Penny Singleton Saves The Day

Penny Singleton is not high on most people's list of favorite stars. In fact, I would bet most people have no idea who she is.

Penny Singleton is really known for two things: portraying the comic strip character Blondie in a series of low budget, B-movies during the 1940s and being the voice of Jane Jetson. She died Wednesday in California at the age of 95 and I mourn her passing. Not because I liked the Blondie movies - which I've never seen - or because I have a particular passion for The Jetson's - which I don't - but because for one brief shining instant, Penny Singleton made me a hero among the 33 students who lived with me on the fourth floor of my college dormitory.

As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, I lived in Rumsey House of West Quad. West Quad is an old dormitory, sturdily built, and as living quarters ran at UofM not too bad. At the time, Rumsey housed about 130 students, all males, and a large percentage of them were jocks. How I ended up there remains a mystery but my room was on the fourth and top floor located at the far end of the hallway. That particular location assured a certain isolation and privacy making 415 Rumsey not a bad place to live. I lived there my four undergraduate years.

A Rumsey tradition was a Sunday night trivia competition. Residents of the four floors would compete against each other throughout the semester. The trivia questions themselves came from the residents; everyone was expected to contribute some number of trivia questions for the contests. The large number of jocks assured that a lot of the questions were about sports. The floor that ultimately won the trivia contests received a keg of beer. This was heady stuff for college undergraduates.

Not being loud, boisterous, big, and strong placed me at a disadvantage in most college male-bonding contests. But I knew trivia. Even as a freshman, I had acquired a vast store of useless knowledge. TV, movies, literature, pop culture, I knew it all. Unless it was sports. Then I knew next to no trivia.

My freshman year, the fourth floor managed to make it to the final contest and we got there in large part because of my knowledge of trivia. I had even acquired a certain favorable reputation among the people in my dorm house because of my trivia skill. When it was our turn to compete, people who didn't otherwise talk to me stopped by to make sure I would be participating.

That final contest was rife with excitement. The honor of our floor, not to mention a goodly quantity of beer, rested on the outcome of this contest. Each question was worth 10 points. The person that clapped first had to answer. Get it wrong and the other side got a chance. Whoever had the most points at the end of 30 minutes was the victor. The quizmaster had his stack of questions, the judges were in place, and we were set to go.

While most of the details have faded with time, a few remain clear. At the end of the 30-minute regulation time, the score was tied. And according to the rules, in the event of a tie, each side had to select a single individual to compete for their side. Five questions were asked. The two individuals competed head-to-head. Whoever had the most correct answers won.

By unanimous decree, the fourth floor chose me. My nerves were stretched taut. I wanted desperately to not disappoint my floor mates.

The quizmaster selected the 5 questions. I was pushed to the front. The tiebreaker round began.

I don't remember the first four questions. I do remember that I got the first two correct because they weren't about sports. The third and then the fourth questions were about sports. My opponent evened the score without problem. After 4 questions, the score was tied. A semester of trivia competition hung in the balance. The guy who correctly answered this next question assured his floor of a delightful evening. The quizmaster asked the fifth and final question:

"Who did the voice of Jane Jetson?"

Both sides paused. The pause lengthened. I racked my brain. I was certain I had the answer but it eluded me. The pause lengthened into an eternity. The silence was deafening. Then it hit me:

*CLAP*
"Fourth floor answers," said the judge.
I swallowed hard.
"Penny Singleton," I said.
The quizmaster paused. He looked up. He nodded his head slightly. "He's right."

YES! Somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind I had remembered a time while watching The Jetson's when my mother casually commented "You know the woman who does her voice is the same woman that played Blondie in the movies. Penny Singleton." And that useless fact stuck in my brain. There it rested until I could pull it out one Sunday evening in 1972. Rumsey House. Trivia championship. Fourth floor victorious. Accolades, honor, and beer.

For that one brief shining instant, I was a hero.

Penny Singleton saved the day.
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