Selma Diamond

{{short description|Canadian-American comedian, writer (1920–1985)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Selma Diamond

| image = Diamond1.jpg

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|8|5}}

| birth_place = London, Ontario, Canada

| death_date = {{death date and age|1985|5|13|1920|8|6}}

| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| occupation = {{hlist|Comedian|actress|writer}}

| yearsactive = 1943–1985

| alma_mater = New York University

}}

Selma Diamond (August 5, 1920 – May 13, 1985) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actress, and radio and television writer, known for her high-range, raspy voice and her portrayal of Selma Hacker on the first two seasons of the NBC television comedy series Night Court. Diamond was also the main inspiration for the character of Sally Rogers on the series The Dick Van Dyke Show.{{cite news |title='Night Court' co-star Selma Diamond dead |date=May 14, 1985 |newspaper=The Montreal Gazette |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=A4Y0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=2KUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1175,1921644&dq=selma+diamond&hl=en |agency=Associated Press |access-date=February 12, 2014}}

Early life

Diamond was born on August 5, 1920,{{cite book |last1=Ellett |first1=Ryan |title=Radio Drama and Comedy Writers, 1928-1962 |date=2017 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-6593-1 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SME8DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Selma+Diamond%22&pg=PA61 |access-date=December 29, 2021 |language=en}} in London, Ontario, Canada, to a tailor and his wife. Diamond's grandmother was a suffragette.

{{cite web |title=Selma Diamond |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/diamond-selma |website=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=20 June 2023 |language=en}}
Cue (September 5, 1953).
Newark Evening News, August 28, 1963.
Sunday News, January 19, 1964.

When Diamond was a young girl, they moved to Brooklyn, New York.{{cite news |last1=McManus |first1=Margaret |title=Will Success On TV Spoil Selma Diamond? No Siree! |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91383923/selma-diamond/ |access-date=December 29, 2021 |work=The Courier-Journal |location=Louisville, Kentucky |date=April 9, 1961 |page=Section 6, p 1 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Diamond attended high school in Brooklyn{{cite news |last1=Buder |first1=Leonard |title=Television Rarity: Selma Diamond Is Writer Of Comedy for Video |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1953/09/20/archives/television-rarity-selma-diamond-is-writer-of-comedy-for-video.html |access-date=December 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229034017/https://www.nytimes.com/1953/09/20/archives/television-rarity-selma-diamond-is-writer-of-comedy-for-video.html |archive-date=29 December 2021 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 20, 1953 |page=B8 }} and graduated from New York University.

Career

Diamond published cartoons and humor essays in The New Yorker.{{cite web |title=Selma Diamond |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/50011%7C139219/selma-diamond#biography |website=tcmdb |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=20 June 2023 |language=en}} Later, she moved to the West Coast and hired an agent. She worked in radio and, eventually, television. Her first radio writing credit was in 1943 on Blue Ribbon Town with Groucho Marx.{{cite news |title=Groucho Topping New Pabst Show |url=https://archive.org/details/variety149-1943-02/page/n49/mode/2up?q=%22blue+ribbon+town%22 |page=3 |magazine=Daily Variety |date=February 25, 1943}}{{failed verification|date=April 2023}} That initial credit turned into a 65-week tenure with Marx's show and a longer friendship with him. She also wrote for the Camel Caravan with Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore,{{cite news |title=Georgia Gibbs Collapses in N.Y., Undergoes Op |url=https://archive.org/details/variety156-1944-12/page/n49/mode/2up?q=durante |page=2 |magazine=Daily Variety |date=December 12, 1944}}{{failed verification|date=April 2023}} The Drene Show with Rudy Vallee,{{cite news| title=Don Wilson's New Simms Show Com'l| url=https://archive.org/details/variety159-1945-08/page/n223/mode/2up?q=drene| page=24| magazine=Daily Variety| date=August 30, 1945}}{{failed verification|date=April 2023}} Duffy's Tavern,Daily Variety. January 14, 1946.{{full citation needed|date=April 2023}} and The Kenny Baker Show.Daily Variety. April 2, 1947.{{full citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Diamond wrote for the radio version of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet for 20 weeks.{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=John R. |title=The Adventures of Ozzie Nelson: The Life and Career of America's Favorite Pop |date=2021 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-4369-4 |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oeVFEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Selma+Diamond%22&pg=PA120 |access-date=December 29, 2021 |language=bn}} She left that show in 1950 and became one of the staff hired by comedy writer Goodman Ace (who had previously hired her for some work on Danny Kaye's 1940s radio show) for The Big Show (1950–1952), the 90-minute weekly program hosted by actress Tallulah Bankhead. In 1951-1952, Diamond collaborated with cartoonist Gill Fox, writing for his "Jeanie" comic strip that ran daily in the New York Herald Tribune.{{cite book |last1=Press |first1=Ivy |title=Heritage Comics Auctions, Dallas Signature Auction Catalog #819 |date=December 2005 |publisher=Heritage Capital |isbn=978-1-59967-021-8 |page=345 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fczcDsuwJLQC&dq=%22Selma+Diamond%22&pg=PA345 |access-date=December 29, 2021 |language=en}}

Diamond moved to television as one of the writers for Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca's Your Show of Shows. While writing for another Caesar vehicle, Caesar's Hour, Diamond earned an Emmy nomination. She also worked for Ace once again, writing for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall television series. In 1961, Diamond said about being the only female in a group of five writers for the Como show: "They feel handicapped, not me." At another time, she said, "It's like being Red China. I'm there. They just don't recognize me." Carl Reiner said that he had Diamond in mind when he created Sally Rogers as a character in The Dick Van Dyke Show.

