Sunday, December 12, 2010

A bizzare story about Walter Tetley

Walter Tetley was the wisenheimer-talking nephew of Gildy on The Great Gildersleeve and later played the very same type of character on The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show.  Before, in between and after, he played many other roles on various shows and was a tremendous television voice-over actor as well.

Doing some research about him, I found something very strange; I just don't know how true it is or isn't.

[According to Wikipedia] :
Walter Tetley's perennially adolescent voice was the result of a medical condition. While this has been cited as a hormonal problem, one of Tetley's employers, Bill Scott, offered a more specific explanation. According to Scott, Tetley's mother was reluctant to give up the revenue generated from her son's busy radio career and, in Scott's words, "She had him fixed [castrated]. Walter Tetley, the world's tallest midget." Whatever the medical reason, the condition arrested Tetley's development, preventing his voice from breaking into maturity as well as preventing his further physical growth. Tetley would sound forever as though he was stranded on the bridge between boyhood and pre-teen adolescence.
 Many publicity shots show Tetley looking sad... maybe now we know why.

2 comments:

  1. Wow. Never heard this and find it very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Makes a lot of sense if true. I feel for him. Tetley is one of my favorites - certainly in the top 10, maybe in my top 5...

    ReplyDelete

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