Torchy Blaine

Do you know Torchy Blaine? Of course you do. Torchy, played by Glenda Farrell, was a character in a series of nine filmes made in the late 30's. She was the archetypal fast-talking, wise-cracking, scoop-chasing gal reporter - well before Rosalind Russell's Hildy Johnson hit the typewriter in "His GIrl Friday" (1940). Torchy was always hot on the story, two-steps ahead of and usually to the consternation of her sometime boyfriend/sometime fiance, detective Steve McBride, played to slow-burn perfection by Barton MacLane and was often inadvertantly helped by McBride's dim-witted detective side-kick, Gahagan, played by Tom Kennedy.

How do you know Torchy? Well, Jerry Siegel, the comics artist who created the oriignal "Superman" needed a model for the nosy female reporter he was creating for the comic book. He said that he took his inspiration from Glenda Farrell's performance as Torchy, Interestingly, though, not the name. Farrell (and MacLane) briefly left the series and another actor, one of the Lane sisters, took over Torchy. Lola Lane, probably the least known of the sisters, stepped in and Siegel used a play on her name, for his character, Lois Lane. On another note, MacLane was often typecast as a bully, as Lieutenant Dundy, who pressures Bogart's Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcoln," or a criminal, again with Bogart in "High Sierra," or just a villain, in two "Tarzan" films. It's nice to see him given a change to do light-comedy - not too surprising since he had the opportunity at the end of his career as General Peterson in the 60's sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie."