Joan Alexander
{{short description|American actress (1915–2009)}}
{{for multi|the Scottish soprano|Joan Alexander (soprano)|the atmospheric scientist|M. Joan Alexander|the American judge|Joan K. Alexander}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Joan Alexander
| image = Joan Alexander.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Louise Abrass
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1915|4|16}}
| birth_place = Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|5|21|1915|4|16}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| resting_place =
| other_names = Joan Stanton
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1941–1968
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- John Sylvester White
- Robert Crowley
- Arthur Stanton
}}
| children = 3
}}
Joan Alexander (born Louise Abrass; April 16, 1915 – May 21, 2009)[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/arts/23stanton.html?_r=1&hpw Weber, Bruce. "Joan A. Stanton, Radio Voice of Lois Lane, Dies at 94"], The New York Times, May 22, 2009 was an American actress known for her role as Lois Lane on the radio serial The Adventures of Superman and the animated Fleischer Superman short films.{{cite book
|section= The Adventures of Superman
|title= On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-time Radio
|last= Dunning
|first= John
|publisher= Oxford University Press
|location= US
|year= 1998
|pages= 14-15
|isbn= 978-0-19-507678-3
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22The+Adventures+of+Superman+ju%22&pg=PA14
|access-date= January 17, 2025
}}
Early life and career
Alexander was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to a Lebanese-American family. Her father died when she was three, and when her mother remarried, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. She was sent to attend a convent school on Long Island.
She became a model and actress, and studied acting in Europe with Benno Schneider, a director in the Yiddish theater. Though Abrass later took the first name Joan after the actress Joan Crawford, the origin of the name Alexander is unknown, according to her family. An early, first marriage in 1944{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/22/AR2009052200791.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | first=Adam | last=Bernstein | title=1940s Radio Actress Joan Alexander Dies at 94 | date=May 23, 2009}} to actor John Sylvester White, who became known as Principal Woodman on Welcome Back, Kotter, was also unknown to Alexander's family until two years before Alexander's death.
Voice of Lois Lane
Alexander portrayed newspaper reporter Lois Lane in the superhero radio program The Adventures of Superman for more than 1,600 episodes. The series began in 1940, two years after Superman's debut in the modern-day DC Comics' Action Comics #1 (June 1938), with Lane first appearing in the seventh episode. Though most sources indicate she was not the first actress cast, Alexander was cast early in the series' run and became the radio role's signature performer.
Initially, the show, which ran through to 1951, was syndicated through the Mutual Broadcasting System's cornerstone station, WOR in New York, subsequently taken up by the Mutual network and finally to ABC. Alexander also was heard on Dimension X and Philo Vance,{{cite book
|last= Lackman
|first= Ron
|title= The Encyclopedia of American Radio
|isbn= 0-8160-4137-7
|publisher= Checkmark Books
|location= New York
|page= [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofam00lack/page/222 222]
|chapter= Philo Vance
|date= 2000
|chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofam00lack/page/222
}} Against the StormDunning, op. cit., [https://books.google.com/books?id=EwtRbXNca0oC&dq=%22Against+the+Storm+serial%22&pg=PA16 "Against the Storm" pp. 16-17] and on Perry Mason, in the first portrayal of supporting character Della Street, secretary to defense attorney Mason.{{cite book
|title= The Great Radio Soap Operas: The 31 Classic Daytime Dramas, 1930–60
|first= Jim
|last= Cox
|publisher= McFarland
|year= 1999
|isbn= 0-7864-0589-9
|page= 176
|chapter= Perry Mason}}
She also played Althea on The Brighter Day on radio.Dunning, op. cit., [https://books.google.com/books?id=EwtRbXNca0oC&dq=%22The+Brighter+Day+soap%22+%22Joan+Alexander%22&pg=PA120 "The Brighter Day" p. 120] Alexander additionally provided Lois Lane's voice in the 1940s Fleischer Studios/Paramount Pictures animated Superman shorts, though she dropped the role after the ninth short, when Famous Studios took over the series and moved production to New Jersey.{{cite magazine |first=Will |last=Murray |authorlink=Will Murray |date=March 2023 |title=Max Fleischer's Superman |url=https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_152&products_id=1678&zenid=2hgu5onnn6uguc8o85oh8pf7q6 |magazine=RetroFan |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |location=United States |issue=25 |pages=19-22}} She reprised the role of Lois Lane for one season of the 1966 Filmation animated series The New Adventures of Superman.{{cite book
|page = 72
|title= Superman on Film, Television, Radio and Broadway
|last= Scivally
|first= Bruce
|publisher= McFarland & Co.
