Page 11 - 5890 PEOMG Issue 4 Flipbook

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Summers’ work. Her picture
of the young Helena — eager,
curious, ardent and swayed
visibly by many criss-cross eddies
of emotion — was unforgettably
charming. There were warmth
and tenderness and an irresistible
appeal in the portrait in the
quivering curves of the young
mouth, the sorrow and sympathy
in the eyes and the throb of pity
in the round white throat.”
In June 1927, she left Bradley
to marry Peoria businessman
Claude James Witherell and
moved to Winnetka, Ill. There
Hope started her professional
acting career, which would keep
her constantly employed until the
day she died.
Hope Summers began to
become known for her regional
theater work. Her one-woman
show, “Backstage on Broadway,”
was successful enough to enable
her to crack the competitive
Chicago radio market with scores
of radio dramas. In 1951 she was
cast as Belinda Catherwood in the
world’s first successful television
soap opera, “Hawkins Falls,”
which was filmed live in Chicago.
Hope’s plain matronly
nurturing physical attributes
enabled her to assume many
character roles for hundreds of
early television shows of the
1950s and 1960s. You can catch
her performances on reruns of
such beloved series as “Wagon
Train,” “Maverick,” “Loretta
Young Show,” “Alfred Hitchcock
Presents,” “Peter Gunn,” “Dennis
the Menace,” “Dr. Kildare,” The
Untouchables,” “Gunsmoke,”
“Hazel,” “My Three Sons,”
“The Dick Van Dyke Show,”
“Petticoat Junction,” “The Beverly
Hillbillies,” “Gomer Pyle,”
”Bewitched,” Hawaii Five-0,”
“MASH,” and “Little House on
the Prairie” to name just a small
number.
Two television series were
standouts for Hope’s career and
made her internationally famous.
The first was the western “The
Rifleman” (1958-1963) starring
Chuck Connors. Hope played
Hattie Denton, the mother figure
for the motherless McCains,
always ready to serve her chicken
soup and greens, mend wounds,
and babysit at a moment’s notice.
Contiued of page 12
The Past
11
thePeorian.com
The Rifleman (1958-63)
The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68)