Nobody really needs an excuse to talk about Jesse White; nevertheless, I have a pretty good one.
Whether you have known his name forever or are learning it for the first time, Jesse White is a TV and cinema treasure. From his last television appearance as a droll Florida retirement community neighbor of Jerry Seinfeld’s parents all the way back to his breakthrough romp as the unstoppable mental health facility attendant in the classic comedy Harvey (1950), that wonderful melting-ice cream face has been, often namelessly, enjoyed.
So, my excuse to talk about him: Jesse White and my mother went to West High School together in Akron, Ohio.
Now, when I say “together,” I don’t exactly mean in tandem. He was three years older than my mother, so they weren’t in the same class. But what is remarkable to me is that my African-American mom, Frances Coles Waynesboro, and this white kid—lol, “White” kid—were students in the same high school at the same time back in the 1930s. I mean, in the movies of Jesse and my mom’s day, the Our Gang kids were racially integrated as elementary tots, but a racially integrated high school in the flicks of that era? Probably, never?
Mom used to smile fondly whenever she saw Jesse in something like an episode of Gunsmoke or Perry Mason. Though interaction between them as students would probably have been considered weird and most likely frowned upon, she was aware of his talent back in school when he was known by his family name, Jesse Weidenfeld. Even as a youth, he was performing in productions at the Akron Woman’s City Club and the Weathervane Playhouse (both of which still exist today!).
When he did that memorable stint as the lonely Maytag repairman, our family—and the rest of America—relished the commercial persona, much as TV viewers now relish Stephanie Courtney as Flo in the popular Progressive Insurance ad campaign. (The repairman was supposed to be lonely because Maytag appliances were touted as so reliable that no one ever needed to call for repairs. There is a Collector’s Club, “dedicated to the preservation of Maytag history…,” that lauds the symbol Mr. White originated but, beware, the photo captions are reversed on their website.)
Mom lived most of her life as a secretary and right-hand-woman in a real estate company and, of course, as my devoted, widowed, fun-loving mother. However, for a short time in her youth, Frances Coles was a professional tap dancer! Jesse White wasn’t the only talented one in that Akron, Ohio high school.
Many thanks for help from the Special Collections Division of the Akron-Summit County Public Library
~ FW