David Whitehouse in the Coronet film, "Are You Popular?"

David Whitehouse in the Coronet film, "Are You Popular?"

David is the boy at the lunch table.

David Whitehouse in a Coronet film, "Build Your Vocabulary"

David Whitehouse shows up in another Coronet film.  That's him as the teenager in the second scene.

David Whitehouse in a Coronet "Hygiene film"

David Whitehouse plays the part of "Al" in this Coronet film.  Al is the one in the white shirt in the locker room.

David Whitehouse in The Mysterious Stranger

David Whitehouse (directed by Homer Heck) did an episode of "Author's Playhouse" in 1944, called "The Mysterious Stranger".  The tale is a bit different and fun to listen to, as David was playing Russell at the time on "Vic and Sade".

Find it here.

Day Whitehouse was hired

1943

More about David Whitehouse

David Whitehouse was picked for the part of Russell Miller only after Paul Rhymer heard "practically every young actor" available in Chicago apply for the part.  Rhymer didn't like any of them.  So, the search broadened.  Whitehouse, from Evanston, Indiana, was the clear choice after Rhymer heard him try out.  This, according to an article from 1942 from the Chicago Tribune which I acquired today.

Something new about Whitehouse - sort of

Searching through some magazines, I saw something I had missed; the photo below is not new but the phrasing beneath is.  This is from August of 1943:

No one remembers David Whitehouse (Part II)

I think I pretty much said this once but going over the interviews, I find it very hard to believe that not one announcer, actor or person interviewed could remember the name of David Whitehouse. 

Not only that but they could talk very little about him at all.  Clarence Hartzell did remember that Whitehouse was from Evanston.  That's it.  Nothing else.  That's after about 6 or 7 questions were floated by them.  Not one person even remembered his first name.

That's pretty sad.  Was he invisible?  Memories that bad? 

The amazing voice change of David Whitehouse!

Louie Johnson turned me to the fact that David Whitehouse was in an NBC production of Tom Sawyer in 1947.

With a little hunting I found it.

David played Tom Sawyer.

And just to prove to you that this is true: (((listen)))

Now here's a bit of Whitehouse as Tom Sawyer in 1947: (((listen)))

Hard to believe, isn't it?

My appreciation of David Whitehouse grows

Yeah, at first I didn't care for David Whitehouse.  After listening to him for a month of so, I began to appreciate his sense of timing, his laugh and his character began to grow on me.  I actually like Russell now.

I believe a mistake was made when Rhymer tried to quietly turn him into Rush.  I cannot stomach it when Sade calls him "Willie" (that should have been reserved for Rush/BILL Idelson.)  And as I have stated before, I don't think he should have done many of the same scripts as Rush did.  The comparisons are inevitable because the audio exists.

Still, the more I hear Whitehouse as an actor, the more I enjoy him.