EVE ARDEN

Eunice Quedens, first performance was at age seven, when she won a WCTU medal for her recital of the poem "No Kicka My Dog." After graduating from high school, she became a actress on the California stock company circuit. She played a seductress in the Columbia talkie, Song of Love (1929) then joined a touring theater. After her performance in Dancing Lady(1933), she wanted to change her name for professional reasons. Supposedly she came up with the idea for her new name from a container of Elizabeth Arden cold cream. Several performances in Ziegfeld Follies followed, and in 1937 Arden returned to films as a character actress. From Stage Door(1937), she was typecast as the sarcastic "best friend" who seldom got the man but always had the best lines. A couple of her best known film roles was in Cover Girl (1944) and The Doughgirls (1944). She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in Mildred Pierce (1945). In July of 1948, she performed the popular radio comedy Our Miss Brooks. Our Miss Brooks was transferred to television in 1952, running five seasons. Next was the less successful 1957 The Eve Arden Show. This failure was long forgotten by her stage performances as Auntie Mame and Hello, Dolly! and her well liked film performances in Anatomy of a Murder(1959) and Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960). In 1967, she returned to TV to co-star with Kaye Ballard on The Mothers-in-Law which lasted two years. And in 1978, she became known to a new generation with her performance as Principal McGee in the film version of Broadway's Grease. In 1985, Eve Arden came out with her autobiography, The Three Phases of Eve.

MY FAVORITE EVE ARDEN PERFORMANCES:

Stage Door (1937)
Eternally Yours (1939)
That Uncertain Feeling(1941)
Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Cover Girl (1944)
Mildred Pierce (1945) Click to view Movie Clip from MILDRED PIERCE.
My Dream Is Yours (1949)
Tea for Two(1950)
BUtterfield 8 (1960)