Florence Lake
Vintage postcard.
American actress Florence Lake (1904-1980) was best known as the leading lady in most of the Edgar Kennedy comedy shorts.
Florence Lake was born Florence Silverlake in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. in 1904. In the early 1900s, her father and uncle toured with a circus in an aerial act known as 'The Flying Silverlakes'. Her mother, Edith Goodwin, was an actress. Her parents later appeared in vaudeville in a skit 'Family Affair', travelling throughout the South and Southwest United States. Florence and her younger brother Arthur Silverlake, Jr. became part of the act in 1910. Their mother brought the children to Hollywood to get into the burgeoning film industry. Arthur changed his professional name to Arthur Lake and later achieved great success as Dagwood Bumstead in the Blondie movie series. Florence was petite, with a high-pitched speaking voice. She started her acting career in 1929 and played supporting parts in films like New Year's Eve (Henry Lehrman, 1929), Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930), starring Greta Garbo, and Midshipman Jack (Christy Cabanne, 1933) with Bruce Cabot. She perfected a comical singsong delivery that established her in 'dumb' roles. From 1931, she personified flightiness in a series of comedy shorts called The Average Man, in which she played the scatterbrained wife of comedian Edgar Kennedy.
After the series ended upon Edgar Kennedy's death in 1948, Florence Lake continued to play character roles in films and television. Her best-known TV role was Jenny, the Claverton telephone operator in Lassie. Lake played the role for the entire ten year 'farm seasons' of the show (1954–1964), thus becoming the Lassie player with the longest tour of duty on the series. She played the role of Mama Angel in a 1957 episode of the The Lone Ranger TV series entitled The Angel and the Outlaw. She also appeared in the first colour episode of the TV series Superman (1957) as a cave woman. In her later years, Lake appeared as Elvira Norton on an episode of Dragnet entitled Frauds. She appeared in an episode of the situation comedy A Touch of Grace (1973), and later that year played a blind date for the character Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode, Lou's First Date (1973). Her final film role was a small part in the Hollywood drama The Day of the Locust (John Schlesinger, 1975). Her last roles were in the TV series Emergency! (1976) and Baretta (1976). Florence Lake died in 1980 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
Florence Lake
Vintage postcard.
American actress Florence Lake (1904-1980) was best known as the leading lady in most of the Edgar Kennedy comedy shorts.
Florence Lake was born Florence Silverlake in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. in 1904. In the early 1900s, her father and uncle toured with a circus in an aerial act known as 'The Flying Silverlakes'. Her mother, Edith Goodwin, was an actress. Her parents later appeared in vaudeville in a skit 'Family Affair', travelling throughout the South and Southwest United States. Florence and her younger brother Arthur Silverlake, Jr. became part of the act in 1910. Their mother brought the children to Hollywood to get into the burgeoning film industry. Arthur changed his professional name to Arthur Lake and later achieved great success as Dagwood Bumstead in the Blondie movie series. Florence was petite, with a high-pitched speaking voice. She started her acting career in 1929 and played supporting parts in films like New Year's Eve (Henry Lehrman, 1929), Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930), starring Greta Garbo, and Midshipman Jack (Christy Cabanne, 1933) with Bruce Cabot. She perfected a comical singsong delivery that established her in 'dumb' roles. From 1931, she personified flightiness in a series of comedy shorts called The Average Man, in which she played the scatterbrained wife of comedian Edgar Kennedy.
After the series ended upon Edgar Kennedy's death in 1948, Florence Lake continued to play character roles in films and television. Her best-known TV role was Jenny, the Claverton telephone operator in Lassie. Lake played the role for the entire ten year 'farm seasons' of the show (1954–1964), thus becoming the Lassie player with the longest tour of duty on the series. She played the role of Mama Angel in a 1957 episode of the The Lone Ranger TV series entitled The Angel and the Outlaw. She also appeared in the first colour episode of the TV series Superman (1957) as a cave woman. In her later years, Lake appeared as Elvira Norton on an episode of Dragnet entitled Frauds. She appeared in an episode of the situation comedy A Touch of Grace (1973), and later that year played a blind date for the character Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode, Lou's First Date (1973). Her final film role was a small part in the Hollywood drama The Day of the Locust (John Schlesinger, 1975). Her last roles were in the TV series Emergency! (1976) and Baretta (1976). Florence Lake died in 1980 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.