Free I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead by Charles Tranberg Page B

specialized in
impersonating FDR were
Bill Johnstone and, nearly
twenty years before he skyrocketed to fame as Ed
Norton, Art Carney. Eleanor
Roosevelt was one of the
first voices Agnes was called
upon to do and her interpretation was letter-perfect.
She had down Mrs. Roosevelt’s
high-pitched, often piercing
voice — and did so without
it falling into parody or, as
some people who “did” Mrs.
Roosevelt, as a way of ridiculing her. In fact, Agnes would recall that she
was performing as Mrs. Roosevelt on a March of Time broadcast when she
looked into the control room and saw the real Mrs. Roosevelt watching her
— intently. Agnes was a bit shaken as she continued her performance and
was, afterward, apprehensive of what the First Lady would say to her. She
was relieved when Mrs. Roosevelt congratulated her and said that she felt
Agnes did the best job of anyone she had ever heard impersonating her.
Agnes was always very proud of that accolade from a woman she came to
admire very much.
    In addition to Mrs. Roosevelt, Agnes also performed over the years in a
number of other parts on the show. Life magazine ran an advertisement for The March of Time which featured Agnes and included pictures of her
impersonating, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, The Dutchess of Windsor,
Eleanor Roosevelt, and Yetta Rothberg. The ad is interesting since it
illustrates how Agnes (and many of the other actors on the show) prepared
Agnes as Sarah Heartburn on The Phil Baker
Show, 1936.
    for their roles. “The poignant, tragic simplicity of Madame Chiang KaiShek, wife of China’s dictator, the gay sophistication of “Wally,” the
Dutchess of Windsor, The ebullient energy of Eleanor Roosevelt, or the
pathos of plain Yetta Rothberg of the Bronx — Agnes Moorehead, who
plays these and many other part in The March of Time, is acknowledged as
radio’s most sensitive, most versatile, and most authentic artist in re-creating
the characters of living women. A familiar sight in the March of Time studio is Agnes Moorehead listening in tense concentration to a recording
of one of the voices she is to reenact, following it with her own voice, learning
inflection and accent, perfecting tone and timbre.”
    Elliott Reid was barely 16 when he joined the cast of The March of Time. He recalls Agnes as a “handsome woman, which was my first impression of
her. I was new and not totally at ease.” As he got to know her, he came to
recognize her as a “brilliant actress. On that program she did a number of
impressions of world-famous people. She specialized in Eleanor Roosevelt
— very nice and not exaggerated — she did it very accurately. Agnes would
get up and do a sketch and rehearse it very shrewdly and perform it tastefully.
She was a very tasteful person in everyday life and it spilled over, into her
acting.” Reid would recall that they didn’t have time “to struggle with the
method” since they basically had to rehearse a show in an hour. “We couldn’t
take all day to get an effect, we basically had to get it on the first reading.”
    Reid would become a lifelong friend to Agnes and besides working with
her on The March of Time, they also did a short-lived series called The Mighty
Show, about life in a circus. But most significantly they made many appearances
together on another landmark radio show of this time, The Cavalcade of
America. Reid recalls Cavalcade as specializing in “Americana”; they did many
shows on historic events and people. Agnes appeared on more than 70
episodes and was considered a member of its ensemble cast from 1939–1940
(she would return for an occasional appearance in later years). Reid was
another ensemble player on the show, often doing juvenile roles, and he
appeared with Agnes more than 30 times — often performing two or more
parts in the same episode! On Cavalcade as a part of an ensemble, Agnes
would one week be the star of the program (such as “The Story of Nancy
Hanks,” where she played Abraham