The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 386

CALENDAR A COMMERCIAL HALL OF FAME The Continuing Character Hall of Fame" might read something like this: DICK WILSON (Mr. Wipple for Charmin toilet tissue-15 years longest running TV commercial ever, including Johnny for 'Philip Morris' and more than 300 commercials. VIRGINIA CHRISTINE (Mrs. Olson for Folger's coffee)-13 years. JAN MINER (Madge the manicurist for Palmolive Liquid) 12 years, about 250 commercials.

JANE WITHERS (Josephine the Plumber for Comet cleanser)-12 years, retired about two years ago after being named one of the longest-running Continuing Characters in TV. JESSE WHITE (Old Lonely for Maytag appliances) 11 years, about 30 commercials. NANCY WALKER (Rosie the Counter Lady for Bounty paper towels) entering her ninth year. MAE QUESTEL (Aunt Bluebell for Scot Towels) seven years, more than 70 commercials. MARGARET HAMILTON (Cora for Maxwell House coffee)-seven years, about 60 commercials.

FRANCES STERNHAGEN (Mrs. Marsh, the baby-sitter, for Colgate toothpaste nearly three years and just retired after about 14 commercials. Jane Withers, Josephine the Plumber Frances Sternhagen got the brush o. JOSEPHINE IS A REAL MISS FIX-IT BRUSH-OFF FOR THE TOOTH FAIRY hey just wrote me to tell me I'm going off the air. They're getting rid of Mrs.

Marsh." I gave very careful thought to the kind of a lady who would be a plumber and I came up with what I did and also the kind of clothes she would wear. I felt she would take great pride in the fact she was very meticulous in her appearance and yet had to have clothes that would serve the purpose. "In the beginning, they had men's clothes for me: a man's work shirt that was drab and gray and gray pants and heavy men's boots and I thought, no, above all this is a lady and she wants to look as neat as possible in the job she's doing. "So I brought my work coveralls and blouses from home, the ones I really work in doing things around the house because I've always been a kind of Miss Fix-It. When you've got five kids and your husband is gone I've been a widow for 11 years you learn to do a great many things for yourself." Withers, 52, has worked since she was 2: "I'm now reaching my fourth generation of people.

People still think I'm doing Jose phine and I haven't done one for years. It didn't hurt me by typecasting me." Jane Withers has been in show business all her life, so it's no surprise to learn that she had a lot to do with the way Josephine the Plumber turned out: "The original concept was a bit different, than what we ended up with because I felt I had to believe in this lady and I won't do anything I don't believe in I don't care what it is or how much they offer me. "I put a lot of myself into Josephine. I felt that any lady who was going to become a plumber cared an awful lot about her fellow man because when you need a plumber you need help. You also go into situations that are really hectic and horrendous with very nervous, frantic people, so I felt you had to have a lady that No.

1 cared about the people she was going to serve. I felt she also found out this was the one thing in her life that she could do well. She loves people and likes to help people and feels she can contribute to make life a little easier for everybody. "She was originally too smart-alecky, too brash, and I thought, 'Oh my land, if somebody like that arrived at my front door I wouldn't let them put a toe in the CLEANING UP AS THE MAYTAG MAN Actress Frances Sternhagen had just received word that Mrs. Marsh, the baby-sitter for Colgate, was not going to be renewed.

"I'm sorry because I've been putting several people through college on Mrs. Marsh," she said. Sternhagen took the commercial because she could continue to do theater in New York and still make money: "I had to try out about three times. It was really funny. You can't imagine what Mrs.

Marsh first wore a khaki uniform with brass buttons. Very militaristic. "They had to wait until they test-marketed it to find out what we told them immediatelythe uniform was ridiculous. Then we finally made Mrs. Marsh more warm and gentle and I could get into the part." Sternhagen said doing commercials is a great deal more difficult than many people think: "You need a lot of technique in order to do them because they require such timing and discipline and you have to recognize at all times that the star of the commercial is the product, not you.

"It's really funny when you're first starting out how many times the director will say, 'Dear, you've got your thumb over the package. I can't see the and that becomes terribly important. You hold the package so that at all times the product can be seen. You can't upstage that product." Sternhagen, who has been married 23 years and has six children, has played Sa-bina in "The Skin of Our Teeth," the widow Quinn in "Playboy of the Western World" and many other roles in legitimate theater. She's now playing on Broadway in a new play, "On Golden Pond." "It's very difficult if you're a serious actor to do commercials," she admitted, "but we all have to eat and so you do them and everybody accepts the fact that commercials are a part of show business now." Sternhagen gets tired of people bringing up Mrs.

Marsh and Colgate toothpaste: "The checker at the market would give me a rough time if I bought anything but Colgate at the market." 2 P. Mae Questel as Aunt Bluebell THE MEL BLANC OF THE EAST COAST' Mae Questel used to be Betty Boop, then Olive Oyl (outlasting three Popeyes) and Little Audrey. Now she's Aunt Bluebell and she loves it: "I love when the people come up to me and make funny remarks. 'Do you really weigh the Scot they ask. And my parting thing is always, 'Weigh it for yourself, Questel, who started in vaudeville, became a household voice as Betty Boop in the classic Max Fleischer cartoons.

Many remember her gift of mimicry. She also was the voice of hundreds of cartoon characters for Fleischer and Paramount, the voice of Bromo Seltzer and the Nabisco Wheat Honey Buffalo Bee, and all the voices on "Winky Dink and You." Producers call her "the Mel Blanc of the East Coast" "Financially, Aunt Bluebell turned into a bonanza," she says. "These last seven years have been financially wonderful. It's given me the financial base to do the things I really want to do. I think I am like Aunt Bluebell, like I thought I was like Betty Boop.

I was the model for her. I get a kick out of being a happy person. At sales conventions I go as Aunt Bluebell and dress up in bluebells. It's a wonderful life. I like all the attention." Jesse White is a realist and he's happy to be Old Lonely, the Maytag man.

"What it does is give me a kind of choice and a kind of freedom and a selectivity that I don't have to accept every piece of junk that Hollywood throws me. It gives me the financial freedom to pick and choose. "I've always made a good living, but the business today seems to be youth-oriented and a good role is like reaching for the stars. They've got 10 million actors and 5 million agents and there's not enough production to give everybody a job. The commercials give me a nice relaxed feeling about everytKing." White got the role more than 11 years ago when "they saw me on something and then we did one and it turned out kind of cute a cute premise: The guy gets no service calls; he's lonely.

And then we did a couple more, and now I go on promotional tours and make personal appearances for them and entertain the dealers and offer general goodwill and promotion." People still treat him as the Maytag man. t-1 7 Jesse White, Maytag" Old Lonely "The exposure on TV is incredible. When you walk down the street, no matter where it is, they know the Maytag man.".