The Facts of Miss Lubotsky

On August 12, 1942, a 16-year-old girl named Charlotte Rae Lubotsky stepped onto the stage at the Shorewood Auditorium in Shorewood, Wisconsin in the role of Gertrude in “The Merchant of Yonkers.” The play went on to become the musical “Hello, Dolly.” Young Miss Lubotsky went on to drop her last name and perform as Charlotte Rae.

Miss Rae died yesterday at the age of 92.

Those of you who watched sitcoms in the ‘80s will know of her most famous roles. For much of the 1950s, Rae was a nightclub comedienne; New York City seemed to breed them in clubs and revues in that decade and many moved on to television. We find her at the Old Knick on the week of February 8, 1950. On May 13th, she made a guest appearance on WOR-TV’s “Kirkwood and Goodman Show” (Jim Kirkwood later went on to write “A Chorus Line”). In September, she debuted at Max Gordon’s Village Vanguard. Variety reviewed her act.

CHARLOTTE RAE
Comedy, Songs
12 Mins.
Village Vanguard, N. Y.
Charlotte Rae seems like a parlor-performer graduate but with sufficiently fresh approach to comedy material to put her ahead of some in this field. She is frequently reminiscent of Shiela Barrett. Has good perception of comedy and flair for delineating a multitude of types.
Miss Rae scores strongest in a garden club bit in which she satirizes various clubwomen types. She has an off-key contralto which brings yocks, and several speeches that could have been written for the late Helen Hokinson characters.
Miss Rae also essays some straight numbers. She did a briefie of "Summertime" which was virtually a throwaway, and also "Begat" from "Finian's Rainbow." She indicates that she's more at home with her own material.
Miss Rae is yet to acquire more experience. There's lots to pick up on projection, and some of her material needs sharper editing. Since she leans toward plumpness, there's a need of some special material in gowning and coiffing. But it's likely that a long round of steady work will ready her for the uptown showcase's. Jose.

Her career was on the rise. Variety noted in April of her act at the Village Vanguard:

She debuted less than a year ago and has progressed considerably during that time. Her comedy is more certain and her delivery has gained polish. She's also improved in the coiffing and costuming. Her strongest material is a satire on operatic singers. She shows good vocal fidelity and excellent projection in these numbers. She's apparently trying some new material. The child prodigy number is still in rough stages and needs further development. Otherwise, she does excellently in this spot.

By November, she had been cast in the musical comedy “Three Wishes For Jamie” (and survived a re-casting). By 1955, Vanguard Records released a selection of her nightclub material. Someone has kindly embedded it on YouTube.

I wanted to find an interview with Rae from before her ‘80s sitcom days and discovered this non-bylined piece from November 24, 1962. Rae was gaining fame as Al Lewis’ wife in “Car 54, Where Are You?”.

Car 54 Drove Her Back to Show Business
New York — Loud-mouthed Bronx-accented, emotional Sylvia Schnauser will provide viewers of Car 54, Where Are You? with some wonderful comedy moments this Sunday when she becomes her version of a Hollywood star, complete with gold lame pants and long cigarette holder. But soft-spoken, non-accented, shy Charlotte Rae, who plays Sylvia, is still slowly shaking her head over the quirk of fate that made her a regular on the show.
Her first appearance, last season, was not in the role of Sylvia, but rather as a bank teller, who was under the mistaken impression that Toody and Muldoon, the show's improbable heroes, were robbing her. Then she was asked to do a bit as Mrs. Schnauser with a double-barreled result: she became a semi-regular cast member and she was launched on a comeback.
• • •
ACTUALLY CHARLOTTE, who began her career in 1951, was never far away from show business. But when she married John Strauss (who coincidentally is the musical director for Car 54), and had two sons, she concentrated on her family rather than her career.
“Now even though my children are small, they are in school, and this show represents the first step in my return. And I'm so grateful to be back. It's such a nice, happy, warm experience to be working with Nat Hiken, and those marvelously funny, well-written scripts.”
• • •

STEP TWO IN CHARLOTTE'S return will be launched on December 26 when S. J. Perelman's "The Beauty Part" opens on Broadway. In this show, which stars Burt Lahr [sic], Charlotte plays four roles, from high society matron to beatnik sculptor.
Show business has been the only aim for Charlotte since her days at Northwestern, where she was in a drama class that included Patricia Neal, Paul Lynde, Jean Hagan and Jeff Hunter. Producer Bob Banner was working toward his master's degree at the same time, and a classmate was Newton Minow, who married one of Charlotte's sorority sisters.
“The competition was so stiff there that at least 1,000 girls switched almost immediately to liberal arts.”
She doesn't find it difficult combining the full-time job of housewife and mother, with the full-time job of actress.
• • •
“IT'S NOT HARD if you don't have feelings of guilt. I feel I'm a better mother if I'm working. When I'm with my children I'm much happier, and they have learned to accept that I'm a working mother.
“Once one of my boys asked in pitiable voice, ‘Mommy, why do you have to go to work?’ I told him ‘because I LOVE it.’ A lot of mothers take just as much time away from the family as I do, but they spend it playing mah jongg and doing all kinds of social things. To me that would be a living death.”
The petite, pretty, blue-eyed comedienne longs to be a serious performer. "I want to do something where I can play a wonderful human being, where I can express deeper emotions as well as be funny.
“I almost didn't accept my roles in The Beauty Part' because I had been offered several serious roles off-Broadway. It's hard to know what to do in a case like that. It wasn't an easy decision. But I want to make people laugh. I also want to shake them up with a dramatic appearance. I shouldn't keep talking about that I should keep quiet and just do it.”

In a 1969 interview with syndicated columnist Frank Langley, she sighed “I am not a comedienne, I’m an actress. But everyone thinks I’m a comedienne.” But comedy was her forte in the ‘50s and it was in the ‘80s when she starred on “Diff’rent Strokes" and its spinoff "The Facts of Life.” You can find lists all over the internet of her performances so I need not go into it. Instead, have a listen to her satirical album from 1955.