McCall debuted onstage at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Strange Bedfellows in 1948. In the early 1950s, then still known as Mitzi Steiner, McCall had the Kiddie Castle program on KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[1] She received national attention in 1952 via an Associated Press story about a five-year-old Pittsburgh girl with a cleft palate who spoke her first words while watching the actress in a pantomime on television. Afterward, doctors "didn't know what to say. They held a special meeting, examined Claire, and told the happy parents that she was cured."[2]
McCall and Charlie Brill appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, the episode that featured the U.S. television debut of The Beatles. Their act can be seen on the DVD of the Beatles' appearances on the Sullivan show. They were interviewed in 2005 for the "Big Break" episode of Public Radio International radio program This American Life, regarding their Beatles-Sullivan experience, including a dressing room encounter with John Lennon.[6]
In 1967, McCall and Brill had a comedy recording, From Our Point of View, released by ABC Records.[7] Later that year, the duo signed with Congressional Records.[8]
Shawlee and McCall
In the early 1960s, McCall (just over 5 feet) and actress Joan Shawlee (5'9") formed a night club act,[9] first appearing together at the Club Robaire in Cleveland.[10] In January 1961, syndicated newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reported that the team was "causing quite a stir", emphasizing while exaggerating the partners' discrepancy in height, "Joan being six feet, three inches tall and Mitzi four feet, 10 inches short".[11]
In 2009, McCall had a supporting role as Bonnie in the film World's Greatest Dad.
Personal life
In the early 1950s, McCall was married to Jack Tolen, a television director and production manager.[1] She and Charlie Brill met in 1959 and married the following year.[12]
^Cohen, Harold V. (November 10, 1953). "The Drama Desk". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. p. 18. Retrieved September 22, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
^ abcdefgTerrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 33. ISBN978-0-7864-6477-7.
^"They're Back". The Los Angeles Times. California, Los Angeles. October 20, 1960. p. 54. Retrieved September 22, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
^Kilgallen, Dorothy (January 7, 1961). "The Voice of Broadway". The Mercury. Pennsylvania, Pottstown. p. 4. Retrieved September 22, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Mitzi McCall (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 25 February 2022. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)