Thursday, April 25, 2019

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - FLORENCE MacMICHAEL FOR THE WINNIE!



'MISTER ED'
WINNIE KIRKWOOD AND HER COLONEL

One hundred years ago today, actress Florence MacMichael was born.  That name may not mean anything to you today, but if you ever watched classic TV, 'Mister Ed' especially, then you've seen her in many TV series of the fifties and sixties.  (Her last role was in a movie in 1971.)

And it should mean something to you if you've been reading "Inner Toob" on a regular basis!  I've only been honoring her all week long!
Since today is the actual birth date, I thought it was the perfect day to take a look at her most famous TV character.......

On 'Mister Ed', she played Winnie Kirkwood, the wife of "the Colonel", Gordon Kirkwood.  They lived in a suburb of Los Angeles on Valley Spring Road.  According to the Nancy Malven book "The Famous Mister Ed", Winnie bubbled over with the same daft personality embodied by Gracie Allen.

Whether or not they had children is unknown, but there are a couple of candidates who could have been their grandsons - Jake Kirkwood was born around 1979 and was murdered by his wife Hannah McKay because he demanded she get an abortion.  He was never seen on your TV screens because he had already been murdered.  But we did get to see his corpse when he was exhumed.


And there was Jimmy Kirkwood, an L.A. lawyer once with the Pearson Hardman firm and then with Bratton Gould.  Now, it's obvious that if Jimmy was indeed the grandson of Gordon and Winifred Kirkwood, then their son married a woman of color. 



Winnie Kirkwood's life off-screen after the show ended is unknown, but I think it followed real life in that she outlived the Colonel but only by a handful of years.  In all that time, the Kirkwoods remained at 7138 Spring Valley Road next to the Posts.

BCnU!


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