Interview: Jackie Joseph of BILLY BARNES’ BASH! at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club
Gavin Glynn asks entertainer Jackie Joseph TEN QUESTIONS IN TEN MINUTES for Broadway World: Los Angeles.
Jackie Joseph's career launched in 1958 as a featured performer and singer in the Billy Barnes Revue. She is well known for her roles in television and film, including originating Audrey Fulquard in the original The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), famously Sheila Futterman in the Gremlins franchise, and voicing Melody in Josie and the Pussycats. Her extensive television credits span decades, with notable appearances on The Doris Day Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Hogan's Heroes, and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Beyond acting, Joseph became a fashion show producer in 1977 and has remained active in the industry, recently participating in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike to protest Netflix killing residuals for actors/writers. On a personal note, she was married to actor Ken Berry from 1960 to 1977, and they had three children. She later married David Lawrence in 2003. Jackie took ten minutes to answer ten questions about her longevity in tinsel town's trials and tribulations.
What spoke do you fall within on the Zodiac wheel and during what American generation?
I am a Scorpio from the generation of "say yes to anything."
When is your earliest realization of seeing your first live performance and who was in it?
It ocurred at age seven I was taken to the theater to see Noel Coward's musical "Bitter Sweet." I don't know the actors as I thought it was real. For years I was wandering LA, singing with abandon, "I'll See you Again"... ("just the echo of a sigh, goodbye")
How did your parents or your caretakers respond to your dreams and inspiration for performing?
I was born an orphan. My father died four months before my birth. My mother was only 19 but grew up in an orphan's home. She didn't know I wanted to sing, but allowed me to act in children's theater with Viola Spolin. She couldn't pay tuition, but she did work in a local liquor store and slipped a bottle up her sleeve to give Viola.
Did you learn acting by watching or training in a legit academy?
Besides improvisation, I did a lot of plays with Vilola's Young Actors Company. I played the Empress in "The Emperor's New Clothes" (along with actor Paul Sand), and I was a wicked Spider in "Once Upon a Clothesline." then I had great training at LACC, and appeared in theater on campus. James Coburn was my leading man in two shows. The dramatic "Country Girl" and the original musical about Henry the 8th called "Heads I Win!". I also did Betty Comden's role in "On the Town"...and she and Adolph Green were in the audience! From there I was asked to join the long running LA production of " The Drunkard" and did that for three years. Great experience with people yelling at you from the audience. I got paid $40. a week for seven nights work. Plus free beer and pretzels.
The "Drunkard" was your first professional performance?
Yes but I was hired for the chorus in Sacramento's Music Circus repertory in 1956. While going up there on a train, I met Joyce Jameson who was a principal in the first show. We became pals on the train, so when her then husband, Billy Barnes came up to see her, they went out to dinner but she asked me to join them. During this fateful dinner, Billy turned to me and said, "When you come back to LA I'm doing a show, do you want to be in it? I did... a real turning point for everything good in life.
How did you meet actor, Ken Berry? (MAYBERRY R.F.D, MAMA'S FAMILY)
Actually, In "The Billy Barnes Revue ". It was a "backstage romance", I was enchanted enough to marry and have three children.
How did you land the original role of Audrey in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS? Whose essence did you tap into to create such an original and imprintable character?
Myself. I just played it "for real".. because the ridiculous dialogue was funny without trying to be funny, and I could play "innocent" easily...because I was innocent.
We shot the picture in only two days because the director, iconic Roger Corman, had the stage for only two days the last two days of 1959, so we had to finish before the year's end because in 1960, residuals came into being.
You were often confused for Mary Tyler Moore with your similar bone structures, 60s hairdos and toothy grins. Were you friends or simply a friend of friends?
I'm surprised to learn this now... I did know Mary from doing the Dick Van Dyke Show, and we shared a mutual concern for animals.
Doris Day, Rose Marie and you must of been a dream set on THE DORIS DAY SHOW? Did you actors all get along?
Rosie and I were on different seasons with Doris Day. I was in the last two years. But I knew Rosie well and we always got along. We also worked together on The Dick Van Dyke Show. (Dick turned 100 years young last December)
Doris was always easy to get along with, and she declared that it was dumb to have to start work early in the morning so we started at 12pm, and didn't break for lunch. She had a zillion sandwiches brought in every day from Art's Deli (Studio City) but anyone, crew and cast could eat when they had the time. A very happy set! However, for the last shot of the day she would let a couple of her dogs sit in the directors chairs and watch us. It was during the second year that Actors and Others for Animals came to be between us.
What are some of your favorite venues you’ve played in La La Land either gone or still here?
The Las Palmas Theater is where we spent happy times doing the Billy Barnes Revue. I hope it's still there! Also, I enjoyed both the Ivar, and the Coronet theaters. I forgot the name of theatre where stars and troops played during WW 2?. Was it the Music Box (now, The Henry Fonda) That's where I did "Little Mary Sunshine"...another "innocent."
The Billy Barnes Foundation and Fraser Entertainment Group invite you to the Billy Barnes' Bash Benefit Concert on Wednesday, April 22nd at 8:30 PM (dinner at 7:00 PM). Featuring: JACKIE JOSEPH Jo Anne Worley, Eileen Barnett, Cheryl Daro, Michael Deni, Jane A. Johnston, Jeffrey Polk, James Snyder, and BJ Ward.
Commonly known as "The Revue Master of Hollywood," Billy Barnes was a prolific composer and pianist whose work significantly shaped the Great American Songbook with standards like "(Have I Stayed) Too Long at the Fair." His legendary revues helped launch the careers of stars such as Ken Berry and Jo Anne Worley. Billy’s television contributions were equally vast, providing special material for The Carol Burnett Show, The Judy Garland Show, and all 144 episodes of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. A six-time Emmy nominee, his influence on the arts continues to resonate today.
Directed by the iconic Kay Cole with music direction by the brilliant Michael Orland and hosted by the talented Shawn Ryan, this event honors the legacy of influential composer Billy Barnes. Proceeds provide much needed scholarships for young musicians and support the Foundation’s mission to further music and theatre education.
Photo: Kenneth Dolin
