Princess Pat to Baby Daphne

"She was really a pioneer" is how Kathleen Blake described her famous mother to Local Legends.

We know she was. We also know that Princess Pat and Baby Daphne both had one thing in common. Underneath both the costumes and make-up was a stunning looker of a talent by the name of Patricia Blake.

Patricia Blake started out life as Patricia White in Joliette, Illinois in 1926. Patricia grew up in New York City, Santa Fe, New Mexico and then finally San Francisco where she attended Samuel Gompers trade school. At Gompers she studied acting and won many awards for the plays she was in. Kathleen Blake, Patricia's daughter remembers a photo of her mother holding a big trophy her mother had won at age 16 for a Shakespearean contest. It was also at Samuel Gompers that she met her future husband and father to Kathleen and Gayle, Milton Blake. They married in 1945.

Kathleen spoke about her famous father; "My father worked at KLX radio, I think the radio station was in Oakland; I remember that was in the late forties and early fifties; we lived in San Francisco and he would take the key train over the bay to Oakland to work. I have a photo of him, really young, sitting in front of a microphone with the KLX radio logo behind him; he read the news and also was a news writer. Milton Blake was also a writer in other areas; he wrote poetry, short stories, books...just before he died in 1997, he had completed a book that contained poems, stories and comments about the plight of the American Indians...my sister and I hope to have it published one day. Both of our parents instilled in my sister and me the beauty of literature and also the idea of the brotherhood of man...not in a sticky sweet way but they were very philosophical and inclusive...we were brought up with no racism or criticism of other people. The were not religious in the usual sense, but did teach us the golden rule and my father would read the Sermon on the Mount to us, for it's beauty and wise words."

In 1943, the perky 5' 4" brown-eyed blonde began wowing the showbiz world by singing with the USO and San Francisco dance bands while still in high school. Through the rest of the 1940's Patricia excelled in the arts. She enrolled in radio broadcasting school and got her first professional radio job as a freelance actress with her fine ability to do numerous voices and dialects. She also managed during this busy time to have two daughters, Kathleen in 1946 and Gayle in 1948. In 1947 she spent a year doing a Hollywood Reporter type of show at KTIM in San Rafael. But by late 1949, Patricia Blake was already starting to do commercials for that new medium of Television supplementing her radio work. You could catch her doing spots for Trupak foods, Bordens, General Electric and Golden Grain Macaroni. Is was also about this same time that Patricia Blake had a show idea titled "Wonderland" which was later to become known as "Princess Pat". Kathleen recalls her mother's gifted imagination; "When Gayle and I were little, she would tell us bedtime stories...she was a wonderful story teller... and soon she was telling stories on the front porch to us and the neighborhood children... and soon she had her on TV show, Princess Pat... her show was doing so well, that she was flying down once a week to Southern California to also do her show there on TV."

	Princess Pat reigns supreme!

In 1951 The Princess Pat Show was presented to numerous TV stations and was turned down by all till Al Constant, program director at KRON-TV in San Francisco decided to keep filming the show and shopping it around. It remained unsold for over a year. During this time, Patricia kept busy with her commercial work till the Princess Pat show sold in the summer of 1953 to Flav-R-Pak Frozen foods. It continued for 26 weeks as the highest rated kid's show in the Bay area. Patricia was soon named as the top female performer by Northern California's TV Academy and received awards from PTA groups as well.

A big break came when Patricia with the help of a friend was able to sell the Princess Pat show to White King soap for the Los Angeles area in January of 1954. From then on she would fly from KRON in San Francisco and then to Los Angeles to do the Princess Pat show live. Kathleen remembers, "We moved to Southern California in 1954 so she could do more shows on tv from there. Our father began working for ABC radio and through the years became the West Coast editor of ABC news (radio). He was a very talented and well-respected newsman."

Patricia as Princess Pat with her two daughters Kathleen and Gayle.

Kathleen also recalls the personal appearances her mother would make. "I remember going with her on personal appearances when my sister and I were little girls in San Francisco. When we would go with her, we were told to not tell the other children that she was our mother, so they would not feel jealous. The appearances were usually in auditoriums."
	Photo Courtesy of Robert Stone.

