Sylvia Field

Sylvia Field (February 28, 1901– July 31, 1998) was an American actress whose career encompassed performances on stage, screen, and TV. She was best known for playing the understanding Mrs. Martha Wilson on the television sitcom Dennis the Menace on CBS from 1959 to 1962.

Early life and career

Born Harriet Louisa Johnson in Allston, Massachusetts, she attended Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts. Field began her acting career on the stage. She made her Broadway debut at age 17 in 1918 in The Betrothal (1918). After appearing in various stage productions, Field made her film debut in the 1928 drama The Home Girl.

Field began appearing in guest spots on television in the late 1940s. In 1949, she starred in a locally produced sitcom about her life, The Truex Family. In 1952, she landed the role of Mrs. Remington in the sitcom Mister Peepers. The show, which aired until 1955, co-starred Field's real-life husband Ernest Truex. After the end of Mr. Peepers, Field continued to guest star on episodic television, including in roles on Producers' Showcase, Star Tonight, General Electric Theater, and The Ann Sothern Show. In 1957, Field made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as defendant Belle Adrian in "The Case of the Angry Mourner." In 1958, she played Aunt Lila in the Walt Disney serial Annette, starring Annette Funicello.

Sylvia Porter

Sylvia Field Porter (June 18, 1913 – June 5, 1991) was an American economist and journalist. At the height of her career, her readership was greater than 40 million people.

Early life

Born Patchogue, New York, on Long Island as Sylvia Field Feldman to Louis and Rose Maisel Feldman. Originally majoring in English literature, she switched to economics and finance after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. It has been suggested that her fiancé, bank employee Reed Porter, was relying upon Sylvia to explain the complications of the worldwide financial panic. They were married in 1931.

She graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College in 1932, and her expertise in government bonds enabled her to get a job as assistant to the president of an investment counseling firm. Working 12 hour days, she quickly learned more about the bond market, currency fluctuations and movements of the price of gold. In her spare time, she pursued an MBA at New York University.

Writing career and death

Starting in 1934 as "S.F. Porter", she published a newsletter devoted exclusively to U.S. government bonds, and was able to persuade the New York Post to hire her to write a thrice-weekly financial column.