Sara Berner

Born Lillian Ann Herdan in 1912 in Albany, New York, she adopted her stage name by combining her mother's first name (Sarah) and her maiden name of Berner. She was the oldest of four children,{{cite web|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Mirror/49/Mirror-1949-Apr.pdf|title=Mable Flapsaddle - Alias Sara Berner|author=Staff|work=Radio Mirror|page=84|date=April 1949|accessdate=December 7, 2017}} and her family relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma when she was a teenager.{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/05/rise-of-sara-berner.html|title=The Rise of Sara Berner|work=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=May 23, 2012|accessdate=November 28, 2017}} She became interested in performing after watching silent movies and vaudeville shows at a theater and then imitating scenes in front of the women's restroom attendant.

Berner performed in an adaptation of Abie's Irish Rose after graduation, and she studied drama for two years at the University of Tulsa.{{cite news|title=Bowes Unit Will Come Next Week|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2325199/berner_with_bowes/|work=The Oregon Statesman|date=February 26, 1937|page=2|accessdate=April 30, 2015}} She and her family then moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she worked in a Wanamaker's department store until she was fired for mimicking a customer. Berner hosted her own fifteen-minute program (written by Arthur Q. Bryan) thereafter on a local radio station, then returned to New York City in hopes of pursuing a show-business career. She worked in a Broadway millinery in the meantime, and studied dialect by observing customers' Brooklyn accents.{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/05/rise-of-sara-berner.html|title=Hollywood|first=Gene|last=Handsaker|agency=Associated Press|via=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=March 22, 1949|accessdate=November 28, 2017}} She sneaked out during a shift to audition for Major Edward Bowes' amateur hour, and was hired the next day. Beginning in 1937, Berner toured the country as part of Bowes' sixteen-member "all-girl unit" of vaudeville acts over the next four years, and created a gimmick of a fired saleslady who performed imitations of celebrities such as Mae West and Katharine Hepburn.{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/08/dont-call-her-mrs-camel.html|title=Versatile Sara: Camel One Day, Hippo the Next |first=Hazel|last=Hartzog|work=UPI|via=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=December 31, 1944|accessdate=November 30, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Life/40s/49/Radio-Life-1949-03-20.pdf|title=Her Alter Egos|work=Radio and Television Life|first=Joan|last=Buchanan|pages=4,32|date=March 20, 1949|accessdate=December 8, 2017}}

After the Major Bowes tour ended, Berner began working in network radio in Hollywood, with recurring roles on Fibber McGee & Molly and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. On The Jack Benny Program, she voiced one-time parts{{cite web|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Life/40s/44/Radio-Life-1944-10-22.pdf|title=The Ear Inspires the Pen|author=Staff|date=October 22, 1944|work=Radio Life|page=2|accessdate=December 7, 2017}} before joining the principal cast as the recurring characters of Jack Benny's girlfriend Gladys Zybisco, and wisecracking telephone operator Mabel Flapsaddle, who gossiped about Benny with her colleague Gertrude Gearshift (Bea Benaderet), while Benny waited impatiently on the other end of the line for them to connect his call.{{cite web|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Life/40s/47/Radio-Life-1947-11-09.pdf|title=Benny's Switchboard Sweeties|last=Maguire|first=Judy|date=November 9, 1947|work=Radio Life|page=7|accessdate= July 16, 2017}}{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA85|last=Busch|first=Noel F.|date=February 3, 1947|title=Jack Benny, Inc.: Comedian mixes a fiddle, a feud and stock characters in formula which has paid off for 15 years|magazine=Life|page= 85|accessdate=July 16, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/05/rise-of-sara-berner.html|title=Transradio Star Gazer|first=Bob|last=Kalb|work=Unknown|via=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=January 21, 1949|accessdate=July 27, 2017}} Intended as a one-time appearance, they began recurring roles in the 1945–46 season, and in early 1947, Berner and Benaderet momentarily took over the actual NBC switchboards in Hollywood for publicity photos. Other radio work included waitress Dreamboat Mulvany on Arthur's Place;{{cite news|title=Dream Girl|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2326103/berner_arthurs_place/|work=Williamsburg Journal-Tribune|date=September 11, 1947|page=7|accessdate = April 30, 2015}} Mrs. Horowitz on Life with Luigi; Helen Wilson on Amos 'n' Andy; and an Italian housekeeper on The Jimmy Durante Show.{{cite news|last1=Elman|first1=Terry|title=What's Cooking?|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2325389/berner_cooking/|agency=The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle|date=May 26, 1950|page=10|accessdate = April 30, 2015}} She was cast alongside Rudy Vallée on his show The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour; however, she sued Vallée in 1945 for $19,500 in damages over claims he reneged on an "oral agreement" that he would hire her for 39 appearances on his show at $500 weekly.{{cite web|url=http://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1945/1945-10-29-BC.pdf|title=Vallee Sued|author=Staff|work=Broadcasting|date=October 29, 1945|accessdate=December 10, 2017}}