Patricia wrote all the Princess shows with Milton writing the music for both the opening and closing of the show. Here are the words to The Princess Pat opening and closing music themes:

Come one and all and listen to me,

we'll have fun just wait and see,

we'll leave all our troubles behind,

this is for the young and for the young in mind;

I've stories to tell about wishing wells, gnomes and elfs

and witches casting spells, makes no difference what age you are,

that's just right for wishing on a star.

Grandpa, too, still remembers make believe,

so will you, many years from now.

Today I'll tell about a teeny tiny mouse, and a great big lion as big as a house.

(The last two lines of the song were always different depending on what story she was telling on that show)

The Closing Theme was to the tune of the folk favorite "Froggy went a-courting":

Well, I hope I see you children soon,

uh, huh,

I'll have more stories to tell to you,

some will be old, and some will be new, uh, huh

So I'll see you again and don't forget, uh, huh,

don't forget to drop me a line,

I'll see you next week at the very same time, Goodbye, Goodbye

When the show went off the air Patricia went back to doing commercials for tv, radio and many voice-overs for movies.

Photos Courtesy of Robert Stone. Thanks Robert!

By 1967 Patricia Blake was back on the TV airwaves charming children as Baby Daphne, a wacky witch on the show "Daphne's Cartoon Castle". Just like she had done with the Princess shows, Pat wrote, produced and starred in the show. Kathleen told Local Legends; "What most people never knew is all the work she put into these shows. They were all totally 'one-woman' shows, although she did have directors for the shows and excellent prop men. One of her favorite prop men, was Tommy Bond, for her Baby Daphne show at KTTV-TV...he had been a child star in The Little Rascals."

According to Kathleen Blake, her mother did many telethons as Baby Daphne and Princess Pat. "I do remember her doing a big one (personal appearance) as Baby Daphne at Devonshire Downs in Northridge, CA. I was struck at the time how many grownups and teenagers loved her as well as young children. Did I tell you that as Baby Daphne, she once met Lou Rawls at some function and he told her he was a big fan? I worked for Baby Daphne from 1967 until 1969...I was her secretary...I answered the phones, helped her with show ideas, scripts, wrote out her cue cards; helped her answer her fan mail and set up personal appearances; Baby Daphne was an extremely popular show...she even had many college students for fans. I remember there was a fan club in her honor at USC. As far as I can remember her show then left KTTV and went to KHJ. I was not working for her by then as my husband had returned from Vietnam and we moved back up to Monterey, California."

	Pat's fan mail-she was a ratings winner!
Baby Daphne (live!) at Movieland Wax Museum

Children all over the southland laughed and loved our favorite hip witch. Daphne's Cartoon Castle was an extremely popular show with fans of all ages watching to catch the antics of our favorite daffy witch. Borrowing from Pat's vaudeville roots, Baby Daphne would occasionally be pummeled by a very large powder puff to the cries of "MAKE-UP!!"

In a recent interview with superfan Robert Stone, Local Legends heard about Robert's chance meeting with Patricia Blake many years after Cartoon Castle had aired.

"I saw Patricia Blake do Baby Daphne at a Red Cross show I worked at, at the Bonaventure Hotel so many years ago. She arrived dressed as anyone and in the green room upstairs she changed into costume and makeup in the green room bathroom. In fact I did not know she was Baby Daphne until after she took her costume and makeup off later. She took a shower and walked out as I needed to use the bathroom and then it occurred to me who she was. On stage, she did a great show with props. She gave a lesson to the young kids about how to behave at a fancy dinner. I wish I had a video camera back then. She was a pro, her act was polished. I'd say she had been doing Baby Daphne at children's hospitals since the show went off the air. In the green room, all the clowns and magicians were talking shop about playing children's hospitals. It was as if I was not there. I was a fly on the wall. It was during the coffee shortage and there was free coffee in the green room. There were several coffee cans on a table and I had been taking pictures for two days for the event for free like the others. I said to anyone in particular in the green room about taking a can of coffee home, and Patricia Blake spoke up saying I should not and it should go back to the Red Cross if we do not use it. At the time, Patricia Blake was brewing some coffee that she was mixing with ice to cool it down, because she liked coffee cool like tea. That was the first time I heard of coffee being made to serve cold."

