That’s a photo that I took of Patty Maloney outside the studio where we were taping some TV show I wrote in the seventies…and if Patty was here, she’d say, “And it’s actual size!”
Patty was 3 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed about the same as one of my shoes. I don’t remember which TV program we were doing at the time but it was certainly for Sid and Marty Krofft’s company. Patty was a regular Krofft cast member, appearing in many of their shows, though you often didn’t know it. For them and for other producers, she was often inside some full-body costume.
For example, she once played portrayed a robot waitress named Tina on the series, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. But one time when I was on the set of that show, she was in the costume of the regular male robot, Twiki, because the actor who usually did that role, Felix Silla, was out sick. Mr. Silla was the same height so when you see him credited for any job where you couldn’t see who was in the suit, it was sometimes Patty — and vice-versa.
Patty also stunt-doubled for children and was often cast where you could see it was her and she acted with her voice instead of just her compact frame. She also did voices for cartoons from time to time.
Often, including twice on shows I worked on, she was cast as Billy Barty’s spouse or lady friend. There was an episode of the sitcom, Phyllis starring Cloris Leachman. Forgive the possible height-shaming but it was a very funny episode. Phyllis’s daughter Bess was dating a boy of normal height and it made Phyllis uneasy that the boy’s parents were…well, the heights of Mr. Barty and Ms. Maloney, who played them. In one scene, Phyllis poured out her worries to the character played by Richard Schaal, who wasn’t the brightest character on TV and it went something like this…
LEACHMAN: I don’t know what to do. Beth wants to date a boy whose parents are midgets.
SCHAAL: Well, I hope she finds one.
LEACHMAN: No, no. Beth is dating a boy whose parents are midgets.
SCHAAL: Well then, problem solved!
These days, some folks might be uncomfortable with that joke but it got a huge laugh. More importantly, both Billy (I worked with him, too) and Patty loved it. They both had great senses of humor and were happy to build their careers around such material.
Patty was just delightful — they both were — and I was sorry to hear a few years ago that she was ill and had lost most of her sight. She passed away on Monday at the age of 89.
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