Briggs
1939	They Shall Have Music	Mrs. Miller
1939	The Angels Wash Their Faces	Mrs. Arkelian
1939	The Women[14]	Lucy, Dude Ranch Owner
1939	Another Thin Man	Mrs. Dolley, Landlady Chestevere Apartments
1939	Two Thoroughbreds	Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
1940	I Take This Woman	Gertie
1940	Women Without Names	Matron Lowery
1940	Dark Command[17]	Mrs. Cantrell, aka Mrs. Adams
1940	Turnabout	Nora, the cook
1940	Susan and God	Mary Maloney	Alternative title: The Gay Mrs. Trexel
1940	The Captain Is a Lady	Sarah May Willett
1940	Wyoming[8]	Mehitabel
1941	The Wild Man of Borneo	Irma
1941	The Trial of Mary Dugan	Mrs. Collins
1941	Barnacle Bill[16]	Marge Cavendish
1941	A Woman's Face	Emma Kristiansdotter
1941	The Shepherd of the Hills[17]	Granny Becky
1941	Honky Tonk	Mrs. Varner
1942	The Bugle Sounds	Susie "Suz"
1942	We Were Dancing	Judge Sidney Hawkes
1942	The Affairs of Martha	Mrs. McKessic
1942	Jackass Mail[16]	Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
1942	Tish	Letitia "Tish" Carberry
1942	Tennessee Johnson	Mrs. Maude Fisher	Alternative title: The Man on America's Conscience
1943	Heaven Can Wait	Mrs. Strable
1943	Johnny Come Lately	"Gashouse" Mary
1944	Rationing	Iris Tuttle
1944	Meet Me in St. Louis[17]	Katie
1944	Gentle Annie	Annie Goss
1945	Murder, He Says	Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
1946	The Harvey Girls[24]	Sonora Cassidy
1946	Bad Bascomb[16]	Abbey Hanks
1946	Undercurrent	Lucy
1946	The Show-Off	Mrs. Fisher
1947	The Egg and I[15]	Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle	Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress[6]
1947	The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap	Widow Hawkins	Alternative title: The Wistful Widow
1948	Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin''	Maribel Mathews
1949	Ma and Pa Kettle	Ma Kettle
1949	Big Jack	Flapjack Kate
1950	Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town	Ma Kettle
1950	Summer Stock	Esme	Alternative title: If You Feel Like Singing
1950	Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone	Harriet "Hattie" O'Malley	Alternative title: The Loco Motion
1951	Mr. Imperium	Mrs. Cabot	Alternative title: You Belong to My Heart
1951	Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm	Ma Kettle
1951	The Law and the Lady	Julia Wortin
1951	It's a Big Country	Mrs. Wrenley
1951	A Letter from a Soldier	Mrs. Wrenley	Short
1952	The Belle of New York	Mrs. Phineas Hill
1952	Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair	Ma Kettle
1953	Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
1953	Fast Company	Ma Parkson
1954	The Long, Long Trailer	Mrs. Hittaway
1954	Rose Marie	Lady Jane Dunstock
1954	Ma and Pa Kettle at Home	Ma Kettle
1954	Ricochet Romance	Pansy Jones	Alternative title: The Matchmakers
1955	Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki[18]	Ma Kettle
1956	The Kettles in the Ozarks[17]
1956	Friendly Persuasion[17]	The Widow Hudspeth	Nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
1957	The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm[17]	Ma Kettle

Television[]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	December Bride	Herself	Episode: "The Marjorie Main Show"
1958	Wagon Train	Cassie Tanner	2 episodes, (final appearance)

Notes[]

References[]

• Banta, Ray (1990). Indiana's Laughmakers: The Story of over 400 Hoosiers, Actors, Cartoonists, Writers, and Others. Indianapolis, Indiana: PennUltimate Press. p. 111. ISBN 0929808002.
• Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. pp. 166. ISBN 0-19507678-8. Marjorie Main Corwin.
• Henricks, Sylva C. (Winter 2000). "Marjorie Main: 'Good for a Lot of Laughs'". Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. 12 (1): 33–40. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
• "Marjorie Main: From Farm Girl to Film Star". INPerspective. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. 24 (1): 8–9. January 2018.
• "Marjorie Main Biography (1890–1975)". filmreference.com. Retrieved August 3, 2009.
• "Marjorie Main Dies at 85". Observer Reporter. April 11, 1975.
• Monush, Barry (2003). Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the Silent Era to 1965. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 458. ISBN 1-55783-551-9.
• Nissen, Axel (2006). Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces From the Thirties To the Fifties. McFarland. pp. 110–116. ISBN 0-7864-2746-9.
• "Obituary". Variety. April 16, 1975. p. 95.
• Price, Nelson (1997). Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers from Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman (3rd ed.). Emmis Books. p. 130. ISBN 1-57860-006-5.
• Smith, David L. (2006). Hoosiers in Hollywood. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. pp. 166–73. ISBN 9780871951946.
• United Press International (April 11, 1975). "Marjorie Main Dead at 85". Playground Daily News. Fort Walton Beach, Florida. 30 (55): 3A.
• Vogel, Michelle (2006). Marjorie Main: The Life and Films of Hollywood's "Ma Kettle". Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 109–10. ISBN 978-0786464432.

Further reading[]

• Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Marjorie Main". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 161–164. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marjorie Main.

• Works by or about Marjorie Main at Internet Archive
• Marjorie Main at the Internet Broadway Database
• Marjorie Main at IMDb
• Marjorie Main at the TCM Movie Database
• Literature on Marjorie Main
• Marjorie Main at Find a Grave