Myrtle Vail (January 7, 1888 – September 18, 1978) was a pioneering American writer and actress who, after a long career in vaudeville, created, wrote, and starred in one of the most popular radio soap operas of the 1930s, Myrt and Marge.
Basing the show on her own experiences as a veteran chorus girl, Vail starred as the wise Myrt Spear, who took the young and innocent Marge (played by her real-life daughter, Donna Damerel) under her wing. The show was a massive hit for sponsor Wrigley’s gum and ran from 1932 until 1946, making Vail one of the most successful women in radio.
After her radio career, she became a character actress in films, and is best known to modern audiences for two memorable appearances in cult classics written by her grandson, Charles B. Griffith, and directed by Roger Corman. She played the hypochondriac mother of Seymour Krelboined in the original The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) and a supporting role in the dark comedy A Bucket of Blood (1959).
