Joan Davis (1907-1961)

biography

Born Madonna Josephine Davis in St. Paul, Minnesota, on June 29, 1907, zany comedienne Joan Davis began her show business career in vaudeville as a child. Her comedy routines were a hit with audiences, but as Davis began to mature into a young woman, she was forced into retirement by audiences who were used to seeing her as preadolescent. After graduating from high school, she took a few menial jobs and, still longing for the stage, returned to vaudeville. But by the late 1920s, with the advent and acceptance of sound films, vaudeville was beginning to perish. In the summer of 1931, Davis married vaudeville veteran straight man Si Wills, with whom she had become a comedy act; two years later their daughter Beverly was born. By the mid 1930s, Davis made her way to California in an attempt to break into films. She was almost immediately successful, securing a role in the Mack Sennett short Way Up Thar in 1935. Upon the release of the short in 1935, RKO signed Davis to a contract, but Davis and RKO parted ways soon after. In 1937, 20th Century-Fox put her under contract with much greater success.

Davis's contract at Fox lapsed in 1941, which allowed her to freelance at other studios. She also began building a radio following at this time, joining the cast of Rudy Vallee's radio show. When Vallee entered the service during World War II, Davis took over the program. In 1945, she went to CBS to star in her own radio show and was the highest paid female radio performer for a period of time. With the frantic pace of making films and doing radio, her marriage to Wills began to suffer, and the couple parted ways in 1947. Davis continued making movies through 1952, when her final film Harem Girl was released.

the films of joan davis

Life Begins at College (1937)

Thin Ice (1937)

Time Out for Romance (1937)

For Beauty's Sake (1941)

Hold That Ghost (1941)

Sweetheart of the Fleet (1942)

He's My Guy (1943)

She Gets Her Man (1945)

She Wrote the Book (1946)

The Groom Wore Spurs (1951)

later years

Jumping ship from radio to television, Davis started her own production company, which produced Davis's NBC comedy I Married Joan from 1952 through 1955. Somewhat surprising is that she hired ex-husband Si Wills to write for the series. Davis also cast her daughter Beverly Wills in the role of Joan's younger sister. After I Married Joan left the air in 1955, the wealthy Davis more or less retired. She shot a few pilots for proposed TV programs, but none were successful in finding a network. On May 22, 1961, Davis suffered a heart attack and died in Palm Springs at the age of 53. Her daughter and ex-husband made headlines after her death, wrangling over the million-dollar estate of Joan Davis, which was eventually settled in favor of her daughter. Tragically, on October 24, 1963, Davis's daughter Beverly Wills fell asleep smoking a cigarette; her Palm Springs home caught fire, killing her, her two sons, and Davis's mother.

joan davis films available from movies unlimited

TELEVISION
I Married Joan: Classic TV Collection #1 [DVD] DVD
This special collection includes the episodes "The Prizefighter," "Wall Safe," "Joan's Haircut," "Changing Houses," "Talent Scout," "Bad Boy," "Honeymoon," "Home Movies," "New House," "Neighbors," "Alienation," and "Sister Pat." 318 min. total on two discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English; biographies.
I Married Joan: Classic TV Collection #2 [DVD] DVD
This special collector's set includes the episodes "Home of the Week," "Acrobats," "Mabel's Dress," "Bev's Boyfriend," "Mountain Lodge," "Broken Toe," "Dreams," "The Jailbird," Clothes Budget," "Class Reunion," "Allergy," and "Jealousy." 6 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; biographies.
I Married Joan, Vol. 1 [DVD] DVD
Includes "Prize Fighter," "Wall Safe," "Joan's Haircut," "Changing Houses," "Talent Scout," and "Bad Boy." 150 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; biographies.
I Married Joan, Vol. 2 [DVD] DVD
Includes "Honeymoon," "Home Movies," "New House," "Neighbors," "Alienation," and "Sister Pat." 150 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; biographies.
I Married Joan, Vol. 3 [DVD] DVD
Includes "Home of the Week," "Acrobats," "Mabel's Dress," "Bev's Boyfriend," "Mountain Lodge," and "Broken Toe." 150 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; biographies.
I Married Joan, Vol. 4 [DVD] DVD
Includes "Dreams," "The Jailbird," "Clothes Budget," "Class Reunion," "The Allergy," and "Jealousy." 150 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; biographies.