As a result of her radio successes,{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2011/12/sara-berner-and-r-word.html|title=13 'Voices' Put Sara Berner in Demand for Show Parts|first=Virginia|last=McPherson|work=UPI|via=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=June 15, 1950|accessdate=November 30, 2017}} Berner was given her own series on NBC, Sara's Private Caper, in which she starred as a police department stenographer who moonlighted as an amateur sleuth to solve crimes.{{cite news|title=Radio-Television|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2324995/altoona_tribune/|agency=Altoona Tribune|date=June 27, 1950|page=19|accessdate = April 30, 2015}} Billed as "a satire on private detective stories" that claimed to feature Berner's actual voice, the show premiered on June 15, 1950, but was canceled after just eleven weeks, with its final broadcast on August 24. It had been hampered by multiple title changes prior to its debut,{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2011/12/sara-berner-and-r-word.html|title=Sara Berner and the 'R' Word|work=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=December 16, 2011|accessdate=November 30, 2017}}Staff (March 4, 1950). "NBC Auditions Berner for 'Private Eye'". The Billboard, p. 7. Retrieved November 30, 2017. as well as confusion over whether to market the program as a mystery, comedy, or drama. Berner returned to supporting roles, but was temporarily removed from The Jack Benny Program for an eighteen-month period between 1954 and 1955 due to an undisclosed dispute with Benny, and was substituted by Shirley Mitchell as Mabel Flapsaddle in that duration.{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/05/fall-of-sara-berner.html|title=Untitled|first=Erskine|last=Johnson|work=Newspaper Enterprise Association|via=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=June 22, 1955|accessdate=November 30, 2017}}

Berner was active in vocal characterization for animated cartoons, working with several studios from the late 1930s through the 1940s. She was initially utilized for her imitations of Hollywood film actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Martha Raye.{{cite book|first=Matthew|last=Hahn|title=The Animated Marx Brothers|year=2017|publisher=Bear Manor Media|pages=25–30|isbn= 978-1629332253}} This led to her being cast in celebrity-ensemble shorts such as Disney's Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938){{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/12396307/|title=You've Never Seen Her Face....|first=Hazel|last=Hartzog|work=The Salt Lake Tribune|page=35|date=December 31, 1944|accessdate=December 5, 2017}} and The Autograph Hound (1939); Walter Lantz Productions' Hollywood Bowl (1938);{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Keith |title=Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 |date=October 3, 2022 |page=410 |publisher=BearManor Media |language=en}} and Warner Bros.' Hollywood Steps Out (1941).

Her mimicking of Hepburn led to her being hired by Lantz as the debut voice of Andy Panda,{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/128647037/|title=A New Item From Stalinland is Roudenko|author=Staff|work=Des Moines Register|page=37|date=January 7, 1945|accessdate=December 21, 2017}} which she played only twice, in Life Begins for Andy Panda (1939) and Knock Knock (1940). Berner focused on voicing animals thereafter, with her work for Warner Bros. Cartoons (where she replaced Bernice Hansen) ranging from Mama Buzzard in Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942) and The Bashful Buzzard (1945); to A. Flea in the short An Itch in Time (1943); and as part of an ensemble of voices in Book Revue (1946). For the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, Berner portrayed minor characters in the Tom and Jerry shorts The Zoot Cat (1944) and The Mouse Comes to Dinner (1945). In the MGM live-action film Anchors Aweigh (1945), she voiced the otherwise-silent Jerry Mouse for the animated dance sequence with star Gene Kelly.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/100578330/|title=Look Who's Talking!|first=Suzanne V.|last=Horvath|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|date=October 13, 1946|page=117|accessdate=December 4, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/gene-kelly-and-jerry-the-mouse-the-worry-song/|title=Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse, 'The Worry Song'|first=Greg|last=Ehrbar|work=Cartoon Research|date=June 30, 2015|accessdate=July 30, 2018}}

In August 1953, Berner provided the debut voice of another Walter Lantz character, the anthropomorphic penguin Chilly Willy.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/160775947/|title=Drama|work=Los Angeles Times|date=August 5, 1953|accessdate=December 4, 2017}} Though she received onscreen credit for her work,{{cite AV media|title=Chilly Willy|work=Walter Lantz Productions|date=1953|people=Paul J. Smith (director)|medium=Animated film}} her duties consisted only of her singing the cartoon's opening theme, as the character himself was mute until his speaking voice was developed by Daws Butler in the 1960s.{{cite book|title=The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors|first1=Tim|last1=Lawson|first2=Alisa|last2=Persons|date=2004|page=82|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn= 1578066964}}

