Alice Ghostley

Alice Ghostley was born 14 Aug 1926 in a train station in a place called "Eve" in Vernon County, [[Missouri]] as the second child of Harry F Ghostley and his wife Edna M Rooney.  Her father was at that time, a telegrapher at this "whistle stop".  By 1930, the family had moved to Siloam Springs, [[Benton County, Arkansas|Benton County]], [[Arkansas]] where her father Harry was buried in 1933 having died at a hospital in Missouri that year.  She attended school in Siloam Springs through the sixth grade, and then the family moved to Henryetta, Okmulgee County, [[Oklahoma]] where Alice finished growing up and graduated from high school.

After Alice went to the University of Oklahoma to study theater and singing, she then moved with her sister Gladys to New York City.  Gladys got a job as a secretary at Columbia University, while Alice got her first job as an usher at the Imperial Theatre for $11.88 a week.  At her 648th audition she was accosted by "G", who persuaded her, that what she really was, was a comedienne.  The two of them begun doing comedy in small venues when she was spotted by Imogene Coca.  Imogene told Leonard Sillman about her, and he put her in his annual revue ''New Faces'' of 1952.  They played Broadway for a year, and then toured to Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Oddly enough, two of the other aspiring members of the revue that year were [[Paul Lynde]] and [[Eartha Kitt]].  The tour was so successful, that "New Faces" was made into a Cinemascope production, and Alice again was a co-star as was Eartha Kitt, but Paul Lynde's name does not appear in the advertisement.  As amateurs, she and her sister Gladys once did an act together and were given the eerie-sounding billing of "The Ghostley Sisters."

<table><tr><td>About 1953 Alice met and married Italian-born actor Felice Antonio Orlandi, who had been born in 1924 in Avezzano, Italy.  She stated in one interview that she proposed to him and he accepted after several months.  It's likely that they met in New York City as both were actors on Broadway, at least the year following.  Shortly after they married, Alice went on-the-road in ''New Faces'' and was gone for six months.  They remained married until his death in 2003.

Although Alice had many roles on television and film, she never was cast in a starring position.  She is most remembered today for her television roles as "Alice" on ''Mayberry, R.F.D.'', as "Esmerelda" on ''Bewitched'' and as "Bernice Clifton" on ''Designing Women'' </td><td>http://www.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2006/71/7489936_114223478208.jpg Felice Orlandi</td></tr></table>

Her character "Esmerelda" was introduced when [[Marion Lorne]], the actress who played "Aunt Clara" died and the studio wanted another comedic-actress to be introduced to the series to replace her.