Josephine Madonna Davis (June 29, 1912 – May 23, 1961), known professionally as Joan Davis, was an American comedic actress whose career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television. Remembered best for the 1950s television comedy I Married Joan, Davis had a successful earlier career as a screen actress (notably in the Abbott and Costello comedy Hold That Ghost), and a leading star of 1940s radio comedy.

Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, she was the only child of LeRoy Davis and Nina Mae (née Sinks) Davis, who were married in St. Paul on November 23, 1910. Davis had been a performer since childhood. She appeared with her husband Si Wills in vaudeville.

Davis was also a regular on Eddie Cantor's Time to Smile program. Davis had an affair with Cantor over the course of four years. Writer Budd Schulberg commented, "Everybody knew about the affair with Joan Davis -- everybody in the business." The relationship culminated in her divorce from Si Wills in December 1947, while the Cantor-Davis film If You Knew Susie was in production. After the divorce was finalized and the picture was completed, Davis and Cantor went their separate ways.

Television

Davis was the star of the unsold pilot Let's Join Joanie, recorded in 1950. The proposed series was a television adaptation of Leave It to Joan.

When I Love Lucy premiered in October 1951 on the CBS network and became a top-rated TV series, sponsors wanted more of the same, I Married Joan experienced greater success in syndication; it was one of the early series to succeed with local stations.

In 1956, a year after I Married Joan ended its primetime run, Davis was approached by ABC to star in The Joan Davis Show. The premise of this series had Davis playing a musical-comedy entertainer who had raised a daughter on her own. Davis used her real name as the lead character. Veteran actress Hope Summers was cast as Joan's housekeeper, and Wills was signed to play Joan's daughter, also named Beverly. Ray Ferrell was cast as Joan's grandson Stevie. In the pilot, Joan was introduced to her five-year-old grandson for the first time and was trying to convince Beverly, despite her hectic show-business schedule and her somewhat zany personality, that she was a loving and responsible grandmother. The pilot did not sell as a series for ABC. It was forgotten among Davis' television work until many years later when the Museum of Television and Radio in New York discovered the program and added it to its collection.

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|1935

|Millions in the Air

|Singer

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|1936

|Bunker Bean

|Mabel, Bunker's Secretary

|Uncredited

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|1937

|The Holy Terror

|Lili

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|1937

|On the Avenue

|Miss Katz – Dibble's Secretary

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|1937

|Time Out for Romance

|Midge Dooley

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|1937

|The Great Hospital Mystery

|Flossie Duff

|Alternative title: Dead Yesterday

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|1937

|Angel's Holiday

|Strivers

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|1937

|Sing and Be Happy

|Myrtle

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|1937

|You Can't Have Everything

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|Uncredited

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|1937

|Wake Up and Live

|Spanish Dancer

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|1937

|Thin Ice

|Orchestra Leader

|Alternative titles: Lovely to Look at<br />Der Komet

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|1937

|Life Begins in College

|Inez

|Alternative titles: Life Begins at College<br />The Joy Parade

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|1937

|Love and Hisses

|Joan

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|1938

|Keep Smiling

|Self

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|1938

|Sally, Irene and Mary

|Irene Keene

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|1938

| Josette

|May Morris

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|1938

|My Lucky Star

|Mary Dwight

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|1938

|Hold That Co-ed

|Lizzie Olsen

|Alternative title: Hold That Girl

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|1938

|Just Around the Corner

|Kitty

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|1939

|Tail Spin

|Babe Dugan

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|1939

|Too Busy to Work

|Lolly

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|1939

|Day-Time Wife

|Joyce Applegate

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|1940

|Free, Blonde and 21

|Nellie

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|1940

|Sailor's Lady

|Myrtle

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|1940

|Manhattan Heartbeat

|Edna Higgins

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|1941

|For Beauty's Sake

|Dottie Nickerson

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|1941

|Hold That Ghost

|Camille Brewster

|Alternative title: Oh, Charlie

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|1941

|Sun Valley Serenade

|Miss Carstairs

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|1941

|Two Latins from Manhattan

|Joan Daley

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|1942

|Yokel Boy

|Molly Malone

|Alternative title: Hitting the Headlines

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|1942

|Sweetheart of the Fleet

|Phoebe Weyms

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|1943

|He's My Guy

|Madge Donovan

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|1943

|Two Señoritas from Chicago

|Daisy Baker

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|1943

|Around the World

|Joan Davis

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|1944

|Beautiful But Broke

|Dottie Duncan

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|1944

|Show Business

|Joan Mason

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|1944

|Kansas City Kitty

|Polly Jasper

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|1945

|She Gets her Man

|Jane "Pilky" Pilkington

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|1945

|George White's Scandals of 1945

|Joan Mason

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|1946

|She Wrote the Book

|Jane Featherstone

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|1948

|If You Knew Susie

|Susie Parker

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|1949

|Make Mine Laughs

|compilation feature of musical and comedy sketches, including the "Who Killed Vaudeville?" number from George White's Scandals

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|1950

|The Traveling Saleswoman

|Mabel King

|Producer

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|1950

|Love That Brute

|Mamie Sage

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|1950

|Let's Join Joanie

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|Unaired CBS pilot

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|1952

|Harem Girl

|Susie Perkins

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|1952-1955

|I Married Joan

|Joan Stevens

|99 episodes<br />Producer

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</references>

Further reading

  • Ohmart, Ben. Hold That Joan – The Life, Laughs & Films of Joan Davis. Albany: BearManor Media, 2007.
  • Rapp, Philip. The Television Scripts of Philip Rapp. Albany: BearManor Media, 2006. .
  • Karol, Michael. Sitcom Queens: Divas of the Small Screen. iUniverse, 2006. pp.&nbsp;22–24. .
  • Literature on Joan Davis