Mercury Month - Week #2

Bea Benaderet and Ray Collins are our featured Mercury players this week on the OTR Express.

Benaderet is featured in an early episode of The Great Gildersleeve on this week's show.  She also had a role as Gertrude Gearshift, a telephone operator who gave Jack Benny fits on The Jack Benny Show.  There, she met her second husband, Eugene Twombly, who was the sound effects man.  Sadly, after Benaderet died in 1968, Twombly died on the day of her funeral - four days after her death. 

Ray Collins was at his best playing the white collar heavy on film - the man whose voice threatened violence, but who would never carry out the dirty work himself.  On this program from Suspense called "Marry for Murder", he plays quite a different role, and one that shows his versatility.  I don't know why, but I had to pick one actor from Mercury who you might call Welles' right hand man, I would pick Ray Collins.

Sit back and enjoy these two greats!