right|thumb|150px|Jack Seidel illustrated the My Friend Irma comic strip which began September 11, 1950.
thumb|150px|In the television version, Sid Tomack played Irma's boyfriend, Al.
thumb|150px|Marie Wilson and [[Mary Shipp 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
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.
External links
- My friend Irma on Old Time Radio Outlaws