Martha Raye

Acting

Martha Raye

Born 1916-08-27 · Butte, Montana, USA

Martha Raye (born Margy Reed), nicknamed The Big Mouth, was an American comic actress and singer who performed in movies, and later on television. She also acted in plays, including Broadway. She was honored in 1969 at the Academy Awards as the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient for her volunteer efforts and services to the troops. In the early 1930s, Raye was a band vocalist with the Paul Ash and Boris Morros orchestras. She made her first film appearance in 1934 in a band short titled A Nite in the Nite Club. In 1936, she was signed for comic roles by Paramount Pictures, and made her first picture for Paramount. Her first feature film was Rhythm on the Range with crooner Bing Crosby. She was a featured cast member in 39 episodes of Al Jolson's weekly CBS radio show, The Lifebuoy Program, also called Cafe Trocadero. In addition to comedy, Martha sang both solos and duets with Jolson. Over the next quarter century, she would appear with many of the leading comics of her day, including Joe E. Brown, Bob Hope, W. C. Fields, Abbott and Costello (in Keep 'Em Flying), Charlie Chaplin (in Monsieur Verdoux), and Jimmy Durante. She joined the USO in 1942, soon after the US entered World War II. She was known for the size of her mouth, which was large in proportion to her face, earning her the nickname The Big Mouth. She later referred to this in a series of television commercials for Polident denture cleaner in the 1980s: "So take it from The Big Mouth: new Polident Green gets tough stains clean!" Her large mouth would relegate her motion picture work to supporting comic parts, and was often made up so it appeared even larger. In the Disney cartoon Mother Goose Goes Hollywood, she is caricatured while dancing alongside Joe E. Brown, another actor known for a big mouth. In the Warner Bros. cartoon The Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos (1937), she was caricatured as a jazzy scat-singing donkey named 'Moutha Bray'. She often appeared as a guest on other programs, particularly those which often featured older performers as guest stars, such as ABC's The Love Boat, and also on variety programs, including the short-lived The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show. She appeared from the third to the ninth seasons as Carrie Sharples on Alice, making two or three appearances a season. She made guest appearances or did cameo roles in such series as Murder, She Wrote on CBS and The Andy Williams Show and McMillan & Wife, both on NBC. She appeared again as Agatha for the six-episode run of the retooled McMillan, taking over for Nancy Walker, who had left the series. Her last film appearance was as an incontinent airline passenger in the disaster film The Concorde ... Airport '79. Later in her career, she made television commercials for Polident denture cleanser, principally during the 1970s and 1980s.

Acting credits

The Concorde... Airport '79 poster
4.7

Aviation disaster-prone Joe Patroni must contend with nuclear missiles, the French Air Force and the threat of the plane splitting in two over the Alps.

The Concorde... Airport '79

1979

Four Jills in a Jeep poster
6.8

Reenactments of actual USO experiences of its female stars entertaining troops overseas.

Four Jills in a Jeep

1944

Monsieur Verdoux poster
7.7

The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine.

Monsieur Verdoux

1947

Billy Rose's Jumbo poster
6.0

The daughter of a circus owner fights to save her father from a takeover spearheaded by the man she loves.

Billy Rose's Jumbo

1962

No artwork available
NR

Bob's favorite memories and funniest moments on TV The biggest Stars! ... The biggest laughs! On DVD for the first time, this special 90 minute collection proves that laughter is the universal language with a sidesplitting salute to slapstick, satire, sketch comedy and zingers. Featuring Bob's funniest moments on television, this tribute includes a virtual who's who of legendary entertainers like Bing Crosby, Jackie Gleason, Roy Rogers, Ingrid Bergman, Bob Newhart, Lucille Ball, Ann-Margret, Jack Benny, Angie Dickinson, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, Don Rickles, Milton Berle, Redd Foxx, Dorothy Lamour, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Dyan Cannon, Debbie Reynolds, Lassie and more.

Bob Hope's World of Comedy

1976

College Holiday poster
5.7

College students rally to save a struggling hotel from closing. Comedy.

College Holiday

1936

Sid & Judy poster
7.4

Explore the dramatic career and personal struggles of the talented and tragically short-lived entertainer Judy Garland through rare concert footage, never-heard-before voice recordings and personal photos.

Sid & Judy

2019

A Christmas Child poster
NR

Born on Christmas Day Holly Noel ( Maureen Ruby Jackson) discovers she has the "Great Voice" of the North Pole. When the Northern Lights start to fade, she must travel from the prairie to the Arctic to sing them back to life.

