Will the REAL Betty (Reynolds) White Please Stand Up!

Ever heard of an actress named Betty White? Sure you have! She starred in such immensely popular television shows as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Golden Girls”, and “Hot in Cleveland.” Often referred to as “America’s Sweetheart,” Betty White even at the age of 99 is still endearingly witty.

The adored and adorable Betty Marion White

Today is January 17, 2021. On this day, the one and only Betty White is celebrating her 99th birthday. A tip of the cap and a hearty HAPPY BIRTHDAY to "America's Sweetheart," Betty Marion White!

But there is a particular inaccuracy about Betty White that seems to be growing with time, the way that a lie, told often enough, becomes accepted as truth.

In 2012, a woman who posts articles online wrote a piece about Betty White (Betty MARION White) and incorrectly connected her with the Great Northern Railway’s Empire Builders radio series. This is an absolute falsehood. Betty Marion White never appeared on Empire Builders.

From a 2012 article posted online with false statement
about Empire Builders

So why would this writer say such a thing? Was it a deliberate lie, made of whole cloth as they say, a complete and total fabrication just to make her article seem more interesting? No, that does not seem to be the case. Was it a false assumption based on some obscure and incomplete information? That is a definite possibility. A bit more serious research by that author might have kept this inaccuracy from emerging. Whatever the actual catalyst behind this error, it is unequivocally an error, and it’s beginning to spread like a virus by other writers who are simply grabbing onto this falsehood and repeating it.

From a 2020 article posted online, clearly copying
the 2012 false statement about Empire Builders 

The same incorrect claim of Betty Marion White appearing on Empire Builders was repeated in a 2020 article, and perhaps elsewhere. A website that offers copies of old-time radio recordings does not come right out and claim that Betty Marion White appeared on Empire Builders, but while noting that someone with the (rather common) name of “Betty White” was on the broadcast, they posted a misleading photograph of Betty Marion White – who never appeared on Empire Builders, and whose photo had nothing at all to do with the broadcast being highlighted.

Wrong!

So who was this “Betty White” who in 1930 appeared in not one, or two, but (at least) six broadcasts of Empire Builders? It was in fact a woman, an adult woman in 1930, named Betty White. Imagine that, more than one woman on this planet with the name “Betty White!” Only, this Betty White was born in 1904 as Elizabeth Reynolds. She took up acting and joined the travelling Redpath Chautauqua Circuit where she met Robert G. “Bob” White, also an actor. The two were married, and she became “Betty White.” Betty Reynolds White.

When the Great Northern’s Empire Builders relocated from New York to Chicago in the fall of 1930, Bob and Betty White were hired to join the radio program’s regular ensemble of players. The first broadcast of Empire Builders from the NBC studios at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart was on the evening of September 29, 1930. It was a play titled “The Phantom Trail.” Twenty-six-year-old Betty Reynolds White took the role of “Martha Blaine.” In another broadcast, a rough recording of which is still circulating on the internet, Betty White played the role of a very young girl. This was called “Attar of Roses.” On the internet, you will usually see this story incorrectly referred to as “Columbia River.” Betty Reynolds White played the part of Beatrice “Anne” Hyland, a very young girl.

THIS is Betty Reynolds White, an actress who performed on the Great Northern Railway's Empire Builders, circa 1930-31

A petite lady, standing only 4’ 11” tall, Betty Reynolds White performed very convincingly as a higher-pitched small child. This was a talent of hers that she continued to benefit from in other Empire Builders broadcasts, and later on other radio shows such as Rin-Tin-Tin.

When Betty Reynolds White passed away in 1988, her obituary said she was described as "radio's foremost child character actress," according to newspaper stories of the day. Jeanne DeVivier Brown, a past president of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters Club, added that Betty Reynolds White "did a lot of juvenile roles in the '30s and '40s, which was unusual because she was an adult at the time she did them."

So, the completely unfounded attribution of Betty Marion White being associated with Empire Builders is out there in the wild now, and probably will continue to fester as a falsehood that does all it can to morph into the realm of so-called fact. But it is not fact.

If you have an interest in the story of the Empire Builders radio series, please resist any temptation to accept a myth that someone other than Betty Reynolds White deserves acclaim for her performances on that program.