Of Ethel Owen and Pamela Britton: A Mother and Daughter in Sit-Coms

March 30 was the birthday of Ethel Owen (Ethel Waite, 1893-1997), best known for playing Ralph Kramden’s bossy, meddlesome mother-in-law on The Honeymooners.

Originally from Chicago, Owen began her career in stock theatre, vaudeville, and especially radio, where she played regular roles on such series as Gang Busters and Valiant Lady. She appeared on Broadway just three times: in the Donald Heyward musical Africana (1934), the Phoebe and Henry Ephron comedy Three’s a Family (1943), and finally, in the plum role of Parthy in the 1946 revival of Show Boat. Surely, it was her performance as Parthy that inspired her casting as Alice Kramden’s mother Mrs. Gibson. Owen did very little screen work, just a handful of episodes of live TV dramas like Kraft Theatre and Robert Montgomery Presents. On the latter program she was Aunt Betsey in an episode of David Copperfield.The Honeymooners (1956) was her last screen credit.

Meantime, her youngest daughter Pamela Britton (Armilda Jane Owens, 1923-1974) had become a successful actress herself. Britton was a stage professional since childhood. Mother and daughter turned down offers of movie contracts when she was around ten, under the conviction that the careers of child stars are short, and she was in it for the long haul. She was a big band singer for a while, fronting Don McGuire’s orchestra. Her big break came when she was cast in the original Broadway production of Oklahoma! (1943), playing the small role of Gertie, and understudying Celeste Holme as Ado Annie. She also played the part of Meg in the original production of Brigadoon (1947).

Meanwhile, she had also launched a screen career, and this is where the bulk of her professional credits lay. Her early film credits included Anchors Aweigh (1945), A Letter for Evie (1946), D.O.A. (1950), Key to the City (1950), and the Red Skelton comedy Watch the Birdie(1950). Her most significant credits were in television. In 1954 she was chosen to success Penny Singleton in the title role in the new tv version of the comic strip Blondie (Singleton had played her in the movie series). Hal Le Roy played Dagwood opposite Britton in the 1954 pilot, which wasn’t picked up. Arthur Lake returned to the role for the 1957 series. Britton’s other major TV credit was as a regular on the TV series My Favorite Martian (1963-66), third billed to Bill Bixby and Ray Walston, as the adorable landlady Lorelei Brown. (Interestingly, at this time, Singleton was supplying the voice of Jane Jetson on The Jetsons).

Britton went on two appear in two quintessentially “sixties” movies: If This Is Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium (1969), and Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came (1970). Her final credit was a 1973 episode of The Magician starring her old castmate Bixby. She toured with Don Knotts in a play called The Mind with the Dirty Man after this. She died of a brain tumor the following year. Meanwhile, her mother Ethel Owen outlived her by over 20 years, dying just shy of her 104th birthday!

Britton’s older sister Virginia Owen (1921-2011) also tried an acting career, landing a three year contract with RKO (1946-48). She was assigned bit parts in Suspense (1946), and Riff Raff (1947), and a fifth billed supporting part in the Tim Holt westernThunder Mountain (1947), but nothing subsequently. She married and left the biz in 1950.

For more about show biz historyconsult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.