On or off TV, Patricia Blake still strived to teach us all lessons on living. Her daughter Kathleen tells us just how much work went in to each show. "For Baby Daphne, once again she did all of her own makeup, lots of the props; and also designed and made all of her own costumes; which is interesting as she did not have a sewing machine; so she sewed them all by hand; the same with putting fringe and sequins on lots of the outfits Baby Daphne wore. She also wrote all her scripts. However, I do remember at times she enlisted me to help her with some ideas she had for the weeks plot (she was live, 5 days a week for an hour and a half a day, remember) I also recall a friend of hers, Joe Agnello would sometimes help her with show ideas...what is interesting about her show is that she always had the plots for the weeks show subtlety teach the children important things...I remember one story line was Baby Daphne makes contact with an alien via a short-wave radio and in one instance he asks her what color is she? And she takes a moment, looks at herself and says, something like a greenish-gray....anyway, the show was on the air around the time of the Watt's riots in LA and so the thrust of that particular week, subtlety gave the message that underneath we are all the same, no matter what color we are. Her shows always had little messages like that, veiled in comedy."

Above: Pat as Baby Daphne.

Below: Pat as herself.

Photos Courtesy of Robert Stone.

"Baby Daphne always came on right before Jack LaLanne's exercise show...he was so nice..sometimes he would have her come on to 'exercise' with him...but of course her idea of exercise was using her fingers."

"Truth or Consequences was on KTTV at that time and Bob Barker's dressing room was next door to our office and he would come through our office every day to get to his dressing room. He was very friendly and very nice (I was 21 at the time and had a major crush on him!)"

"Sheriff John was also on KTTV at that time; he and my mom were friends; he was a very nice man; and a very good teller of jokes. On The Mister Wishbone show, my mother did the voice of MLF (Mysterious Little Friend) while he read the Sunday Funnies (Later MLF would be on the Daphne Show) My mother was also friends with Jim Trudeau (Mister Wishbone), sometimes, I think he used the name, Jim Allen."

"After her Baby Daphne show was over, she continued to do many tv commercials, and small parts in movies. One thing I remember is the movie "ALIVE!" That came out, was made in Spain, I believe; it was dubbed into English and she did the female voices."

Patricia's commercial work included, Gallo Wines, General Electric, Barker Bros., Planters Peanuts, Borden's products, Levis' for Gals, Betty Crocker bar cookies, Mrs. Butterworth, Clean and Treat medicated pads, Fizzies, Vicks Nightquil, her movie work included NIGHT RIDER, ARCTIC FURY, MURDER ON MARKET STREET, HOSPITAL BLUES, FIRE SAFETY and in theater: Streetcar Named Desire (Straw Hat Theater San Francisco), MacBeth, Light Up The Sky, The Man Who Came To Dinner, Spring Crazy.

To hear some of Pat's voice work click on the following links:

Levi's

Mrs Butterworth

Fizzies

Intimate perfume

Real Player can be downloaded for free at www.real.com

Watch Baby Daphne and Princess Pat again at www.Youtube.com

The many faces of Patricia Blake.

Photos Courtesy of Robert Stone.

Daughter Kathleen told Local Legends about some of the issues her Mother faced in her later years; "In her personal life, she rescued many dogs and cats...that is how we got most of our pets. She was a true animal lover up until the day she died. Luckily, my sister was able to find a place for our mother's three dogs that would not put them to sleep, after our mom had passed away. These dogs had been abused and abandoned and Patricia Blake, true to her character, had rescued them. She also was very generous, I remember, with one organization that does much to rescue wolves..."

"Up until the time she passed away in January of 1999 at age 72, she was always working on show ideas...On a personal note; she was a very talented actress, but even more she was a very sacrificial person; the reason I say this is, although she loved to act, my father's mother came to live with them and my mother gave up her active pursuit of roles in acting to care for my grandmother...she took care of her for many years until my grandmother passed away at age 96....that was in 1995....then our father became ill, and my mother, once again, took care of him until he died in 1997. Before she died, she had a new children's show she was preparing. She and I had been talking about her moving near me in Arizona...I live in a small town and we had plans to see if she could get her new show onto the local channel here...as times have really changed since she began in the 50's....it is much harder for one woman to get a children's show on these days...she was really a pioneer."

*Title Photo Courtesy of Robert Stone.
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