Judy Canova (November 20, 1913 – August 5, 1983), born Juliette Canova (some sources indicate Julietta Canova), was an American comedienne, actress, singer, and radio personality. She appeared on Broadway and in films. She hosted her own self-titled network radio program, a popular series broadcast from 1943 to 1955.
Biography
Early career
She was born in Starke, Florida, one of seven siblings, to Joseph Francis Canova, a businessman, and Henrietta E. Canova (née Perry), a singer. Young Juliette (or Julietta) became "Judy" and began her show-business career with a family vaudeville routine, joining her sister Annie and brother Zeke. Their performances as the Three Georgia Crackers took them from Florida theaters to the Village Barn, a Manhattan club. Canova sang, yodeled, and played guitar, and she was typed as a wide-eyed likable country bumpkin, often barefoot and wearing her hair in braids, sometimes topped with a straw hat. Sometimes she was introduced as The Ozark Nightingale or The Jenny Lind of the Ozarks. In an interview with Rosemary Clooney she said that her family came from the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain, though other sources say the island of Menorca.
Stardom: Radio, Broadway, films, and recordings
When bandleader Rudy Vallée offered the still-teenaged Canova a guest spot on his radio show in 1931, The Fleischmann Hour, the door opened to a career that spanned more than five decades. The popularity of the Canova family led to numerous performances on radio in the 1930s, and they made their Broadway theater debut in the revue Calling All Stars. An offer from Warner Bros. led to specialty appearances in short subjects and minor features before she signed with Paramount Pictures for one year.
Canova left the movies in 1939 to star in a Broadway musical comedy, Yokel Boy, opposite Buddy Ebsen. Executives at Republic Pictures, whose customer base was largely in rural areas, saw Yokel Boy and signed Canova in 1940, shortly after the show ended its run. Judy Canova quickly became Republic's leading female star, playing country gals who always blundered into trouble, in such titles as Scatterbrain (1940), Sis Hopkins (1941), and Joan of Ozark (1942). Strangely, Canova did not appear in Republic's film adaptation of Yokel Boy; her role was taken by Joan Davis.
Canova left Republic in 1943 over a salary dispute and was quickly signed by Columbia Pictures for three feature films, each released annually. Republic wooed her back in 1951 to star in comedy features, now in color, and she made six more pictures through 1955.
She recorded for the RCA Victor label.
In 1943, she began her own radio program, The Judy Canova Show, that ran for 12 years: first on CBS and then on NBC. Playing herself as a love-starved Ozark bumpkin dividing her time between home and Southern California, Canova was accompanied by a cast that included voicemaster Mel Blanc as Pedro (using the accented voice he later gave the cartoon character Speedy Gonzales) and Sylvester (using the voice that later became associated with the Looney Tunes character); Ruth Perrott as Aunt Aggie; Ruby Dandridge as Geranium; Joseph Kearns as Benchley Botsford; and Sharon Douglas as Brenda. Gale Gordon, Sheldon Leonard, Gerald Mohr, and Hans Conried also appeared sporadically.
During World War II, she closed her show with the song "Goodnight Soldier" ("Wherever you may be... my heart's lonely... without you") and used her free time to sell U.S. War Bonds. After the war, she introduced a new closing theme that she once said she remembered her own mother singing to her when she was a small child: Go to sleep-y, little baby. Go to sleep-y, little baby. When you wake You'll patty-patty cake And ride a shiny little pony.
Television
Her radio and movie careers ended in 1955. Canova made a smooth transition to television; she never transitioned the radio show to a standalone television series (in contrast to many of her contemporaries) but made frequent guest appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Steve Allen Show, Matinee Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Mickey Mouse Club, The Danny Thomas Show, and other shows. In 1967, she portrayed Mammy Yokum in an unsold TV pilot adapted from Al Capp's Li'l Abner. She also worked on Broadway and in Vegas nightclubs through the early 1970s, touring with the revival of No, No Nanette in 1971. She appeared as a mystery guest on the TV show What's My Line on July 18, 1954.