Oh, it could be worse—I could remember her as Endora. I’m sure a lot of people do, and she wouldn’t have liked it much. She took the job thinking the show would tank, and while she stayed with it to the end, she seems to have resented it the whole time. Her contract limited her to appearing on eight out of every twelve episodes, and she thought the writing was hacky and the stories dumb. She wasn’t wrong. And remember, we’re talking about a woman whose first movie was Citizen Kane, a woman who was nominated for four Oscars, starting in 1942 for her role as Fanny Minafer in The Magnificent Ambersons. No wonder she was less than thrilled.
Still, it must have paid the bills. Anges Moorehead’s parents were concerned enough about her being able to pay the bills that they insisted she get a proper education—and boy, did she. She had a Bachelor’s in chemistry and a Master’s in English and public speaking; she taught school for five years. She also took postgraduate study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and received two honorary doctorates, from her alma mater of Muskingum College and from Bradley University. While I can name a few other actors with as much education, I assuredly can’t name many.
No wonder she felt so qualified to comment on the quality of those scripts. She was also, lest we forget, a member of the Mercury Theatre of the Air, not to mention one of the women who played Margot Lane to Orson Welles as Lamont Cranston on The Shadow. Those scripts were perhaps not as high quality as the broadcast of War of the Worlds, but they were certainly better than Bewitched. Much of her career was. And while she didn’t EGOT—in fact, most of the awards she’s “won” have come after her death and she lost Best Supporting Actress four times—she certainly gave a number of fine performances in a number of media.
I think it says something that one of the things she was best known for in life was appearing on the radio program Suspense more than anyone else, yet when a movie was made of her best-known performance, the role went to Barbara Stanwyck instead. Don’t get me wrong; I love Barbara Stanwyck, and while I haven’t seen Sorry, Wrong Number, it’s not because I don’t want to. It’s just something the library didn’t have. Still, though, I’m always slightly annoyed when one actress because well known for a role in one medium but is not given the chance to do it in another.
Honestly, one of the reasons she sticks out in Pollyanna is how much fun she’s having. She really seemed to love being the surly old Mrs. Snow, who insisted she was dying even though there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. It works because of how much Mrs. Snow was secretly having fun. Moorehead seems to have worked out the best way to play the role and to have gone for it with everything she had. Really, that’s how she played everything.
