The Cast of "Call Me Mister"
Comedian and singer Betty Garrett was the only cast member featured in the ads. "Call Me Mister" would lead to a Hollywood career for Garrett. The House UnAmerican Activities Committee would cut it short. In a particularly heartless episode, her husband Larry Parks was called to testify. He admitted a brief membership in the Party in the early 1940s, renounced the Party and then tearfully begged not to have to name others. Unmoved by his tears, the commissars strong-armed him into fingering his friends by threatening to destroy his career. He succumbed but was blacklisted anyway. The pregnant Garrett was spared being called to testify. Although she wasn't charged with anything, to make sure Americans slept safe at night, she was blacklisted as well. She was steadfast in her support of her husband's career until his death in 1975, even after the situation improved for her. She eventually picked up her own career in theater and the movies, although not at the same level of stardom, and is probably best known today for her TV roles in "All in the Family" and "Laverne and Shirley."
Jules Munshin, who had worked the Borscht belt, was the show's lead comic in a group that also included Harry Clark, who had been a factory worker when he had joined the cast of Harold Rome's union-produced revue "Pins and Needles," Alan Manson, remembered by the critics for the Army revue "This Is the Army," and, in his Broadway debut, George Hall who much later played the aged Indiana Jones in the TV series based on the movies. Munshin had previously appeared in another Army Broadway production "Army Play by Play," that had a short-run. "Call Me Mister" would be his breakout role. He went to Hollywood where he appeared in several movies, including the film version of "On the Town," which also featured Garrett.
Bill Callahan and Betty Lou Holland were the song-and-dance team for the upbeat production numbers. Callahan won a Theatre World Award for his performance but never became a big star. Holland is best known today for a dramatic role as Kim Stanley's feckless mother in the 1958 film "The Goddess." In 1946 she was a baby-faced ingenue.
Maria Karnilova and David Nillo, both formerly of Ballet Theatre, were the principals in the balletic routines. A lithe blonde in 1946, nineteen years later Karnilova would win a Tony for her portrayal of Golde in "Fiddler on the Roof." She married a member of the "Call Me Mister" ensemble, George S. Irving, who also went on to have a notable Broadway career.
Danny Scholl and Paula Bane performed the romantic vocals. Opera singer Lawrence Winters. in his Broadway debut, handled the more serious songs. Winters was among the first African Americans to perform with major opera companies.
Chandler Cowles, known later primarily as a producer, also was featured in the cast. William Hawkins, reviewer for the World-Telegram wrote that the tall, handsome Cowles "might have been picked for the posterized representation of the typical American serviceman." He had been kicked out of Yale several times.
Brown-nosing Robert Garland in his Journal-American review picked out Virginia Davis, the daughter of Meyer Davis, in the ensemble in her Broadway debut. Meyer Davis was a society orchestra entrepreneur who had scores of outfits playing debutante, society and collegiate functions under his name.