My Friend Irma

{{Infobox media franchise

|title =My Friend Irma

|image =Marie Wilson 1954.JPG

|imagesize =150

|caption =Marie Wilson as title character Irma Peterson

|creator =Cy Howard

|origin =Radio, 1947

|books =

|novels =

|short_stories =

|comics =My Friend Irma

|graphic_novels =

|strips =My Friend Irma

|magazines =

|films =My Friend Irma, My Friend Irma Goes West

|shorts =

|tv =My Friend Irma

|atv =

|tv_specials =

|tv_films =

|dtv =

|plays =My Friend Irma, a Comedy in Three Acts{{cite book |title=My Friend Irma, a Comedy in Three Acts |last=Reach |first=James |year=1951 |asin=B002VH94HK |url=http://www.samuelfrench.com/p/3128/my-friend-irma |location=Hollywood, CA|publisher=Samuel French}}

|musicals =

|games =

|rpgs =

|vgs =

|radio =My Friend Irma

|soundtracks =

|music =

|toys =

}}

File:Myfriendirmaad.png

File:Marie Wilson Sid Tomack My Friend Irma 1953.JPG

File:Marie Wilson Mary Shipp My Friend Irma 1953.JPG as Irma's friend Kay Foster, 1953.]]

My Friend Irma is a media franchise that was spawned by a top-rated, long-running radio situation comedy created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard. The radio show was so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated the films, television, a comic strip and a comic book that comprise the franchise. Marie Wilson portrayed the title character Irma Peterson on radio, in two films and the television series. The radio series was broadcast on CBS from April 11, 1947, to August 23, 1954.

Characters and story

Dependable, level-headed Jane Stacy (Cathy Lewis—plus Joan Banks during Lewis' illness in early 1949 and Mary Shipp later) began each weekly radio program by narrating a misadventure of her innocent, bewildered roommate Irma, a scatterbrained stenographer from Minnesota. The two central characters were in their mid-20s. Irma had her 25th birthday in one episode; she was born on May 5. After the two met in the first episode, they lived together in an apartment rented from their Irish landlady Mrs. O'Reilly (Jane Morgan, Gloria Gordon).

Irma's boyfriend Al (John Brown) was a deadbeat, barely on the right side of the law, who had not held a job in years. Only someone like Irma could love Al, whose nickname for Irma was "Chicken". Al had many crazy get-rich-quick schemes that never worked. Al planned to marry Irma at some future date so she could support him. Professor Kropotkin (Hans Conried), the Russian violinist at the Princess Burlesque theater, lived upstairs. He greeted Jane and Irma with remarks like "My two little bunnies with one being an Easter bunny and the other being Bugs Bunny." The Professor insulted Mrs. O'Reilly, complained about his room, and reluctantly became O'Reilly's love interest in an effort to make her forget his back rent. In 1953, Conried left the program and was replaced by Kenny Delmar as his cousin Maestro Wanderkin.{{cite news |last=Wolters |first=Larry |date=1953-03-02 |title=Television News and Views |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1953/03/02/page/44/article/television-news-and-views |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |access-date=2015-03-26 }}

Irma worked for the lawyer Mr. Clyde (Alan Reed). She had such an odd filing system that once when Clyde fired her, he had to hire her back again because he couldn't find anything. Useless at dictation, Irma mangled whatever Clyde dictated. Asked how long she had been with Clyde, Irma said, "When I first went to work with him he had curly black hair, then it got grey, and now it's snow white. I guess I've been with him about six months."

Irma became less intelligent and even more ditzy as the program evolved. She also developed a tendency to whine or cry whenever something went wrong, which was usually at least once every episode. Jane had a romantic inclination for her boss, millionaire Richard Rhinelander III (Leif Erickson). Another actor in the show was Bea Benaderet.

Lawsuit

In 1946, writer Arthur Kurlan had worked with CBS Radio in an attempt to bring the premise and characters of the popular play and film My Sister Eileen to radio. Soon after this effort failed, the very similar My Friend Irma was created. Kurlan took legal action, and ultimately received a settlement from CBS.

Films and television

The TV version, seen on CBS from January 8, 1952, until June 1954, was the first series telecast from the CBS Television City facility in Hollywood in October 1952.

The film My Friend Irma (1949) starred Marie Wilson and Diana Lynn, but is mainly remembered today for introducing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to moviegoers, resulting in more screen time for Martin and Lewis in the sequel My Friend Irma Goes West (1950).

Comic strip and comic book

The My Friend Irma comic strip, illustrated by Jack Seidel, began syndication with the Mirror Enterprises Syndicate on September 11, 1950, receiving a promotional boost in the November 7, 1950 issue of Look. In 1951, Dan DeCarlo took over the strip with Stan Lee scripting.

Atlas Comics (Marvel) published the My Friend Irma comic book which ran from #3 to #48 (1950 to 1955), and was most often written by Stan Lee with art by Dan DeCarlo. After Atlas stopped publishing My Friend Irma, DeCarlo and Lee created a similar feature for Atlas titled My Girl Pearl.

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite journal |last=Heintjes |first=Tom |url=http://cartoonician.com/everybodys-friend-remembering-stan-lee-and-dan-decarlos-my-friend-irma/ |title=Everybody's Friend: Remembering Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo's 'My Friend Irma' |journal=Hogan's Alley |issue=16 |year=2009 |access-date=2015-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130319184704/http://cartoonician.com/everybodys-friend-remembering-stan-lee-and-dan-decarlos-my-friend-irma/ |archive-date=March 19, 2013 |url-status=dead }}

{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HqhoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA472 |last=Dunning |first=John |author-link=John Dunning (detective fiction author) |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-19-507678-3 |pages=472–473 |edition=Revised |access-date=2019-09-04}}

{{cite court |litigants=Arthur Kurlan and Marilyn Kurlan v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Arthur Kurlan and Marilyn Kurlan. |vol=343 |reporter=F.2d |opinion=325 |pinpoint= |court=2d Cir. |date=March 26, 1965 |url=http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/343/625/109140/ |accessdate=February 2, 2015}}

{{cite book|author=Tator, Joel|title=Los Angeles Television|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oqqtBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA59|year= 2015|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-146713270-1|page=59}}

{{cite book|last=Spigel|first=Lynn|title=TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_dekIDkPtMC&dq=%22On+October+4+CBS's+My+Friend+Irma%22&pg=PA132|year=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226769684|page=132}}

{{cite web |last1=Ellerbee |first1=Bobby |title=CBS Television City's First Series…'My Friend Irma' |url=http://eyesofageneration.com/cbs-television-citys-first-series-my-friend-irma-heres-the-set-of-my-fr/ |date=September 14, 2014|publisher=Eyes of a Generation}}

{{cite news |title=Cy Howard, Scriptwriter for 'My Friend Irma' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-04-me-30720-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=May 4, 1993|quote=co-wrote the 1949 movie version, which introduced Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.}}

{{cite book|last1=Wells|first1=John|last2=Dallas|first2=Keith|title=American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-64|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sm6qDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|year=2013|publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing|isbn=978-1605490458|page=9}}

{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=Roy|title=Alter Ego #150|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ywZDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41|year= 2017|publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing|page=41}}

}}

External links

{{IMDb title|title=My Friend Irma (film)|qid=Q2631841}}
{{IMDb title|title=My Friend Irma (TV)|qid=Q112190785}}
{{IMDb title|title=My Friend Irma Goes West (film)|qid=Q3110312}}
[https://www.otroutlaws.com/g/my-friend-irma My friend Irma on Old Time Radio Outlaws]