The successful
1950s sitcom Our Miss Brooks was, heart and soul, actor Eve
Arden. A Hollywood film and New York stage veteran, Arden specialized
in playing the wisecracking friend to the heroine. She often did
it better than anyone else, achieving her greatest success with
an Oscar nomination for 1945's Mildred Pierce. But Arden's
skill with the wicked one-liner and acid aside was beginning to
lead to typecasting. To find a new image, Arden signed on for the
radio comedy role of Connie Brooks, English teacher at fictional
Madison High School, a smart and sharp-witted--but ever-likable--character.
And unlike most of her film roles, radio offered her the lead.
Beginning on
radio in 1948, Our Miss Brooks was successfully transferred
to television beginning in 1952 (it ran on both media, with largely
the same cast, for several months in 1952). Between gentle wisecracks,
Miss Brooks doted on nerdish student Walter Denton, and frequently
locked horns with crusty, cranky principal Mr. Conklin. Many of
the program's episodes, however, revolved around Miss Brook's unrequited
desire for Philip Boynton, the school's biology teacher. In this
way Miss Brooks was the beginning of a long list of TV spinsters,
to be followed by Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) on The Dick Van Dyke
Show and Jane Hathaway (Nancy Kulp) on The Beverly Hillbillies.
The program
had enjoyed good ratings on radio and only enlarged its audience
when it moved to TV. And while some professional educators criticized
the series, others celebrated Miss Brooks and Arden's work: she
got teaching job offers, fan letters from educators, was made an
honorary member of the National Education Association and, in 1952,
was given an award from the Alumni Association of the Teachers College
of Connecticut for "humanizing the American Teacher." Said Arden
of her on-screen alter ego: "I tried to play Miss Brooks as a loving
person who cared about the kids and kept trying to keep them out
of trouble, but kept getting herself in trouble."
Obviously, Miss
Brooks encountered enough trouble to sustain the series for over
150 episodes, but, unlike many other female comics on TV at that
time, Miss Brooks' forte was not the wild antics that were the norm
of Lucy or the lopsided logic that was the domain of Gracie Allen.
Instead, Miss Brooks humor was achieved by her own sharp, observing
wit and by her centered presence in the midst of a group of eccentric
supporting players--dimwitted, squeaky-voiced student Walter, pompous
Conklin, and the others. Miss Brooks was always the source of the
jokes, not the butt of them.
In 1955, ratings
were beginning to wane, and the series was overhauled. Miss Brooks
and Mr. Conklin were moved out of Madison High to Mrs. Nestor's
Private Elementary School. For a time there was no Mr. Boynton for
whom Miss Brooks would pine, but there was a muscle-bound PE teacher,
Mr. Talbot, who longed for Miss Brooks. This was an important turnabout
in the overall premise of the show: now Miss Brooks was the pursued
rather than the pursuer. (Mr. Boynton did turn up again in early
1956 just in time for the series to be canceled; in a film version
of the series released by Warner Brothers in 1956, Miss Brooks and
Mr. Boynton finally did tie the knot and presumably lived happily
ever after.)
Connie
Brooks was one of TV's noblest working women: the center of a highly
successful show, toiling in a realistically portrayed, and unglamorized
career (Miss Brooks often made mention of how low her wages were),
and rewarded and honored by real workers whom she represented. While
she was not quite as "no nonsense"--nor so tough--as film's prominent
working women (Rosiland Russell, Joan Crawford), Connie Brooks,
with her tart tongue, brisk manner, her sharply cut jackets and
slim skirts, was just about as savvy as women were allowed to be
on TV in the 1950s. And despite Miss Brooks desire to become "Mrs."
Something--and despite the fact that she was never promoted to school
principal--Our Miss Brooks legacy in TV history is that it dared
to depict a woman, funny, attractive, wise, competent and working--outside
the home, marriage, and children.
-Cary
O'Dell
