Elvia Allman was a character actress and voiceover performer in Hollywood films and television programs for over 50 years. She is best remembered for her semi-regular roles on The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction and for being the voice of Walt Disney's Clarabelle Cow. Her mark in TV history is also ensured by her memorable performance as the stern, no-nonsense boss in the classic I Love Lucy candy factory episode "Job Switching" with a repeat appearance as Nancy Graham the reporter in the 1955 episode "The Homecoming".
Allman's career as an actress on old time radio spanned 1929 to 1979. In 1926 she was a children's story reader at KHJ in Los Angeles. She also worked as a program arranger and later as a singer. The Los Angeles Times of the day praised her abilities as a dialectician. It was there she met her first husband, musician Wesley B. Tourtellotte, in 1930. They married on August 2, 1930, and divorced within several years. In 1933, she moved to the east coast, billing herself as the "California Cocktail" and began a musical program on NBC. On Oct. 30, 1933, the Times announced she was moving to KNX on a 15-minute program to be heard Tuesday and Thursday evenings. What was supposed to be a long-term contract ended March 3, 1935. Allman's first big network radio successes were on the Blue Monday Jamboree, and on The Komedy Kingdom. She made her debut on The Pepsodent Show starring Bob Hope on September 27, 1938, as man-chasing Cobina, a parody of society debutante Cobina Wright. She portrayed the role in motion pictures and even spoofed it in the Merrie Melodies cartoon Goofy Groceries. Allman was frequently heard as a supporting actress in various comedy programs well into the 1950s and in the 1970s returned to radio acting with its brief revival of new programs. In the mid-1930s, Allman appeared in cartoons for producer Leon Schlesinger, released through Warner Bros. She can be heard in the first Porky Pig cartoon I Haven't Got a Hat in 1935. She may have originated the character of Clarabelle Cow prior to this, but there are no records indicating which specific cartoons in which she voiced Clarabelle, who was featured in 28 Disney cartoons from 1928 to 1942. In 1937 Allman voiced the title role in the cartoon Little Red Walking Hood, a spoof of Little Red Riding Hood. Allman married sports promoter C. C. Pyle on July 3, 1937 and was with him when he died on February 3, 1939. Allman also played Tootsie Sagwell on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show during the early 1940s. She was Gracie's best friend who was constantly chasing show announcer Bill Goodwin in particular but seemed to be open to any man who'd have her. Allman's other roles included Mrs. Kennedy on The Adventures of Maisie, Melissa, Queen of Maybe Land on The Cinnamon Bear, and Cuddles Bongschnook on The Durante-Moore Show. Programs on which she was a regular included The Abbott and Costello Show, The Baby Snooks Show, The Judy Canova Show, and The Ray Bolger Show.
Acting career
In 1928, Allman acted in The Living Corpse a production of the Pasadena Community Players. Allman made her film debut as an actress in 1940's The Road to Singapore in an unbilled bit as a homely woman who pursues Bob Hope. Another memorable bit was as one of the several psychotics Abbott & Costello run into when trying to find the Susquehanna Hat Co. in "In Society". She worked most successfully during this period as a radio comedian playing assorted guest parts, typically as a shrewish woman. One of her more steady radio gigs was on the Blondie radio series in the part of Cora Dithers, the domineering wife of Dagwood Bumstead's boss. Allman became a familiar face to television viewers in the 1950s with numerous guest appearances on many programs of the era, usually situation comedies. She made multiple appearances on I Married Joan, December Bride, The Bob Cummings Show, and The Abbott and Costello Show, and three appearances on I Love Lucy. In 1957, she reprised her role of Cora Dithers in a short-lived TV adaption of Blondie. Allman had earlier played the role in the 1940s on several episodes of the Blondie radio series. She also appeared on seven episodes of the TV series The Jack Benny Program, having worked often with Benny on his radio program in the 1940s and 1950s. Her visibility on television increased in the 1960s with guest shots on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Hazel, The Addams Family, The Munsters, Mr Ed, Bewitched, The Lucy Show, The Doris Day Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and as witness Julia Slovak in the fifth season, 1961 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Brazen Bequest". Allman's greatest fame came with her semi-regular roles on Petticoat Junction, as local busybody Selma Plout and as Elverna Bradshaw on The Beverly Hillbillies. The 1960s proved to be her most prolific era with 58 appearances on various television series as well as five motion pictures including Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Nutty Professor. She appeared as Oscar Madison's mother in one episode of the TV series The Odd Couple in which she and Oscar are treated to an erotic belly dance at a Greek restaurant. Allman's career slowed considerably after 1972, and her only television work that decade was the 1977 television film Halloween with the New Addams Family. Her career revived a bit in the 1980s with eleven television appearances, including two appearances on Murder She Wrote. Allman also worked as a real estate agent in addition to her acting in the 1970s and 1980s. In her autobiography, Mary Tyler Moore credits Allman with finding her house. Allman's final work appropriately brought her full circle, reviving the voice of Clarabelle Cow for the first time in over 50 years in the Mickey Mouse cartoon feature version of The Prince and the Pauper in 1990.
Death
Allman died in Santa Monica, California, March 6, 1992, from pneumonia, aged 87. She was predeceased by her last husband, Jerome L. Bayler, in 1978.
