in 1951 to star in comedy features, now in color, and she made six more pictures through 1955. She recorded for the RCA Victor label. In 1943, she began her own radio program, The Judy Canova Show, that ran for 12 years: first on CBS and then on NBC. Playing herself as a love-starved Ozark bumpkin dividing her time between home and Southern California, Canova was accompanied by a cast that included voicemaster Mel Blanc as Pedro (using the accented voice he later gave the cartoon character Speedy Gonzales) and Sylvester (using the voice that later became associated with the Looney Tunes character); Ruth Perrott as Aunt Aggie; Ruby Dandridge as Geranium; Joseph Kearns as Benchley Botsford; and Sharon Douglas as Brenda. Gale Gordon, Sheldon Leonard, Gerald Mohr, and Hans Conried also appeared sporadically. During World War II, she closed her show with the song "Goodnight Soldier" ("Wherever you may be... my heart's lonely... without you") and used her free time to sell U.S. War Bonds. After the war, she introduced a new closing theme that she once said she remembered her own mother singing to her when she was a small child: Go to sleep-y, little baby. Go to sleep-y, little baby. When you wake You'll patty-patty cake And ride a shiny little pony. Television Her radio and movie careers ended in 1955. Canova made a smooth transition to television; she never transitioned the radio show to a standalone television series (in contrast to many of her contemporaries) but made frequent guest appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Steve Allen Show, Matinee Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Mickey Mouse Club, The Danny Thomas Show, and other shows. In 1967, she portrayed Mammy Yokum in an unsold TV pilot adapted from Al Capp's Li'l Abner. She also worked on Broadway and in Vegas nightclubs through the early 1970s, touring with the revival of No, No Nanette in 1971. She appeared as a mystery guest on the TV show What's My Line on July 18, 1954. Business In 1954, Canova and her husband obtained controlling interest in Camera Vision Productions Incorporated. The Los-Angeles-based firm developed a new type of camera which was reported to reduce production costs for TV film and motion pictures from 30 to 50 percent by providing automatic adjustments of steps that previously had to be done manually. Personal life Her first husband (1936–39) was Robert Burns—a