Billie Burke (1948)

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Billie Burke, a wonderful character player in countless films,  is best remembered as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in MGM's THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), but it is not as well known that she appeared in two comedy shorts for Columbia in the late 1940's.

Directors Ed Bernds and Jules White both made wise choices by placing the slapstick and wild antics in the hands of the supporting players.

Of the two shorts Billie made, only BILLIE GETS HER MAN is currently available through our archives.

 



SILLY BILLY (1/29/48) D: Jules White. Virginia Hunter, Myron Healy, Tim Ryan, Ruby Dandridge, Emil Sitka, Blackie Whiteford, Cy Schindell. Billie invites the father of her daughters fiance to her home, mistaking him for the fiance. TRIVIA: The original working title was STRIFE WITH MOTHER. Reissued theatrically in October, 1953.



BILLIE GETS HER MAN (9/9/48) D: Edward Bernds. Patsy Moran, Dick Wessel, Emil Sitka, Gay Nelson, Jimmy Lloyd, Andre Pola, Symona Boniface, Stanley Ince, Cy Schindell, Harold Brauer, Johnny Kascier, Wanda Perry, Teddy Mangean, Virginia Ellsworth, Dee Green, Maudie Prickett, Charles Heine Conklin. Billie is trying to decide whether to marry an old friend, now a millionaire, when she gets the mistaken idea that her daughter is pregnant. TRIVIA: During production, actor Emil Sitka received a broken nose when he was hit in the face with a breakaway vase.