A Christmas Child

Waikiki Wedding poster
5.9

Tony Marvin is a laid back but incredibly successful promoter and fair-haired boy for J. P. Todhunter's pineapple company located in beautiful Hawaii. He gets the company to sponsor a contest in which the winner gets a Hawaiian vacation and is obligated to write articles on the islands which, when published, will constitute a publicity coup for the company. Unfortunately, Georgia Smith, the winner, feels lonely and isolated in the Islands and wants to return to the States. With help from buddy Shad Buggle Tony tries to romantically divert Georgia without letting her know his true motivation.

Waikiki Wedding

1937

Give Me a Sailor poster
6.1

Jim and Walter are two brother sailors in the United States Navy. Walter tells Jim as soon as they get home he is going to ask his beautiful girlfriend, Nancy Larkin to marry him. But Jim is also in love with Nancy so he begs Nancy's ugly duckling sister, Letty to help break Walter and Nancy up. Letty agrees only under one condition, he help her to win Walter!

Give Me a Sailor

1938

The Adventures of Errol Flynn poster
7.7

A documentary about the life of Errol Flynn, with recollections from friends and family.

The Adventures of Errol Flynn

2005

Hellzapoppin' poster
7.2

Olsen and Johnson, a pair of stage comedians, try to turn their play into a movie and bring together a young couple in love, while breaking the fourth wall every step of the way.

Hellzapoppin'

1941

Clown Alley poster
10.0

An all-star cast joins Red Skelton in this lavish 60-minute salute to circus clowns.

Clown Alley

1966

Hideaway Girl poster
7.0

An unfortunate marriage and a bogus Count are the ingredients for this musical.

Hideaway Girl

1936

Bing Crosby: Rediscovered poster
7.0

Bing Crosby was, without a doubt, the most popular and influential multi-media star of the first half of the twentieth century, pulling audiences in with his intimate, laid-back voice and innate charm. Narrated by Stanley Tucci and directed by Robert Trachtenberg, this film explores the life and legend of this iconic performer, revealing a personality far more complex than the image the public had only thought they'd known.

Bing Crosby: Rediscovered

2014

Keep 'Em Flying poster
6.2

When a barnstorming stunt pilot decides to join the air corps, his two goofball assistants decide to go with him. Since the two are Abbott & Costello, the air corps doesn't know what it's in for.

Keep 'Em Flying

1941

No artwork available
NR

The sequel to The Clockmaker's Daughter. Elara finds a hidden "Permit in her Pocket" that allows her to travel beyond the town of Spindlewood. She discovers a city made entirely of brass and gold where she isn't the only clockwork girl.

The Clockmaker’s Secret: Lost in Spindlewood

Airports poster
NR

Edited together from all four Airport movies by Academy Award nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (A History of Violence, Infested) and veteran genre fellow screenwriter Adam Rifkin (Small Soldiers, Mouse Hunt), Airports is an exercise in narrative truncation for both newcomers and fans alike in the vein of Soderbergh’s Psychos edit.

Airports

2025

The Phynx poster
3.6

A rock band is invented by the government as a cover to find hostages in a remote castle in Albania held by communist enemies of the USA.

The Phynx

1970

Double or Nothing poster
6.7

A philanthropist's will dictates that four people receive $5,000 apiece, with the stipulation that the first one who can double the amount -- without dishonesty-- will win a cool million. Hindering the four are the avaricious relatives of the late millionaire.

Double or Nothing

1937

Pin Up Girl poster
6.3

Glamorous Lorry Jones, the toast of a Missouri military canteen, has become "engaged" to almost every serviceman she's signed her pin-up photo for. Now she's leaving home to go into government service (not, as she fantasizes, to join the USO). On a side trip to New York, her vivid imagination leads her to True Love with naval hero Tommy Dooley; but increasingly involved Musical Comedy Complications follow.

Pin Up Girl

1944

Never Say Die poster
7.3

Bob Hope is being stalked by a predatory widow who is a widow of wealthy husbands many times over. Martha Raye is a Texan heiress who wants to marry her boyfriend Andy Devine, but her father is determined that she marry into royalty. To solve both their problems, Martha Raye and Bob Hope decide to marry, but will they ever find love together?

Never Say Die

1939

Show-Business at War poster
7.0

A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.

Show-Business at War

1943

Showbiz Goes to War poster
10.0

While a few Hollywood celebrities such as James Stewart and Clark Gable saw combat during World War II, the majority used their talents to rally the American public through bond sales, morale-boosting USO tours, patriotic war dramas and escapist film fare. Comedian David Steinberg plays host for this star-studded, 90-minute documentary, which looks at the way Tinseltown helped the United States' war effort.

Showbiz Goes to War

1982