File:SaraBernerFrankCadyRearWindow.jpg in Rear Window (1954)]]

Berner filmed supporting roles in motion pictures from 1942 to 1957, including voicing a camel named Mabel in Road to Morocco (1942).{{cite web|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Life/40s/44/Radio-Life-1944-07-16.pdf|title=Camel Talk|author=Staff|work=Radio Life|date=July 16, 1944|page=25|accessdate=December 7, 2017}} During production, the film's casting director introduced her to Paramount Pictures executive Buddy DeSylva as "Mrs. Camel" instead of her actual name. DeSylva, who had to approve her voice for the character, addressed Berner by the title thereafter, which she disdained. In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), she and Frank Cady portrayed a married couple living in a Greenwich Village apartment complex shared by the film's temporarily immobile main character (played by James Stewart).{{cite book|title=It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock: A Personal Biography|first=Charlotte|last=Chandler|author-link=Charlotte Chandler|year=2006 |publisher=Simon & Schuster|pages=215–16|isbn= 0743492293}}

Aside from playing Mabel Flapsaddle in three episodes of The Jack Benny Program, Berner appeared on television mainly on variety shows and anthology series through the 1950s, and was the guest of honor on a December 10, 1952 episode of Ralph Edwards' reality series This Is Your Life.{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/05/fall-of-sara-berner.html|title=The 'Laugh, Clown, Laugh' Girl|first=John|last=Crosby|author-link=John Crosby (media critic)|work=New York Herald-Tribune|via=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=December 15, 1952|accessdate=December 10, 2017}} However, she worked little in the 1960s, aside from performing at the 1961 Grammy Awards in a comic-relief role alongside Mort Sahl,{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/156184183/|title=Singers, Friends Make Big Noise Over Presentation of 'Grammys'|first=Louella|last=Parsons|author-link=Louella Parsons|work=Albuquerque Journal|date=April 17, 1961|accessdate=December 5, 2017}} and appearing as a guest on Gypsy Rose Lee's daytime talk show in November 1966.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/17900371/|title=Television Log|work=Long Beach Independent|date=November 8, 1966|accessdate=December 5, 2017}} Her final acting role was on an episode of CBS Playhouse that aired on January 29, 1967.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/71942044/|title=Weekly TV Log|work=Daily Independent|location=San Rafael, California|date=January 28, 1967|accessdate=December 5, 2017}}

In November 1950, Berner was photographed outside a mobile X-ray unit as part of an awareness campaign by the Los Angeles County X-ray Survey Foundation that encouraged screenings to help combat the spread of tuberculosis.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/23259376/|title=Sara Points the Way|work=Van Nuys News|date=November 16, 1950|accessdate=December 8, 2017}} She adhered to JudaismMorning News, January 10, 1948, Who Was Who in America (Vol. 2) and was a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers

Berner married her theatrical agent, Milton Rosner, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 11, 1951; the couple had one daughter, Eugenie, whom they adopted two years later at eight months old.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/530059123/|title=Jack Benny's Aide Becomes a Mother|work= Visalia Times-Delta|location=Visalia, California|date=September 2, 1953|accessdate=January 21, 2020}} Rosner remained Berner's agent despite their separation in 1954, but she filed for divorce in May 1958, citing "extreme" verbal cruelty.{{cite news|title=Awards Divorce to Sara Berner, Actress on Radio|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2326034/berner_divorce/|work=Valley News|location=Van Nuys, California|date=May 4, 1958|page=15|accessdate = April 30, 2015}} Though she was awarded custody of their daughter, Berner was arrested in December 1959 on a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment.

Berner died at age 57 on December 19, 1969, and was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, but her death was not made public until her family placed a memorial in the Van Nuys News in November 1970."Vital Record: In Memoriam". Van Nuys News (November 26, 1970), p. 84. Retrieved December 26, 2017. ("In Loving Memory of my dear daughter SARA BERNER. A great artist of stage, radio and television. Also missed by her brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. 1912-1969.") She had been recovering from major surgery at a Culver City convalescent home two months before her death.{{cite web|url=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/05/fall-of-sara-berner.html|title=Sara's Mabel Flapsaddle Bedded by Own Phone|first=Alice|last=Morse|work=Valley News|location=Van Nuys, California|via=tralfaz.blogspot.com|date=October 14, 1969|accessdate=December 17, 2017}} Berner's personal property was sold at auction in Van Nuys in November 1971.

