Lurene Tuttle
Recorded August 26th, 1975 - 42 min
One of radio’s busiest and most versatile actresses. She appeared on Hollywood Hotel, Sam Spade, the Red Skelton Show, the Great Gildersleeve, Dr. Christian and frequently on the Lux Radio Theatre. She was born August 29, 1907 and was 67 at the time of our conversation in her West Hollywood, California home. She died May 28, 1986 at age 78.
Red Skelton Show - 12/19/51 - The Little Christmas Tree
Did you enjoy the interview? Listen to Lurene Tuttle on the Red Skelton Show on December 19th, 1951.
February 3, 2014 at 10:10 pm
How “MARVELOUS” (as Lurene would have said) to hear her lilting voice again. To her grandchildren, she will forever be known as Gaga. That was the grandmotherly name that Lurene chose in 1957 to the three grandchildren that Lurene’s daughter Barbara Ruick and John Williams gave her. Forever beloved.
May 23, 2018 at 1:48 pm
Lovely hearing Lurene’s voice again! She was my husband’s cousin (and older first cousin to my father-in-law)and I met her in L.A. on a visit in l970’s and again in SF when she visited several times (we lived in Bay Area). She also was one of our wedding guests in l978 and sent a present when our son was born in l984.
Lurene was born in Pleasant Lake, IN, and came west with her parents as a small child. Her uncle Carroll Tuttle was her father’s younger brother. They all moved to desert area of California (Johannesburg & Randsburg) to work in mining or railroading around 1910. Lurene entertained passengers as a small child on the railroad platforms near where her father was working. Guess she was bitten by the bug early on!!
As a voice actress myself, I expressed interest when she generously offered to coach me at her apartment in W. Hollywood and visited her for a weekend. She had many reel-to-reel recordings of the radio programs on which she had appeared. I was not really aware, in the late l970’s of all the parts she had played but I remember those reels! She was coaching Jayne Meadows for a TV role on “Fantasy Island” that afternoon; Jayne came in wearing hot pants and net stockings!! Hmmmmm….
Yes, John Williams had been her son-in-law (Barbara Ruick, her daughter, had succumbed to a brain hemorrhage
). John was just becoming well-known as a movie theme composer and we met him at his home. Very nice man.
I wish I had more time to sit with her and hear more about her career. This recorded interview with Chuck Schaden covers a lot of her early career. Thanks for allowing me to write this down and it may be of some interest to some people