Lucille Bliss

Family

Bliss was born to James Francis Bliss, a dentist from Massachusetts, and Frieda Siemens (1886-1969). Her mother, a German emigrant, was a classically trained pianist and wanted her daughter to train as an opera singer.^[6] Her parents later divorced.^[7] Her father's death in 1935^[8] (or 1928^[6]) Frieda and Lucille moved to San Francisco, California to be near relatives,^[6] where her mother became head of the music department at the San Francisco College for Women.^[6][9]

Radio

Bliss was active in old-time radio, having roles in Pat Novak, for Hire (1946 to 1947), Candy Matson (June 29, 1949, to May 20, 1951), and The Charlie McCarthy Show.^[10]

Film

Bliss' first voice work was the role of the wicked stepsister Anastasia Tremaine in Walt Disney's 1950 feature film Cinderella,^[11] for which she was honored 50 years later by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award in March 2000.^[12]

Television

In the early years of television, Bliss acted in Harbor Command and The Lineup.^[4] From 1950 to 1957, Bliss was "Auntie Lou" on San Francisco, California's KRON-TV's The Happy Birthday To You Show, also known as Birthday Party Show, which had guests from adults, to children, to animals. The program included use of Disney cartoon characters, as Bliss "picked up exclusive rights in northern California for the right to use Disney clips on her new show."^[13] At the same time, she did voices for Hanna-Barbera while they were working for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio – as Tuffy in Robin Hoodwinked, as Leprechaun in Droopy Leprechaun and later was Hugo on an episode of The Flintstones. She was also the narrator on three stories from the Disney album "Peter Cottontail and Other Funny Bunnies": "Story of Thumper", :Story of the White Rabbit", and "Story of Grandpa Bunny". Bliss was also a voice-over performer for Airborne radio spots in 2004. ^{[citation needed]}

"She lost her job as Elroy Jetson, she told interviewers, when she wouldn't work under a stage name that would hide the fact that she was a grown woman playing a little boy, which is a common scenario in cartoons."^[5]

Volunteer efforts

Bliss produced and directed talent shows for the Marin YMCA in San Rafael and Embarcadero Armed Services^[14] YMCA in San Francisco, which included service personnel with professional career hopes.^[4]