Ann Sothern on Her Journey To TV

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This is an excerpt from a 1974 interview with Ann Sothern. It can be found in the Fall 2016 issue of Films of the Golden Age (#86) in the article "Ann Sothern : The Smartest Girl in Town."

JB (James Bowden): How did you get to TV?

Ann Sothern: I was off for almost two years with hepatitis. I needed work badly so MGM resuscitated Maisie as a syndicated radio show--we'd already done it 1945-47 on CBS--and they recorded the shows right in my living room because I was so weak I couldn't travel. When I recovered I got third billing in a mystery called The Blue Gardenia (1953) starring Anne Baxter, but I hated director Fritz Lang--he was so nasty--and I could see my time in movies was passing.

So I joined with an MGM producer Jack Chertok and we approached Dore Schary at MGM about turning Maisie into a TV series to be made at the studio. He blew his top. MGM go into TV! Why the very idea! He couldn't think out of the box--none of that old guard could. So we approached CBS with an idea for Private Secretary. It really was Maisie Goes into Business, that's what it was.

Don Porter was my boss, Mr. Sands, who ran a talent agency. And we started in February 1953 and ran for four seasons.

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