Remember Tesse O'Shea and Totie Fields

[Glebb]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:00pm

from the Mike Douglas Show?

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:05pm

Did you look in the mirror after eating too many carbs?

Two ton Tessie!! And Totie was hilarious. She also had a great singing voice. Taken from us too soon at age 48, I recall...

[Glebb]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:10pm

My Mom used to watch Mike Douglas in the afternoons.
Tessie played the Ukulele, I recall.
Totie did the 'You know you're fat when.. (you're wearing red and blue, you yawn and someone drops a post card in your mouth) jokes. I believe Totie also used to have a shtick where she could not cross her legs. Tragically I think she lost one for real because of illness.

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:16pm

Tessie was the lead in SOMETHING'S AFOOT and she walked off with the notices in Noel Coward's THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER with her medley of 'London' songs.

"Saturday night at the Rose and Crown
Is just the place to be
Tinkers and tailors
And soldiers and sailors
All out for a bit of a spree..."

[morosco]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:20pm

I always wondered if Totie Fields was actually a man.

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:21pm

T.C. Jones

[morosco]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:29pm

Thanks Wildcat. I'd never heard of T.C. Jones but after a quick google I'm fascinated!
T.C. Jones info

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 11:23pm

I remember Totie Fields appearing on the Phil Donahue Show. She said she was mad because when she bought pants in the women's section, they charged for them to be altered. So she went and bought her pants in the men's section because they didn't charge there.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 11:26pm

I remember the Mike Douglas show but only vaguely. I assume early or mid 70s.

[kjklo]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 12:41am

For some reason I always associated Totie more with Merv Griffin than Mike Douglas (even though she was a regular on both). Does anyone else remember a weird, sort of permanent, rash on her chest (or maybe it was just freckles)? Also, the way I remember it, her leg amputation was somehow connected to diabetes-related complications from a failed face-lift. It's all so nebulous now...

[Glebb]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 12:42am

You're correct. My mom watched Merv much more than Mike.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 12:47am

wildcat, the medley about London that Tessie O'Shea performs in THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER is called "London Is a Little Bit of All Right".

I believe THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER was Coward's last musical...

[kjklo]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 12:56am

A few years ago I heard that Lorna Luft was interested in producing a TV movie or mini-series about the life and career of Totie Fields. Haven't heard anything more about it since.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 6:20am

Totie Fields was the original choice to play Minnie in Minnie's Boys

A few years back, there was an off broadway show about, her belle barth & the 3 rd party escapes me go to heaven . The show was fuunt but I cannot remember who the 3 rd party was to be

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 7:57am

I saw Totie Fields live at the Concord Hotel in the old Catskills when I was a kid. She was one of those genius comedians, not just onstage at the show but all weekend long around the hotel grounds. I would follow her around and just listen. I also saw Liza perform there, the year after Judy died. She let me walk her dog.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 8:01am

I LOVED Totie !!! I remember seeing her on a talk show once after an operation and she told the story of a fan who sent her a get well note, but didn't know where to send it, so all that they wrote on the envelope was..."To the Funniest Lady in the World" and Totie got it !!!

[Glebb]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 9:48am

Not sure if it was on Merv or Mike but I remember Tesse and Paul Lynde in a duet:

Tesse: "I am your honeysuckle"
Paul: "And I'm the bee"

Updated On: 5/9/05 at 09:48 AM

[midtowngym]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 10:01am

i remember Totie from TV. She always seemed ready to burst out with a bunch of curse words, but of course never did. I always imagined her stage act to be VERY dirty, because my father had a sh*t-eating grin whenever she was on.

Updated On: 5/9/05 at 10:01 AM

[Mamie]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 11:38am

Absolutely the funniest thing I'd ever seen (at least up to that point) was Tessie and Carl Reiner in "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming". There's a scene where Alan Arkin has tied the two together and they're trying to escape.... I laughed so hard and so long that I (embarrassingly) had various body fluids running from all parts - tears from the eyes, running nose,... well, you get the idea.

[eyeonbroadway]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 11:57am

Oh, Mamie! Thanks for that memory jog! It made me laugh! I remembered Tesse as a performer with her ukelele...but I totally forgot about Tesse as the town's switchboard operator in "The Russians Are Coming"! Funny scene and funny movie!

[The Grovers Corners Yenta]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 4:14pm

Totie Fields was actually Sophie Feldman and she grew up where I live now in Hartford. Many older people I knew were friends with her. She was just naturally funny and way ahead ofher time. Unfortunately, the technology to treat diabetes wasn't around in the 70's to help her.

[midtowngym]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 4:20pm

Do you live near Judging Amy?

[vbplayer]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 9:39pm

I remember as a kid, seeing Totie at the "Mill Run" near Chicago. I had to go to the bathroom "mid bit". Afterwards she was signing in her dressing room. My parents and I walked in and she immediately said "Hey, you're the kid that had to go to the john". She was brilliant and I will never forget that moment.

Updated On: 5/9/05 at 09:39 PM

[thirdrowcenter]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 9:48pm

Totie Fields is a fond memory from countless tv appearances. She was funny in every way.

[morosco]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 10:54pm

Recently XM Satellite has been playing a fair amount of Totie's standup routines. The funniest is the routine about saleswomen who sell girdles.