Comedy is a favorite in Holiday Movies. And while the main characters tend to get most of the laughs, there are also on occasion supporting characters that bring the house down. It’s hard to imagine Elf (2003) without Bob Newhart as the timid but lovable Papa Elf who narrates the story and raises Buddy, or Home Alone (1990) without Devin Ratray as Kevin’s older brother, Buzz McCallister, who purposefully treats his little brother as though he were beneath him. In today’s blog, I’d like to tell you about someone else who brought big laughs to the beloved holiday classic, “Christmas Vacation,” even while appearing in just a few scenes. And that wasn’t even the most interesting part of her career!
Mae Questel was born on September 13th, 1908 in The Bronx, New York. She knew from the time she was a child that she wanted to be an actor, and studied acting at the American Theatre Wing and with The Theatre Guild. Tragically, her parents forced her to drop out and pursue another career. Despite that, young Mae Questel refused to give up on her dream and at age 17, she won a talent contest at RKO Fordham Theatre for impersonating a singer named Helen Kane (known as the “Boop-Oop-A-Doop Queen”). Mae found herself an agent and began regularly performing as a vaudevillian, impersonating celebrities like Maurice Chevalier, Marlene Dietrich, Eddie Cantor, and various others. Her impressions ultimately caught the attention of Max Fleischer, who at the time was looking for an actress who’d be willing to voice his cartoon character, Betty Boop. Questel was hired and wound up voicing Betty Boop for seven years and in more than 150 cartoon shorts.
Two years into voicing Betty Boop, Questel landed the voice-over role of Popeye the Sailorman’s girlfriend, Olive Oyl. She also made an uncredited appearance in The Great Ziegfeld, released in 1936. She retired both the characters of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl in 1938, though she returned to Olive Oyl in 1944 and continued to voice her until 1962. Questel made her Broadway debut in 1948 in Doctor Social, opposite Dean Jagger, and her first credited film appearance wasn’t until 1961 in the drama-comedy A Majority of One (1961), which starred Rosalind Russell and Sir Alec Guinness. Questel was later cast as Mrs. Strakosh in Funny Girl (1968), the biopic based on the life of Fanny Brice which starred Barbara Streisand. It is ironic that Questel would appear in this movie because when she performed as a vaudevillian, Fanny Brice happened to be one of the many celebrities that she impersonated.
She later appeared with Streisand’s former husband Elliot Gould in Move (1970). She appeared in episodes of Somerset (1970-1976) and All My Children (1970-2011) as well.
In 1989, Mae Questel was cast in her final film role as Great Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. During the Christmas Eve Dinner scene, the Griswold’s acknowledge that it’s Bethany’s 80th birthday, despite the fact that in reality, Questel turned 81 while the film was being made. She was also 19 years older than William Hickey, who played her husband Great Uncle Lewis in the film. (Just the year prior to “Christmas Vacation,” Questel made her final voice-over appearance as Betty Boop in Disney’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).) She died due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease on January 4th, 1998 at the age of 89.
Mae Questel is best-known for lending her voices to both Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, though her legacy also lives on in the role of the feeble-minded Great Aunt Bethany. Her role in “Christmas Vacation,” helped popularize the iconic film, though her distinctively high-pitched voice helped make every role she played enduring and timeless. It is truly unforgettable when Aunt Bethany is asked to say “Grace” (or the blessing) at the dinner table scene of “Christmas Vacation.” Bethany replies “Grace, she passed away 30 years ago,” then proceeds to recite the “Pledge of Allegiance.” Families all over America will laugh at that scene all week long!
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