|year= 2008
|isbn= 978-0-7864-3166-3}}
Later life and career
Following her divorce from White, Alexander married surgeon Robert Crowley. Author and screenwriter Jane Stanton Hitchcock (born as Jane Crowley) is their daughter.{{cite news
|url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7D9143EF931A15752C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink|date= January 22, 1987
|title= Arthur Stanton, 69, Chairman Of Distributor of Volkswagen |access-date=October 14, 2008 |work=The New York Times}} After that second marriage ended in divorce, Alexander in 1954 or 1955 married Arthur Stanton, chairman of the Orangeburg, New York-based World-Wide Volkswagen, at the time the distributor of Volkswagen and Audi vehicles in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and which helped introduce the Volkswagen Beetle to the U.S. Stanton, who died January 20, 1987, adopted Alexander and Crowley's daughter, Jane when she was 9 years old. The couple's other children were sons Adam (died 1993) and Timothy. The Stantons entertained at their Manhattan apartment on the Upper East Side and their home in East Hampton, New York; their daughter told The New York Times that author George Plimpton proposed to his future wife, Freddy Espy, at one party there, that composer Leonard Bernstein sometimes performed at the piano, and that comedy playwright Neil Simon wrote a sketch for the daughter's 21st birthday.{{cite news |author=Norwich, William |title=At home with: Jane Stanton Hitchcock: In the Land of Toile, Murder Most Foul |date=June 6, 2002 |access-date=October 15, 2008 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E5DA1F3AF935A35755C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink |newspaper=The New York Times}}
Alexander appeared on television as a regular panelist on the 1951–1955 ABC-TV game show The Name's the Same.{{cite book
|page= [https://archive.org/details/completedirector1999broo/page/712/mode/1up 712]
|title= The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–present
|first1= Tim
|last1= Brooks
|first2= Earle
|last2= Marsh
|publisher= Ballantine Books
|year= 1999
|chapter= The Name's the Same
|isbn= 0-345-42923-0
|chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/completedirector1999broo/page/712/mode/1up
}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e-K9PAAACAAJ&q=Joan+Stanton+Grin+Bear+It|title=Grin and Bear It|first=Joan|last=Stanton|date=July 1, 1982|publisher=Albert Saifer Publisher|isbn=9780875563275|via=Google Books}} She appeared on Broadway in Poor Richard by Jean Kerr in 1964.{{cite web |url= http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2842 |title= Internet Broadway Database|date= 2008-10-10}}
In April 2008, Alexander filed a lawsuit against financial adviser Kenneth I. Starr, alleging the late Stanton had left Alexander a $70 million estate which, according to court paper, Starr used inappropriately and squandered.{{cite news |author=Jose Martinez |title=Ex-voice of Lois Lane sues, calls adviser man of steal |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/04/17/2008-04-17_exvoice_of_lois_lane_sues_calls_adviser_.html#ixzz0vq43fwOA |newspaper=New York Daily News |date=April 17, 2008}}{{cite news |author=Nelson D. Schwartz |title=Untangling a Ponzi Scheme With a Hollywood Twist |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/business/07starr.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 6, 2010}}
Death
Alexander died on May 21, 2009, at the age of 94 from an intestinal blockage. She is survived by her son Timothy Stanton, his wife Agnes Stanton and grandsons Liam and Conrad Stanton as well as her daughter, Jane Stanton Hitchcock.
See also
- Joanne Siegel, original model for Lois Lane
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- Obituary [http://newyorksocialdiary.com/node/409477 New York Social Diary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709223440/http://newyorksocialdiary.com/node/409477 |date=2014-07-09 }}
- {{IMDb name|0018510}}
- [http://www.tv.com/whats-my-line/episode-65/episode/92865/summary.html Info on What's My Line? Ep#65, 1952 TV Digest article about Joan Alexander] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090527134227/http://www.tv.com/whats-my-line/episode-65/episode/92865/summary.html |date=2009-05-27 }}
- [https://archive.today/20130112181532/http://community-2.webtv.net/HerpHouse/LoisLaneJimmyOlsen/page3.html "Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane"] (fan site)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Joan}}
Category:American radio actresses
Category:American soap opera actresses
Category:American people of Lebanese descent
Category:Actresses from Brooklyn
Category:Actresses from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:Fleischer Studios people