Jack and Loretta Clemens: From Radio Days to Fruit of the Loom

Born today, Loretta Clemens (1906-1990), who, with and without her brother Jack (1909-1970) enjoyed success in just about every entertainment medium.

The siblings were from the Lake Erie town of Marblehead, Ohio and began performing in vaudeville as children. Jack played guitar; Loretta played piano, and the pair sang. For a time in the early ’30s, Loretta was one of a Buffalo based radio singing act called The Triolettes with Eunice Miller and Red Sullivan. But the brother-sister act, billed as Jack and Loretta got the better traction. They released several records as a duo, and from 1933 through 1939 they had their NBC national network radio variety program called Jack and Loretta Clemens. At the same time, they starred (in the roles of a boyfriend and girlfriend!) on a musical soap opera called The Gibson Family (1934-35) with original songs by Dietz and Schwartz. This show, as such, was unsuccessful. Midway through the run, Charles Winninger joined the cast and it became Uncle Charlie’s Tent Show, with Winninger hosting as a carnival barker. Eddie Green also joined the cast to liven things up with humor. When the Tent Show folded, they sang on the show Studio 7 (1936), while continuing with their variety show. As a solo, Loretta also sang on the show Johnny Presents (precursor to Philip Morris Playhouse) starring Little Person Johnny Roventini, the Philip Morris bellboy mascot. She was on this show from 1934 to 1937. The pair were also featured in the movie shorts, Rah, Rah Radio (1935), Towers of Melody (1936) and Vitaphone Frolics (1937).

Loretta married musician Fred Tupper (1904-74) and dropped out of show biz to raise a family in the early ’40s. For a time she operated her own talent school in Queens. One of her pupils was a young Eileen Brennan! After the death of her husband, Loretta returned to the biz as Loretta Tupper, now in her 70s. You may well have seen some of her work from this period. She’s in the Woody Allen movies Annie Hall (1977) and The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979), Brian De Palma’sHome Movies (1979), Something Short of Paradise (1979) with Susan Sarandon and David Steinberg, Midnight Madness (1980) with David Naughton, John Schlesinger’sHonky Tonk Freeway (1981), Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1982), The House of God (1984) with Tim Mathieson and Charles Haid, and other films. She had a recurring role on Sesame Street and starred in numerous commercials for Fruit of the Loom, Hertz Rent a Car, Mida Muffler, et al. She won a couple of Clio awards! She finally retired for good around 1988.

Not the end of the story! A few years back, the real-life brother-sister team of Cristina and Robert Farrugia created a new musical about Loretta and Jack called On the Air. I find these kids just as interesting as Loretta and Jack! Their parents have sung with the Metropolitan Opera, and they each have their own separate careers as actors, singers and writers. Robert’s website is here; Cristina’s is here.

To learn more about vaudeville history please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous. And stay tuned for my next book Vaudeville in Your Living Room: A Century of Radio and TV Variety, coming November 2023.