The San Fernando Valley Folklore Society maintains an excellent website debunking many urban legends. Barbara Mikkelson’s columns in particular are terrific, if not quite as terrific as Unca Cece. (Check out her column debunking the idea that Clinton has been quietly murdering — and covering up — those that oppose him at http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/faxlore/clinton.htm.
While debunking the idea that Gilligan’s first name was revealed on the show as “Willy” (it never appeared, spoken or written, in any episode), the author tells us that Mrs. Howell’s first name is Eunice, and was revealed on the episode “Mr. and Mrs. ?”.
Unfortunately, I have to take this on faith, as I don’t watch TV, but surely one of the Teeming Millions has seen this episode recently and can confirm or deny this.
Quick search on the web reveals a couple dozen sites that credit her as Eunice “Lovey” Wentworth Howell. Can’t confirm if it was given in that epidode, but it seems it was given somewhere.
Anyway, this ain’t a comment on Cecil’s Columns, now, is it?
To add some more,
The Skippers name is Jonas Grumby.
On Get Smart Agent 99’s name is Susan Hilton.
These are from the “Complete Guide To Prime Time Television”
On the show “The Prisoner” contrary to popular belief there was never a character named John Drake in one of the episodes, however a British actor with the name John Drake played a character in one episode.
On “Get Smart”, Agent 99’s name was never revealed. “Susan Hilton” was a cover name 99 used in an episode where she tried to infiltrate a KAOS-run casino.
Maxwell Smart calls her “Susan” at the end of the episode, but then she says, “You don’t have to call me that, it’s not my real name.” Or something to that effect.
I have seen this episode several times and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
I’m not privy to the inner workings of the Straight Dope enterprises, but here is what I think happened.
This question looked deceptively simple. So, simple, in fact, that Cecil decided to let Ed handle it, so Cecil could deal with more complicated questions, like cigarette tapping. Oh oh, big mistake!
Ed (aka “Little Ed”), emulating Gilligan (aka “Little Buddy”), started wandering around aimlessly, looking for someone to tell him the answer. Eventually, Ed encountered a “talking monkey”, who informed our hero that the answer was “Lovey, of course”. (This conversation occurred immediately after Gilligan–I mean Ed–had run into a tree at full speed and been hit on the noggin by a coconut.)
Cecil (aka “The Smartest Person in the World”), like The Professor (aka “The Smartest Person in the World”), was somewhat distracted by his more important projects when Ed made his report. And, sadly, Cecil thought that Ed was only joking when he said his source was “a talking monkey”.
So the erroneous information went out under Cecil’s name, although I am sure he is grateful to the Teeming Millions for their help in correcting Ed’s mistake. (In the preceding account, Mike Lenehan appeared as “The Skipper”.)
Her first name was Ivana, and after they got off the island and Howell died, she married a guy named Atdamoon… becoming the famous were-wolf slogan, Ivana Howell-Atdamoon.
Where does it say that “Lovey” was Mrs. Howell’s given name?
Mr Howell called her that, but the writers may have just used that as a term of affection (such as the gals on “Ab Fab” who referred to everyone as “sweetie darling”).
I think “Eunice” is the right answer, because it fits the pattern of the other characters’ names (Skipper and Professor)–they were used only once.
For what it’s worth, I saw a documentary recently on Gilligan’s Island. In this documentary Sherwood Schwartz talks about the character’s names. He said that all of the names were meant to parody real people, though he did not reveal who those real people were. He refered to Mrs. Howell’s first name as Lovey, so while she may have had another legal name, this was clearly meant to be her actual name and not just a pet name.