Berner's range of dialects included French, Spanish, Italian, Southern American, and New York English, which she learned by interacting with people who spoke in such accents.{{cite web|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Life/40s/44/Radio-Life-1944-05-07.pdf|title=Johnny Doughboy's Delight|first=Shirley|last=Gordon|work=Radio Life|pages=6, 30|date=May 7, 1944|accessdate=December 9, 2017}} Her radio voice work gained unwelcome attention after a columnist described it as "being in bad taste". This in turn led to radio producers ordering her to not use foreign accents to get laughs, a ruling which Berner overturned: "I know I haven't offended anybody because in all the years I've been doing [accents] I've never, not even once, got a nasty letter." Eddie Cantor, with whom Berner first worked in the early 1930s on The Chase and Sanborn Hour, considered her then as "the greatest impersonator and dialectician of all time."{{cite web|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Mirror/39/Mirror-1939-Feb.pdf|title=Hollywood Radio Whispers|first=George|last=Fisher|author-link=George Fisher (journalist)|page=11|work=Radio Mirror|date=February 1939|accessdate=January 26, 2020}} Journalist Kay Gardella remarked in 1953 that interviewing Berner was "a Herculean feat" and "like trying to interview a trapeze artist while he's performing" due to Berner's switching to multiple dialects.{{cite news|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/451230608/|title= What's On?|first=Kay|last=Gardella|author-link=Kay Gardella|work=New York Daily News|date=April 1, 1953|accessdate=January 21, 2020}}

Berner was an in-demand entertainer for American servicemen during World War II, giving over 300 performances at Army bases in addition to 84 appearances at the Hollywood Canteen and one on the {{USS|Saratoga|CV-3|2}} in 1944.{{cite web|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Daily/RD-1942/RD-1942-08.pdf|title=Los Angeles|first=Jac|last=Willen|work=Radio Daily|page=4|date=August 7, 1942|accessdate=January 26, 2020}}{{cite web|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Life/40s/45/Radio-Life-1945-03-11.pdf|title=Honored Guest|author=Staff|work=Radio Life|pages=9, 23|date=March 11, 1945|accessdate=December 9, 2017}}

{{colbegin}}

• Red Hot Riding Hood (1943, Tex Avery) (voices)
• The Zoot Cat (1944, Tom and Jerry) (voice)
• Swing Shift Cinderella (1945) (voice)
• The Mouse Comes to Dinner (1945) (voice)
• Lonesome Lenny (1946) (voice)
• King-Size Canary (1947) (voice)

• Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938) (voice)
• Confederate Honey (1940) (voice)
• The Hardship of Miles Standish (1940) (voice)
• The Henpecked Duck (1941) (voice)
• The Daffy Duckaroo (1942) (voice)
• The Hep Cat (1942) (voice)
• Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942) (voice)
• An Itch in Time (1943) (voice)
• Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears (1944) (voices)
• A Gruesome Twosome (1945) (voice)
• The Bashful Buzzard (1945) (voice)
• Book Revue (1946) (voices)
• Baby Bottleneck (1946) (voice)
• Bacall to Arms (1946) (voice)
• Hare Splitter (1948) (voice)

• Life Begins for Andy Panda (1939) (voice)
• Knock Knock (1940) (voice)
• Chilly Willy (1953) (voice, opening theme only)

• Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938) (voices)
• The Autograph Hound (1939) (voices)

{{colend}}

{{colbegin}}

• Fibber McGee and Molly (1939)
• The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1940-1949)
• The Jack Benny Program (1940-1955)
• Command Performance (1942-1948)
• Lux Radio Theatre (1942-1948)
• The Red Skelton Program (1944-1949)
• Cavalcade of America (1944)
• The Rudy Vallee Show (1945-1946)
• The Baby Snooks Show (1946)
• The Eddie Cantor Pabst Blue Ribbon Show (1947-1948)
• Sara's Private Caper (1950)
• Life with Luigi (1950-1952)
• The Amos 'n' Andy Show (1950-1955)
• The Jimmy Durante Show

{{colend}}

{{reflist}}

{{Portal|Biography}}

• {{IMDb name|0076700}}
• [https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=Berner,%20Sara&type=Artists Sara Berner] at RadioGOLDIndex
• [http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Saras-Private-Caper.html Sara's Private Caper] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913080843/http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Saras-Private-Caper.html |date=September 13, 2015 }} at The Digital Deli Too

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berner, Sara}}

Category:1912 births

Category:1969 deaths

Category:Actresses from Albany, New York

Category:American film actresses

Category:American radio actresses

Category:Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery

Category:Jewish American actresses

Category:Converts to Judaism

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio people

Category:Walter Lantz Productions people

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:American impressionists (entertainers)