Dody Goodman

Dody Goodman (October 28, 1914 – June 22, 2008) was an American character actress. She played the mother of the title character in the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, her distinctive high-pitched voice announcing the show's title at the beginning of each episode. She was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show in the 1950s. In the 1978 summer blockbuster film Grease, she played Blanche Hodel, the zany student-popular secretary in the principal's office. She reprised this role again 1982 for Grease 2. In 1979 she appeared in The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Aside from film and television appearances, she also voiced Miss Miller in the television series Alvin and the Chipmunks and the film spin-off The Chipmunk Adventure. She also played on Punky Brewster, as Punky's teacher. Early life Born Dolores Goodman in Columbus, Ohio, she was the daughter of Leona and Dexter Goodman. She had a sister, Rose, and a brother, Dexter Jr. She attended North High School in Columbus, Ohio (now Columbus International High School) and is a member of the Hall of Fame at North High School. Goodman attended Northwestern University, where she studied dramatics, and two ballet schools—the School of American Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School. Stage Goodman's Broadway debut came in 1941. She gained a measure of newspaper column space for her dancing solos in such Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes (1947), and Wonderful Town (1953). In 1955, she stopped the show in Off Broadway's Shoestring Revue with the novelty song "Someone's Been Sending Me Flowers". She also headlined Off-Broadway in the Jerry Herman musical revue Parade in 1960 with Charles Nelson Reilly. She played the role of Princess Winifred the Woebegone in the 1961 revival of Once Upon a Mattress, and Dora in the 1962 revival of Fiorello! She returned to Broadway in 1974 to appear in Lorelei with Carol Channing.