Les Mitchel

Lester Mandiville Mitchel (October 27, 1904^[1] – January 12, 1975^[2]) was an American film actor and radio producer, director and actor, known for directing Stars over Hollywood and Backstage Wife, as well as hosting, producing and directing Skippy Hollywood Theatre.

Born in Malinta in Henry County, Ohio,^[3][4] Mitchel was the son of Jeremiah Ezekiel Mitchel and Myrtle Lucy Fairbank.^[1] He attended the University of Toledo.^[1]

Mitchel made his radio debut in Detroit in 1935,^[5][6] later serving as producer, actor, writer and announcer on several Detroit stations.^[7][8] He joined WBBM in Chicago as a producer in 1939 and four years later was appointed assistant program director in charge of commercial broadcasts in 1943.^[5]

On May 31, 1942, on WBBM, Mitchel directed the Columbia Workshop's world premiere presentation of poet Kenneth Patchen's radio play The City Wears a Slouch Hat, accompanied by a five-member percussion ensemble performing John Cage's score, conducted by the composer. The cast included Mitchell's soon-to-be wife Madelon Grayson (né Baker), along with Les Tremayne, Forrest Lewis, Jonathan Hole, Frank Dane, and John Larkin.^[9]

In August 1942, Mitchel succeeded Blair Walliser as director of The Romance of Helen Trent.^[10] In June 1944, he was hired as director of The Dreft Star Playhouse.^[11] At approximately the same time, Mitchel succeeded Paul Pierce as producer-director of Stars Over Broadway.^[12][13]

From 1947 to 1950, Mitchel produced, directed and hosted Skippy Hollywood Theatre;^[6][14] he also occasionally starred on the show.^{[15][16][17][18][19]}

In 1951, he directed 26 episodes of Orson Welles's The Adventures of Harry Lime.^[20]

As of October 1958, Mitchel was an instructor at the Virginia Rose School of Arts in Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles.^[21] The following year he produced, directed, and starred in a revival of Death Takes a Holiday, playwright Walter Ferris's English-language adaptation of Alberto Casella's La morte in vacanza.^[22][a]

Mitchel's 1951 documentary short subject, Maya Are People, was acquired the following year by the San Diego Museum of Man and screened on April 22, 1952.^[23]

A second short subject, People of Oaxaca^[24][25] (likely made during the same visit to Mexico and presumably now lost), concerns the Zapotec peoples of Oaxaca in southern Mexico.^[26][25] The film received what may have been its world premiere in November 1952 on WGAL in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where it aired on consecutive Saturday mornings, November 8 and 15.^[27] It next surfaced in tandem with Mitchel's Maya on October 17, 1954, as the two formed the back end of a trio of shorts screened at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York.^[28] It returned to the Gallery three weeks later, minus Maya and grouped intentionally with two utterly unrelated shorts.^[29] Subsequent sightings extend at least as far as February 1959, when the film was screened at the main branch of the Cincinnati Public Library.^[30]

Beginning in 1961 and continuing at least through 1973, Mitchel was a prominent figure in the Religious Science movement.^[2][31][32] At the time of his death, Variety reported that this portion of his career was "headquartered, variously, in Oklahoma City, Cleveland and Alburquerque." Contemporaneous newspaper listings indicate that, for at least one six month period (December 1964–May 1965), Mitchel hosted a 30-minute, weekly, eponymous Sunday evening radio program on KTOK in Oklahoma City.^[33][34] The Sacramento Bee confirms that he founded Religious Science Churches in Oklahoma City in 1964—during which time he also helped establish one in Albuquerque—and Cleveland in 1968,^[24] before settling in Sacramento in 1971, where he succeeded the outgoing Rev. Lester M. Bashara as minister of the Sacramento Church of Religious Science.^[35] Upon his death, he in turn was succeeded by his then wife, the former Tracy Parsons.^[36]

Mitchel was married at least five times: to Florence Lillian Aubry in 1925;^[37][38] to Elaine Beeson, as of 1939;^[39] to Madelon Grayson (née Baker) from 1942 to 1952,^[40][41] to Lovita Pauline Scrydloff (née Lohbach) in March 1953,^[42][43] and, from 1971 until his death, Tracy Parsons,^[44] with whom he had a daughter, Leslie Mitchel.^[24] Mitchel had at least two other children, including a daughter, Delores, with his first wife,^[38] and a son, Jerry, with his second.^[45]

A longtime resident of Sunland-Tujunga,^[46] Mitchel attained a double distinction in 1950: becoming both the neighborhood's first honorary mayor^[b] and the president of the local chamber of commerce.^[49][50][51]

• "Caton Launches 'Drunkard'; Has Plans for Tent Show". The Billboard. April 27, 1935. p. 24.
• "Radio and Education". Broadcasting. August 1, 1939. p. 66. ProQuest 1014941405. More than 50 radio students of Northwestern U attended a demonstration of radio technique at WBBM, Chicago, July 28 given under the supervision of Stan Thompson, assistant program director. 'Play Selection and Production' was discussed by Joe Ainley, radio director of Aubrey, Moore and Wallace, Chicago agency. Radio production was discussed by Al Chance and Les Mitchell, of the WBBM production staff. The Students watched rehearsals of History in the Making and Gateway to Hollywood Summer Theatre.
• "Radio Writers, Directors To Tour the Pacific". Broadcasting, Broadcast Advertising. July 23, 1945. p. 66. ProQuest 1285664227.

• Les Mitchel at IMDb