American actress (1915?2009)
Joan Alexander
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a1/Joan_Alexander.jpg/220px-Joan_Alexander.jpg) |
Born
| Louise Abrass
(
1915-04-16
)
April 16, 1915
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Died
| May 21, 2009
(2009-05-21)
(aged 94)
New York City, U.S.
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Other names
| Joan Stanton
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Occupation
| Actress
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Years active
| 1941?1968
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Spouses
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Children
| 3
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Joan Alexander
(born
Louise Abrass
; April 16, 1915 ? May 21, 2009)
[1]
was an American actress known for her role as
Lois Lane
on the
radio serial
The Adventures of Superman
and the animated
Fleischer Superman short films
.
[2]
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Alexander was born in
Saint Paul, Minnesota
, to a Lebanese-American family.
[3]
Her father died when she was three,
[3]
and when her mother remarried, the family moved to
Brooklyn
, New York.
[1]
She was sent to attend a
convent school
on
Long Island
.
[3]
She became a model and actress, and studied acting in Europe with Benno Schneider, a director in the
Yiddish theater
.
[3]
Though Abrass later took the first name Joan after the actress
Joan Crawford
, the origin of the name Alexander is unknown, according to her family.
[1]
An early, first marriage in 1944
[3]
to actor
John Sylvester White
, who became known as Principal Woodman on
Welcome Back, Kotter
, was also unknown to Alexander's family until two years before Alexander's death.
[1]
Voice of Lois Lane
[
edit
]
Alexander portrayed
newspaper reporter
Lois Lane
in the
superhero
radio program
The Adventures of Superman
for more than 1,600 episodes.
[2]
The series began in 1940, two years after Superman's debut in the modern-day
DC Comics
'
Action Comics
#1 (June 1938), with Lane first appearing in the seventh episode.
[1]
Though most sources indicate she was not the first actress cast,
[1]
Alexander was cast early in the series' run and became the radio role's signature performer.
[1]
Initially, the show, which ran through to 1951,
[1]
was syndicated through the
Mutual Broadcasting System
's cornerstone station,
WOR
in New York, subsequently taken up by the Mutual network and finally to
ABC
.
[2]
Alexander also was heard on
Dimension X
and
Philo Vance
,
[4]
Against the Storm
[2]
and on
Perry Mason
, in the first portrayal of
supporting character
Della Street
, secretary to defense attorney Mason.
[5]
She also played Althea on
The Brighter Day
on radio.
[6]
Alexander additionally provided Lois Lane's voice in the 1940s
Fleischer Studios
/
Paramount Pictures
(Famous Studios) animated
Superman
shorts
. She reprised the role of
Lois Lane
for one season of the 1966
Filmation
animated series
The New Adventures of Superman
.
[7]
Later life and career
[
edit
]
Following her divorce from White, Alexander married
surgeon
Robert Crowley. Author and
screenwriter
Jane Stanton Hitchcock (born as Jane Crowley) is their daughter.
[8]
After that second marriage ended in divorce, Alexander in 1954
[1]
or 1955
[3]
married Arthur Stanton, chairman of the
Orangeburg, New York
-based World-Wide
Volkswagen
, at the time the distributor of Volkswagen and
Audi
vehicles in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut,
[8]
and which helped introduce the
Volkswagen Beetle
to the U.S.
[3]
Stanton, who died January 20, 1987,
[8]
adopted Alexander and Crowley's daughter, Jane when she was 9 years old. The couple's other children were sons Adam (died 1993) and Timothy. The Stantons entertained at their
Manhattan
apartment on the
Upper East Side
and their home in
East Hampton, New York
; their daughter told
The New York Times
that author
George Plimpton
proposed to his future wife, Freddy Espy, at one party there, that
composer
Leonard Bernstein
sometimes performed at the piano, and that comedy
playwright
Neil Simon
wrote a sketch for the daughter's 21st birthday.
[9]
Alexander appeared on
television
as a regular panelist on the 1951?1955
ABC-TV
game show
The Name's the Same
.
[10]
[11]
She appeared on
Broadway
in
Poor Richard
by
Jean Kerr
in 1964.
[12]
In April 2008, Alexander filed a
lawsuit
against financial adviser
Kenneth I. Starr
, alleging the late Stanton had left Alexander a $70 million estate which, according to court paper, Starr used inappropriately and squandered.
[13]
[14]
Death
[
edit
]
Alexander died on May 21, 2009, at the age of 94 from an intestinal blockage. She is survived by her son Timothy Stanton, his wife Agnes Stanton and grandsons Liam and Conrad Stanton as well as her daughter,
Jane Stanton Hitchcock
.
[1]
[3]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Weber, Bruce. "Joan A. Stanton, Radio Voice of Lois Lane, Dies at 94"
,
The New York Times
, May 22, 2009
- ^
a
b
c
d
Dunning, John (1998).
On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-time Radio
. US: Oxford University Press. pp.
14, 17
.
ISBN
0-19-507678-8
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Bernstein, Adam (May 23, 2009).
"1940s Radio Actress Joan Alexander Dies at 94"
.
The Washington Post
.
- ^
Lackman, Ron (2000).
"Philo Vance"
.
The Encyclopedia of American Radio
. New York: Checkmark Books. p.
222
.
ISBN
0-8160-4137-7
.
- ^
Cox, Jim (1999). "Perry Mason".
The Great Radio Soap Operas: The 31 Classic Daytime Dramas, 1930?60
. McFarland. p. 176.
ISBN
0-7864-0589-9
.
- ^
Dunning, John. (1998).
On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-507678-3
. P. 120.
- ^
Scivally, Bruce (2008).
Superman on Film, Television, Radio and Broadway
. McFarland & Co. p. 72.
ISBN
978-0-7864-3166-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Arthur Stanton, 69, Chairman Of Distributor of Volkswagen"
.
The New York Times
. January 22, 1987
. Retrieved
October 14,
2008
.
- ^
Norwich, William (June 6, 2002).
"At home with: Jane Stanton Hitchcock: In the Land of Toile, Murder Most Foul"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
October 15,
2008
.
- ^
Brooks, Tim (1999).
"Name's the Same"
.
The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946?present
. Earle Marsh. Ballantine Books. p.
712
.
ISBN
0-345-42923-0
.
- ^
Stanton, Joan (July 1, 1982).
Grin and Bear It
. Albert Saifer Publisher.
ISBN
9780875563275
– via Google Books.
- ^
"Internet Broadway Database"
. 2008-10-10.
- ^
Jose Martinez (April 17, 2008).
"Ex-voice of Lois Lane sues, calls adviser man of steal"
.
New York Daily News
.
- ^
Nelson D. Schwartz (June 6, 2010).
"Untangling a Ponzi Scheme With a Hollywood Twist"
.
The New York Times
.
External links
[
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]
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International
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National
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Other
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