FILM
The Holy Terror [DVD](1937) DVD
While putting on musical shows for the troops, a Naval Air Service officer's talented young daughter (child star Jane Withers) uncovers a spy ring that wants to use the cafe where she performs as its HQ. With the help of her aviator pals, Withers puts an end to the scheme in this lively musical comedy. Tony Martin, Leah Ray, El Brendel, and Joe E. Lewis also star; songs include "There I Go Again," "Everybody Swing." 68 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English.
On The Avenue [DVD](1937) DVD
Frolicsome musical-comedy with Dick Powell as a Broadway impresario who produces a satirical musical starring Alice Faye as "The Richest Girl in the World." When the woman Faye plays appears at the theater outraged, Powell falls for her, setting in motion all sorts of wacky events. Madeleine Carroll and the Ritz Brothers co-star; among the Irving Berlin tunes is "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm." 89 min. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital stereo, Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, Spanish, French; audio commentary; featurettes; deleted scene; photo gallery.
The Alice Faye Collection [DVD] DVD
"On the Avenue" (1937) stars Dick Powell as a Broadway impresario who produces a satirical musical starring Alice Faye as "The Richest Girl in the World." When the woman Faye plays appears at the theater outraged, Powell falls for her, setting in motion all sorts of wacky events. Madeleine Carroll and the Ritz Brothers co-star; among the Irving Berlin tunes is "I've Got Love to Keep Me Warm." Four-disc set also includes "Lillian Russell," "The Gang's All Here" (1943) and "That Night in Rio." 6 3/4 hrs. total.
Just Around The Corner (B&W/Color Versions) [DVD](1938) DVD
When her architect father loses his job, it's up to little Shirley Temple to talk a miserly tycoon into creating new jobs to help out Depression-riddled America. Winning musical tale also stars Bill Robinson, Charles Farrell, Bert Lahr; songs include "I'll Be Lucky with You," "I'm Not Myself Today." Includes both the original black-and-white and the newly colorized versions. 70 min. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital stereo, Dolby Digital mono, Spanish Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, Spanish; newsreel footage; theatrical trailers.
Tyrone Power: Matinee Idol Collection [DVD] DVD
Tyrone Power's first film for 20th Century Fox, "Girls' Dormitory" (1936) tells the story of a young student (Simone Simon) who falls for the headmaster (Herbert Marshall) of a Swiss private school. "Love Is News" (1937) for reporter Power when financier's daughter Loretta Young lies about their engagement. A man (Power) romances a wealthy heiress (Young) in order to get out of debt, in "Cafe Metropole" (1937). A bored newlywed (Young) turns her attention back to her first husband (Power), in "Second Honeymoon" (1937). The wife (Linda Darnell) of an executive (Power) takes a job as a secretary for a playboy architect (Warren William), in "Day-Time Wife" (1939). A college grad (Power) reinvents himself as the gangster "Johnny Apollo" (1940). Power stars as a military deserter who starts dating an upper-crust girl (Joan Fontaine), in "This Above All" (1942). A New Yorker (Power) goes to Ireland where he meets a woman--and a leprechaun--in "The Luck of the Irish" (1948). Power teams with Gene Tierney in "That Wonderful Urge" (1948), an upbeat remake of "Love Is News." And, a scientist (Power) travels back in time and falls in love with a beautiful woman, in "I'll Never Forget You" (1951). 14 hrs. total. Five-disc set.
The Best Of Bud Abbott And Lou Costello, Vol. 1 [DVD] DVD
Abbott and Costello's screen debut finds them as detectives cracking an insurance scam in "One Night in the Tropics" (1940); boot camp becomes a course in basic comedy training in the team's first starring film, "Buck Privates" (1941); the boys set sail for seafaring silliness in the service comedy "In the Navy" (1941); there are high spirits when the pair get trapped in a haunted house in "Hold That Ghost!" (1941); take off for laughs with the duo as would-be pilots in "Keep 'Em Flying" (1941); "Ride 'Em Cowboy" (1942) has them as city slickers-turned-comical cowhands; Chicago bus drivers Bud and Lou take a really wrong turn in "Pardon My Sarong" (1942); and, in "Who Done It?" (1942), they're private eyes "helping" the police catch a killer. 11 hrs. on two discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: French, Spanish.
Show Business [DVD](1944) DVD
Eddie Cantor produced and stars in this spry musical tour through vaudeville history, loosely based on his own experiences. The film follows a group of aspiring performers (Cantor, Joan Davis, George Murphy, and Constance Moore) as they experience the ups and downs of life on the road to stardom. Features the songs "It Had to Be You," "Dinah," "Makin' Whoopee," "Alabamy Bound," and more. 92 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.
George White's Scandals [DVD](1945) DVD
Loosely based on the hit Broadway revue, this musical comedy chronicles the backstage romance of two stage performers (Joan Davis and Jack Haley) and the trouble they face from Haley's disapproving sister (Haley's "The Wizard of Oz" co-star Margaret Hamilton). With Martha Holliday, Phillip Terry, Glenn Tyron, and Gene Krupa and His Band. Songs include "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)," "Wishing (Will Make It So)," "How'd You Get Out of My Dreams?," and more. 95 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.
If You Knew Susie [DVD](1948) DVD
A husband-and-wife vaudevillian duo (Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis) retires to a small New England town where they're shunned by the locals, most of whom can trace their family lines back to one Revolutionary War hero or another. But all that changes when a promissory note that proves George Washington owed one of Cantor's ancestors a large sum of money makes them celebrities. Allyn Joslyn, Charles Dingle co-star in this peppy musical comedy. Songs include the title tune, "What Do I Want with Money," and more. 90 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.
The Groom Wore Spurs (1951)/Oklahoma Annie [DVD](1951) DVD
Jack Carson is a Hollywood cowpoke with a rough-and-tumble image onscreen, but who is a pushover in reality. After getting in trouble with gambling and gals in Las Vegas, he calls on lawyer Ginger Rogers, and sparks soon fly, in "The Groom Wore Spurs." Joan Davis also stars. Then, shopkeeper-turned-deputy Judy Canova helps sheriff beau John Russell clean up a crooked frontier town in the wild western/comedy "Oklahoma Annie." With Fuzzy Knight, Denver Pyle. 171 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; newsreel footage.

