Helen Broderick was a deliciously funny character comedienne with
vaudeville and stage experience, a close friend of
Jeanne Eagels. The story goes, that, at the
age of 14, she ran away from home because her mother (who featured in
operatic comedy) was totally obsessed by the theatre. Ironically,
all the people she met turned out to be performers, and Helen (who
needed to make a living, after all) ended up where she hadn't wanted to
be -- on the stage.
Helen started out as a chorus girl in the first Ziegfeld Follies in 1907.
Her talent for comedy was discovered quite by accident. In 1911, she
was understudy to the actress
Ina Claire in the Broadway play
'Jumping Jupiter'. One night, Claire was unable to perform and Helen
Broderick stood in as the romantic lead. She soon had the audience in
stitches, trampling about the stage like an elephant, rolling her big
saucer eyes and attempting to croon 'Cuddle Near Me All Day Long' in
her rather unique voice. The romance was no more and instead turned
into a popular farce with Helen now permanently installed in the lead
role. For a while, Helen partnered her husband
Lester Crawford in vaudeville. In the
1920's, she enjoyed success on Broadway, most notably in
'Fifty Million
Frenchmen' (a role she took to Hollywood in 1931). Her best parts in
the movies were as the perennial friend or chaperone of the heroine (the type of role subsequently associated with
Eve Arden),
delivering acidic wisecracks in her inimitable dead-pan manner. On several occasions, Helen co-starred with
Victor Moore, one of her previous acting partners on Broadway. However, these efforts were decidedly bottom-of-the-bill. She reserved her amusing best enlivening some of RKO's prestige musicals, especially
Top Hat (1935)
and
Swing Time (1936) with
Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers. Another good part came her way in
The Rage of Paris (1938) (with
Danielle Darrieux).
Helen retired from films in 1946 and died thirteen years later from a stroke at Beverly Hills Doctor's Hospital at the age of 68.
The Mystery Club(1926)
High Speed(1924)
Because of Him(1946)as Nora
Love, Honor and Goodbye(1945)as Mary Riley
Three Is a Family(1944)as Irma
Her Primitive Man(1944)as Mrs. Winthrop
Chip Off the Old Block(1944)as Glory Marlow Sr.
Swing Time(1936)
