Mary Tomlinson, professionally known as Marjorie Main, was an American character actress and singer of the Classical Hollywood period, best known as MGM contract player in the 1940s and 1950s, and for her role as Ma Kettle in 10 Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Main started her career in vaudeville and theatre, and appeared in Dead End (1937), The Women (1939), Dark Command (1940), The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and Friendly Persuasion (1956).
Mary Tomlinson was born on February 24, 1890, near Acton, in rural Marion County, Indiana. She was the second daughter of Reverend Samuel J. Tomlinson, a Disciples of Christ minister, and Jennie L. (McGaughey) Tomlinson. Mary’s maternal grandfather, Doctor Samuel McGaughey, was the Acton physician who delivered her.
At the age of 3, Tomlinson moved with family to Indianapolis, Indiana, where her father was pastor of Hillside Christian Church. Four years later, they moved to Goshen and then Elkhart, Indiana. In the early 1900s, the Tomlinson family settled on a farm near Fairland, Indiana.
After attending public schools in Fairland and Shelbyville, Tomlinson spent a year (1905–06) at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, where she was charter member of what became the present-day Delta Delta Delta sorority, before transferring to the Hamilton School of Dramatic Expression in Lexington, Kentucky. She completed a three-year course of study in 1909 at the age of 19.
After graduation, Tomlinson served as dramatics instructor at Bourbon College in Paris, Kentucky. She later claimed that she was fired from the position after asking for a salary increase.
After Tomlinson left Kentucky, she studied dramatic arts in Chicago and NYC, despite her father’s disapproval of career choice.
Tomlinson adopted the stage name of Marjorie Main during her early acting career to avoid embarrassing her family.
Main married widower Stanley LeFevre Krebs, a psychologist and lecturer, on November 2, 1921. They met while she performed on the Chautauqua circuit. Main accompanied Krebs on the lecture circuit, handling the details of their life on the road. They had no children together, and made their home in New York.
Main performed with touring companies and in New York theaters on part-time basis throughout her marriage. She also began her Hollywood film career in 1931. Main considered this period “the happiest years of her life.” She returned to full-time acting career after Krebs died of cancer on September 26, 1935.
By her accounts, the marriage was happy, but not particularly close. Main claimed to be “brokenhearted” following her husband’s death–it was “like losing a good friend. Like part of the family.”
Main’s biographer, Michelle Vogel, quotes a later interview in which the actress related: “Dr. Krebs wasn’t very practical man. I didn’t figure on having to run the show, I kinda tired of it after few years. We pretty much went our own ways, but we were still in the eyes of the law, man and wife.”
Main had long-term relationship with actress Spring Byington.
Main began her professional career touring in Chautauqua presentations with a Shakespearean repertory company. After performing for 5 months in a stock company in Fargo, North Dakota, she began working in vaudeville.
In the mid 1910s, Main appeared in several plays, which included touring in Cheating Cheaters with John Barrymore in 1916. She also debuted in the Broadway theatre in Yes or No in 1918. In addition, Main returned to vaudeville to perform at the Palace Theater in a skit called The Family Ford with comedian W. C. Fields. Not all of the early plays in which she appeared were a success. A House Divided closed in 1923 after just one performance, but Main continued to find work on the Broadway stage.
Playing Mae West’s Mother
In 1927, she played Mae West’s mother in The Wicked Age, and in 1928, played opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the long-running stage hit Burlesque.
Main also appeared in other Broadway productions: Salvation in 1928, Scarlet Sister Mary in 1930, Ebb Tide in 1931, Music in the Air in 1932, and Jackson White.
One of Main’s highest-profile performances was in 1935’s Dead End as Mrs. Martin, the mother of gangster Baby Face Martin. She played the role in 460 performances before leaving the show in 1936 to play Lucy, a hotel-keeper-dude-ranch operator, in The Women. Main recreated these two roles in film versions of the plays in 1937 and 1939, respectively.
One of Main’s first feature-films was as extra in A House Divided (1931). She also appeared in Take A Chance (1933) and Crime Without Passion (1934). She recreated her stage role as a servant in the film version of Music in the Air (also 1934), but most of her performance was cut. Main also made few films in Hollywood in the 1930s before returning to the stage in N.Y.
Samuel Goldwyn signed Main to reprise her stage role as the mother of a gangster for the film version of Dead End (1937). Humphrey Bogart was cast as her son. She transferred another strong stage performance to film as the dude-ranch operator in The Women (1939).