In 1953, she wrote for Milton Berle's TV show. In 1960, she released a comedy album based on her humorous conversational style, Selma Diamond Talks...and Talks and Talks and Talks... (Carleton LPX 5001). In 1970, she wrote the book Nose Jobs for Peace, published by Prentice-Hall ({{ISBN|9780136238270}}).

By the 1960s and 1970s, Diamond was familiar as a frequent guest on The Jack Paar Show{{cite news |last1=Shanley |first1=John P. |title=Selma Diamond: TV Laugh-Maker |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/05/21/archives/selma-diamond-tv-laughmaker.html |access-date=December 29, 2021 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 21, 1961 |page=X 15 |url-access=subscription}} and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and she made numerous film appearances, including Stanley Kramer's comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (as the unseen telephone voice of Spencer Tracy's wife, Ginger Culpepper), Bang the Drum Slowly (as hotel switchboard operator Tootsie), and All of Me (as Margo). In 1982, she appeared in My Favorite Year with a memorable small role as wardrobe mistress for King Kaiser's Comedy Calvalcade, a fictional show which clearly echoed the time and venue of her work for Sid Caesar. She was also a semi-regular for four seasons of the Ted Knight comedy series Too Close For Comfort.

In addition to her writing, Diamond performed as an actress, making her debut in a summer touring version of Bye, Bye Birdie.{{cite news |last1=Wallace |first1=Ken |title=Her talents are writing, acting, and living |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91383498/selma-diamond/ |access-date=December 29, 2021 |newspaper=The Record |location=Hackensack, New Jersey |date=July 16, 1972 |page=B-17 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her other work in summer stock productions included Come Blow Your Horn and Barefoot in the Park.{{cite news |last1=Preston |first1=Marilynn |title=The fans love down-to-earth Selma Diamond |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91382349/selma-diamond/ |access-date=December 29, 2021 |newspaper=Asbury Park-Press |agency=Chicago Tribune |date=January 9, 1985 |page=B17 |via=Newspapers.com}} On television, she portrayed Selma Hacker on Night Court in 1984 and 1985 for which she received her second Emmy nomination.{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Tim |last2=Marsh |first2=Earle F. |title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present |year=2009 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-307-48320-1 |pages=987–988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC&dq=%22Selma+Diamond%22&pg=PA988 |access-date=December 29, 2021 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Selma Diamond Stars in Night Court. |url=https://images.ourontario.ca/london/details.asp?ID=3480162&g=d |website=images.ourontario.ca |access-date=20 June 2023 |language=en}}

Death

Diamond died of lung cancer on May 13, 1985, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, aged 64, with no known family members.{{cite news |title=Selma Diamond, 64, Is Dead; Comedy Writer and Actress |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/14/arts/selma-diamond-64-is-dead-comedy-writer-and-actress.html |access-date=December 29, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=May 14, 1985 |page=B8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108131216/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/14/arts/selma-diamond-64-is-dead-comedy-writer-and-actress.html |archive-date=8 January 2015}}

She was buried in Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, Los Angeles County, California.{{cite book |last1=Ellenberger |first1=Allan R. |title=Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory |date=2001 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5019-0 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZraJCgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Selma+Diamond%22&pg=PA106 |access-date=December 29, 2021 |language=en}}

Filmography

=Film=

Year	Title	Role	class="unsortable" \| Notes
class="wikitable sortable"
1963	It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World	Ginger Culpeper	Voice
1973	Bang The Drum Slowly	Tootsie
1982	My Favorite Year	Lil
rowspan=2 \| 1983	Lovesick	Harriet Singer, M.D.
Twilight Zone: The Movie	Mrs. Weinstein	Segment: "Kick the Can"
1984	All of Me	Margo

=Television=

Year	Title	Role	class="unsortable" \| Notes
class = "wikitable sortable"
1963	Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine	American Scene Magazine Reporter	Episode: "#1.17"
rowspan=3 \| 1972	Arnie	Selma	Episode: "Wilson Tastes Like a Good Candidate Should"
McMillan & Wife	Gas Station Attendant	Episode: "An Elementary Case of Murder"
Magic Carpet	Mrs. Vogel	Television Film
1977	data-sort-value="Edge of Night, The" \| The Edge of Night	Mrs. Yoast	Unknown Episodes
1978	Flying High	Woman in beauty salon	Episode: "Swan Song for an Ugly Duckling"
1980 - 1984	Too Close for Comfort	Mildred Rafkin	08 Episodes
rowspan=4 \| 1983	Archie Bunker's Place	Mrs. Isaacson	Episode: "Three Women"
data-sort-value="Other Woman, The" \| The Other Woman	Aunt Jeanette	Television Film
Nine to Five	Selma	Episode: "The Phantom"
Trapper John, M.D.	Martha	Episode: "What a Difference a Day Makes"
1984	data-sort-value="Ratings Game, The" \| The Ratings Game	Francine's Mother	Television Film (voice only)
1984 - 1985	Night Court	Bailiff Selma Hacker / Selma Hacker	36 Episodes
1985	data-sort-value="Jetsons, The" \| The Jetsons	Di Di	Episode: "Elroy in Wonderland" (voice)
1989	Night Court	Bailiff Selma Hacker	Archive Footage / Episode: "Clip Show: Part 1"