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filmography

FILM
Harem Girl (1952) with Peggie Castle
The Groom Wore Spurs (1951) with Ginger Rogers and Jack Carson
Traveling Saleswoman (1950) with Adele Jergens
Love That Brute (1950) with Jean Peters and Cesar Romero
Make Mine Laughs (1949) with Dennis Day
If You Knew Susie (1948) with Eddie Cantor
She Wrote the Book (1946) with Jack Oakie
George White's Scandals (1945) with Jack Haley and Phillip Terry
She Gets Her Man (1945) with Leon Errol
Show Business (1944) with Eddie Cantor and Nancy Kelly
Kansas City Kitty (1944) with Jane Frazee
Beautiful But Broke (1944) with Jane Frazee
Around the World (1943) with Mischa Auer and Kay Kyser
Two Senoritas From Chicago (1943) with Jinx Falkenburg and Ann Savage
He's My Guy (1943) with Dick Foran
Sweetheart of the Fleet (1942) with Jinx Falkenburg and Lloyd Bridges
Yokel Boy (1942) with Albert Dekker
Two Latins from Manhattan (1941) with Jinx Falkenburg and Lloyd Bridges
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) with John Payne, Sonja Henie, and Milton Berle
Hold That Ghost (1941) with Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Richard Carlson, Evelyn Ankers, and Shemp Howard
For Beauty's Sake (1941) with Marjorie Weaver
Manhattan Heartbeat (1940) with Robert Sterling
Sailor's Lady (1940) with Jon Hall, Buster Crabbe, Nancy Kelly, and Dana Andrews
Free, Blonde and 21 (1940) with Mary Beth Hughes, Lynn Bari, and Elyse Knox
Too Busy to Work (1939) with Spring Byington
Day-Time Wife (1939) with Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell
Tail Spin (1939) with Alice Faye, Constance Bennett, Kane Richmond, and Nancy Kelly
Hold That Co-ed (1938) with John Barrymore, Jack Haley, Ruth Terry, and Glenn Morris
My Lucky Star (1938) with Sonja Henie and Cesar Romero
Just Around the Corner (1938) with Shirley Temple and Charles Farrell
Josette (1938) with Don Ameche, Robert Young, and Simone Simon
Sally, Irene and Mary (1938) with Alice Faye, Fred Allen, and Tony Martin
Angel's Holiday (1937) with Jane Withers, Sally Blane, and Lon Chaney Jr.
Life Begins in College (1937) with the Ritz Brothers, Nat Pendleton, and Tony Martin
Love and Hisses (1937) with Simone Simon and Ruth Terry
Thin Ice (1937) with Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power
Wake Up and Live (1937) with Alice Faye, Patsy Kelly, and Jack Haley
Sing and Be Happy (1937) with Tony Martin
The Great Hospital Mystery (1937) with Sally Blane, William Demarest, and Jane Darwell
On the Avenue (1937) with Dick Powell, Alice Faye, and the Ritz Brothers
Time Out for Romance (1937) with Claire Trevor
The Holy Terror (1937) with Jane Withers, Tony Martin, and Joe E. Lewis
Millions in the Air (1935) with John Howard and Robert Cummings

TELEVISION SERIES
I Married Joan, 1952-1955 NBC TV series. Davis portrayed Joan Stevens. Davis's daughter Beverly Wills also made frequent appearances on the show, cast in the role of Joan's younger sister Beverly

joan davis now showing

Watch Joan Davis in the 1951 Universal comedy The Groom Wore Spurs