Main portrayed diverse set of characters in films for different studios. These included roles where she was cast as a mother, prison matron, a landlady, aunt, secretary, and rental agent.
Main was signed to 7-year MGM contract in 1940, after starring with Wallace Beery in Wyoming (1940). She also co-starred in Dark Command (1940) with Walter Pidgeon. She appeared in six major films in 1941.
During World War II, Main used her stage and film fame to help promote sale of war bonds for the U.S. War Department. In December 1942, she returned for visit to central Indiana, where she helped sell more than $500,000 in war bonds.
In the mid-1940s, in attempt to repeat the success Wallace Beery had in teaming with Marie Dressler in the early 1930s, MGM cast Main opposite Beery in 6 more films, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946). She also played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946).
Main’s best-known role was Ma Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle film series.
She had renewed contract with MGM for another 7 years, which continued until the mid-1950s, when the studio lent her to Universal to play Ma Kettle for the first time in The Egg and I (1947), starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. Main played opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
The two Kettle characters was so popular among audiences that Universal decided to do a series. Main portrayed the Ma Kettle character in 9 Ma and Pa Kettle films between 1949 and 1957.
Kilbride was her co-star in most of the films, but left after Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955), the seventh in the series.[18] Main filmed The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956) without Kilbride. Parker Fennelly played the Pa Kettle role opposite Main in the final film of the series, The Kettles on Old MacDonald’s Farm (1957).
Each film grossed Universal about $3 million, which helped save the studio from a financial collapse. In addition to acting in the films, Main wrote some of the dialogue for her character and created her costumes and make-up.
Main shuttled back and forth between Universal Studios and MGM. She appeared in several MGM musicals during the 1940s and early 1950s, including, Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and The Belle of New York (1952). She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio’s all-star film It’s a Big Country (1951). Main played her last roles for MGM as Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer (1954) and as Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie (1954). Main portrayed the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion (1956). Main’s final film appearance was in her best-known role as Ma Kettle in The Kettles on Old MacDonald’s Farm (1957).
On December 15, 1941, she was part of the cast of Norman Corwin’s radio program We Hold These Truths.[19] She also performed in The Goldbergs.
In 1958, Main appeared as a rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes “The Cassie Tanner Story” and “The Sacramento Story” of the television series Wagon Train.
After her retirement from acting, Main lived a quiet, secluded life in Los Angeles. She became interested in spiritualism and the Moral Re-Armament movement.
Main died of lung cancer on April 10, 1975, at the age of 85 at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been admitted on April 3.[20][21] Main is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California, beside her husband, Doctor Stanley Krebs.[22][23]
Main, who is best known for playing “raucous, rough, and cantankerous women” on-screen, was characterized as “soft-spoken, shy,” and “dignified” when she was off-screen.
Main became a popular character actress of the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in diverse roles on stage and in more than 80 films, including Dead End (1937), Dark Command (1940), The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and Friendly Persuasion (1956), but is best known for her Ma Kettle role in the Ma and Pa Kettle film series.
The “cornball humor” of the Kettle films endured in TV shows, such as The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres, of the 1960s.
