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Here’s the Story of a Lovely Lady…
When you think of Ann B. Davis, it’s as the center square of a grid, surrounded by the loving people who weren’t related to her but nonetheless—somehow, as the song said—formed a family. So what led her to life in a religious communal home in Colorado?
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ith a twinkle in her eye, a sturdy hairstyle, and a no-nonsense blue dress, Alice the housekeeper was the nucleus of the The Brady Bunch family, serving up Swiss steak, homemade cookies, and one-liners. The kids are fighting? Call in Alice. How about a snack after school? Alice is your gal. Need to laugh at someone while she flirts with Sam the Butcher? Alice. As Alice, Ann B. Davis, a 1948 U-M graduate, carved out a special place in pop culture history. She would go on to reprise the roll in spinoffs and specials once the show ended its five-season run; she would create a cookbook based on recipes related to the show; she would star in a Swiffer ad. Surely you, consumer, want to clean with the same product as the world’s most recognizable housekeeper, right? And people did. Davis was “the glue that held The Brady Brunch together,” said Barry Williams, who played Greg on the show, when Davis passed away in 2014.
From Chemistry to Schultzy
By Katie Vloet
Illustration n John Tebeau
Davis’s journey to fame and a 1970’s version of fortune is highlighted throughout the collection of her papers and photographs at the Bentley Historical Library. She grew up in Schenectady, New York, where she,
Photo n HS15012
her twin sister, and their brother and parents performed variety shows in the living room. She and her twin sister, along with their mother, performed in community theater and comedy sketches at school.
The twin Davis girls then moved to Ann Arbor, where Ann decided to study pre-med. “I got as far as my second semester,” she wrote in autobiographical papers that are part of her collection. “That’s when I hit chemistry and that’s when I decided I didn’t have the brains for a medical career.” She switched to speech and drama, and took whatever comedic roles she could find. After graduating in 1948, Davis
found roles in summer stock, then community theater in a California town “the size of a small living room.” She was, however, on the cusp of getting her big break. A friend wrote material, and the two of them performed it in a cabaret venue at the unfashionable end of Sunset Boulevard. Jack Lemmon came. Liberace came. Davis got an audition for a show starring comedian Bob Cummings; she tried out for Cummings and a very encouraging George Burns. She became “Schultzy,” the Girl Friday on The Bob Cummings Show, and two Emmy Awards for the part secured her stardom. She then returned to the stage, including a time when she replaced Carol Burnett on Broadway in Once Upon A Mattress. Then her father and a close friend died, leaving Davis uncertain about her next steps. “Personally and professionally I was in the pits,” Davis wrote. A USO trip to Vietnam changed everything and “began to turn my life around.” Then came the second big break of her career: Her casting on The Brady Bunch, which became an iconic television show that now airs every day in reruns around the world. Davis’s character, Alice, was cast as the housekeeper who took care of Mike Brady and his boys, then stayed on when the Brady men joined households with the lovely lady, Carol, and her three golden-haired girls.