Where To Watch
The actors who played the Baldwin sisters on The Waltons both initially auditioned for Miss Mamie
Mary Jackson knew she was right for Miss Emily, but a clueless casting director insisted she couldn’t do comedy.
In The Waltons episode "The Typewriter," John-Boy swears "no typewriter ever came to mean as much to me, as that old machine I borrowed from Miss Mamie and Miss Emily Baldwin."
If you watch the episode, you know that the only reason the Baldwin sisters agreed to let John-Boy use the typewriter is because he referenced their famous "recipe" as bootleggers in his story.
For the actors who played the Baldwin sisters, Mary Jackson (Miss Emily) and Helen Kleeb (Miss Mamie), they spent the rest of their life refusing to share "the recipe" with fans who stopped them on the street wherever they went to beg for the ingredients list to make their own Baldwin brand moonshine.
It’s hard to imagine The Waltons without the Baldwins, and it’s obvious that Jackson and Kleeb had their own special recipe for making the sisters so entertaining for fans.
When casting for the Baldwin sisters, Earl Hamner and producer Robert Jacks had absolutely no luck finding the right actors, until Kleeb left town one day and gave her agent a number where she could be reached in case anything good came along.
Of course that’s when her agent saw the part of Miss Mamie and knew Kleeb would be perfect, but when she called the number Kleeb left, she discovered that Kleeb had just left and could no longer be reached there.
Waiting to get back in touch with her client, Kleeb’s agent didn’t want her to miss out on the part, so she was insistent to Hamner and Jacks that they had to wait until Kleeb got back before they made any decisions.
In the meantime, Mary Jackson got a call to read for Miss Mamie, too. When they both came in to read, they discovered they were neck-and-neck, up for the same role. And Mary didn’t like that one bit. She knew she’d be much better as Miss Emily.
"I was rather aggravated because the casting director had said I couldn’t play comedy," Jackson told The Ithaca Journal in 1977. "After working with people like Mary Tyler Moore, Shirley Booth and Bert Lahr, I was rather insulted. I’m a professional and knew the part of Emily was right for me."
The casting director had both Helen and Mary read for Miss Mamie, and later when Jackson got offered a part on the show, she was confused but delighted to find out she got the part she originally wanted after all.
"I never in my life got a part the way I got this one," Jackson said. "I knew I was right for Emily, but they had me read for Mamie. When I got the call that I had got the part, I still thought it was Mamie and that the studio people were confusing me with someone else. When they finally told me I was Emily, I asked who was Mamie, and they said Helen Kleeb. It’s the first time I ever got a part I didn’t read for."
For Mary and Helen, they were happy for each other to discover they were cast as sisters and would both be on the show. For it turned out, they didn’t meet for the first time at that audition, but in the unemployment line. Both actors bonded in line discussing how badly they needed the work, and when their next roles finally came along, it’s fitting that they became famous together.
Related
18 Comments
I also loved how the town kept the secret of their bootlegging because they didn't want to destroy the lovely fantasy land they lived in.
In reality, their father sounds like a controlling grifter who kept his daughters like caged birds. I think it's because the town knew how badly the sisters were treated, they kept their secret.
I always thought Mamie was so daffy because she was always slightly tipsy.
http://www.allaboutthewaltons.com/ep-s1/s01-05.php
Nice to read about the actresses though. More examples of true "working actors" in the day. They got many parts reflecting the best of their "acting personalities." How challenging it must've been to reach that age, want to continue doing what you love, having the energy to do it, and wondering where your next compensation was coming from.
(Keep in mind, most supporting actors for those kinds of roles were suggested by Casting or Talent Agencies who knew their work quite well, so it wasn't like they walked in cold to read for a “clueless” director/producer).
It seemed to be bigger and smaller depending on its use.
They always reminded me of these elderly sisters(3 in this case) who lived down the block from us in a big house. They invited us over when we first moved into town when I was 7, and they fed us these delicious little ham sandwiches and lemonade. They were always very nice ladies like the Baldwin sisters, and they always walked by our house on the way to the Catholic church(another thing they had in common with the Baldwin's).
I don't think they made up batches of "recipe" though.
There are subtle differences, and episodes where the story is about one of them. (Like the one late in the series where one is going blind) But yes, without thinking about it, I can say which is Mamie and which is Emilie.
Early episodes, Mrs. Walton won't visit them, because of the Recipe. That changes with the series.
What it really means is that the actor worked their darndest to be memorable and to stand out. What we see today is proof, but can anyone imagine the number of would-be's floating around who hoped for their big break. And that was the purpose of Talent & Casting agencies, to not waste the Production's valuable time in selecting the right person.
(Probably over preaching to "you" ... just using this opportunity as a place to add to the discussion, sorry!).
Helen Kleeb were talented enough that either one of them could play the other character.
The Subsequent Baldwins.
And brother Alec.
The sisters spent the whole series acting like the Recipe was medicinal and they were doing nothing wrong, while the rest of Walton's Mountain played along. They let it pass unless it spread, like the episode where a relative starts selling it.
I think the best episode was the finale. They plan a party for their friends from school, and nobody shows up. They've either died, or moved with no forwarding address.
So the Waltons go over, bringing everyone else. And the sisters make a speech, "we are more like observers than participants". That did define their role on the show, but it's not a negative role.
A nicely spun drama which handled complicated and multiple story-lines with clarity and purpose.