Theatre performances
1916 Cheating Cheaters, A touring show
1918 Yes or No
1923 A House Divided, Closed after one show
1927 The Wicked Age
1928 Salvation[9]
1928 Burlesque[9]
1930 Scarlet Sister Mary[9]
1931 Ebb Tide[9]
1932 Music in the Air[9]
1935 Jackson White[9]
1935 Dead End[10]
1936 The Women
Filmography
1929 Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties, Statler Hotel Beauty Short, Uncredited
1931 A House Divided Woman at wedding, Uncredited
1932 Broken Lullaby Frau Schmidt Uncredited
1932 Hot Saturday Gossip in Window Uncredited
1933 New Deal Rhythm Delegate from Arizona Short, Uncredited
1933 Close Relations Woman in Depot Short, Uncredited
1934 Art Trouble Woman Who Sits on Painting Short, Uncredited
1934 Crime Without Passion, Backstage Wardrobe Woman Uncredited
1934 Music in the Air, Anna
1935 Naughty Marietta Casquette Girl, Uncredited
1937 Love in a Bungalow Miss Emma Bisbee
1937 Stella Dallas Mrs. Martin
1937 Dead End, Mrs. Martin
1937 The Man Who Cried Wolf Amelia Bradley
1937 The Wrong Road Martha Foster
1937 Boy of the Streets Mrs. Mary Brennan
1937 The Shadow Hannah Gillespie
1938 City Girl Mrs. Ward Uncredited
1938 Penitentiary Katie Matthews, Uncredited
1938 King of the Newsboys Mrs. Stephens, Uncredited
1938 Test Pilot Landlady
1938 Three Comrades Old Woman by Phone, Uncredited
1938 Romance of the Limberlost Nora
1938 Prison Farm Matron Brand
1938 Little Tough Guy Mrs. Boylan
1938 Under the Big Top Sara Post
1938 Too Hot to Handle Miss Kitty Wayne Alternative title: Let ‘Em All Talk
1938 Girls’ School Miss Honore Armstrong
1938 There Goes My Heart Fireless Cooker Customer, Uncredited
1939 Lucky Night Mrs. Briggs
1939 They Shall Have Music Mrs. Miller
1939 The Angels Wash Their Faces Mrs. Arkelian
1939 The Women, Lucy, Dude Ranch Owner
1939 Another Thin Man Mrs. Dolley, Landlady Chestevere Apartments
1939 Two Thoroughbreds Hildegarde ‘Hildy’ Carey
1940 I Take This Woman Gertie
1940 Women Without Names Matron Lowery
1940 Dark Command[17] Mrs. Cantrell, aka Mrs. Adams
1940 Turnabout Nora, the cook
1940 Susan and God Mary Maloney (aka The Gay Mrs. Trexel)
1940 The Captain Is a Lady Sarah May Willett
1940 Wyoming
1941 The Wild Man of Borneo Irma
1941 The Trial of Mary Dugan Mrs. Collins
1941 Barnacle Bill Marge Cavendish
1941 A Woman’s Face Emma Kristiansdotter
1941 The Shepherd of the Hills, Granny Becky
1941 Honky Tonk Mrs. Varner
1942 The Bugle Sounds Susie “Suz”
1942 We Were Dancing Judge Sidney Hawkes
1942 The Affairs of Martha Mrs. McKessic
1942 Jackass Mail Clementine ‘Tina’ Tucker
1942 Tish Letitia “Tish” Carberry
1942 Tennessee Johnson Mrs. Maude Fisher Alternative title: The Man on America’s Conscience
1943 Heaven Can Wait Mrs. Strable
1943 Johnny Come Lately “Gashouse” Mary
1944 Rationing Iris Tuttle
1944 Meet Me in St. Louis, Katie
1944 Gentle Annie Annie Goss
1945 Murder, He Says Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
1946 The Harvey Girls, Sonora Cassidy
1946 Bad Bascomb Abbey Hanks
1946 Undercurrent Lucy
1946 The Show-Off Mrs. Fisher
1947 The Egg and I, Phoebe ‘Ma’ Kettle Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1947 The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap Widow Hawkins Alternative title: The Wistful Widow (An Abbott & Costello film)
1948 Feudin’, Fussin’ and A-Fightin” Maribel Mathews
1949 Ma and Pa Kettle Ma Kettle
1949 Big Jack Flapjack Kate
1950 Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town Ma Kettle
1950 Summer Stock Esme (aka If You Feel Like Singing)
1950 Mrs. O’Malley and Mr. Malone Harriet “Hattie” O’Malley Alternative title: The Loco Motion
1951 Mr. Imperium Mrs. Cabot Alternative title: You Belong to My Heart
1951 Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm Ma Kettle
1951 The Law and the Lady Julia Wortin
1951 It’s a Big Country Mrs. Wrenley
1951 A Letter from a Soldier Mrs. Wrenley Short
1952 The Belle of New York Mrs. Phineas Hill
1952 Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair Ma Kettle
1953 Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
1953 Fast Company Ma Parkson
1954 The Long, Long Trailer Mrs. Hittaway
1954 Rose Marie Lady Jane Dunstock
1954 Ma and Pa Kettle at Home Ma Kettle
1954 Ricochet Romance Pansy Jones (aka The Matchmakers)
1955 Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki, Ma Kettle
1956 The Kettles in the Ozarks
1956 Friendly Persuasion The Widow Hudspeth Nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
1957 The Kettles on Old MacDonald’s Farm, Ma Kettle final
