Jesse White was a very funny man and a great stage performer (I saw him playing Oscar in The Odd Couple and Mushnick in Little Shop of Horrors, and he was great in both.) As with many character actors, he did his best work in parts that paid little and went largely unnoticed, then made his fame and fortune in an odd, non-challenging role. He was the Maytag Repairman for 21 years in what was apparently a very successful advertising campaign…so much so that it was an actual news story when he "retired" in 1988. I put "retired" in quotes because Jesse told everyone he met that it was not a voluntary retirement; that those [expletive deleted] ad agency guys had decided he was too old. He was only 69 which doesn't seem that old when you consider that his replacement, Gordon Jump, was 56 when he assumed the role. As good an actor as Jesse was, I think Gordon was even better. He just seemed somehow…lonelier.
The Maytag folks obviously worried about Gordon getting too old for the job so over the years, they tried to establish another actor in the spots as the Repairman's son or nephew. That would put a younger spin on the commercials and when Jump died or retired, the younger man could take over. I guess it never worked out. Last June, they announced that Jump was "retiring" and that an actor named Hardy Rawls would soon assume the role, but I don't think Mr. Rawls was introduced the way they once wanted to phase in the new guy.
In early 1989, I booked Jesse White to do a voice on the Garfield cartoon show. I had an idea to have a recurring Bilko-like con-man and I thought Jesse would be good in the role…and he would have been, had we done the show ten years earlier. But Jesse was having health problems. His performance was not up to this old standard, and I could understand why he was no longer doing the Maytag spots.
He apparently could not. The Gordon Jump commercials had just started appearing and someone asked Jesse an insensitive question about his absence. Jesse exploded in anger, railing against know-nothing advertising people who are prejudiced against older people. He was absolutely right that there is rampant ageism in the business, though perhaps that was not the problem in his case. I later worked with Jesse on what I believe was his last job — a small part on the comedy album/CD, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume 2. Jesse had been the co-star of the first album, which was recorded in 1961. When Stan did the sequel in '96, he wanted to include everyone who'd been on the first one and was still around…but Jesse was only up to a small, non-singing part and even that took a great many takes. He died before the album was even released.
The day we had him on Garfield was a very gloomy day because this had once been one of the sharpest, funniest actors around and we were all a little depressed by the struggle he had to give even a passable performance. After Jesse left, I found Lorenzo Music, who did the voice of Garfield, sitting out in the lounge area, wiping his eyes. I sat down next to him and said, "I know…it's sad to see someone in that condition."
Lorenzo looked up at me and said, "Yes, but that's not why I'm crying. Jesse told me how much he got for doing those Maytag commercials."
I gasped. "You mean…?"
"Yeah," Lorenzo moaned. "They only hired Gordon Jump because I turned it down."