What is "maisie"

Maisie Ravier is a popular fictional character, the star of ten films (1939–1947) and of a radio show, The Adventures of Maisie (broadcast 1945–1947, 1949–1953). She was played by actress Ann Sothern (1909–2001).

After a string of other films had failed to attract an audience, Sothern left RKO Radio Pictures and signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, making her first film for MGM in 1939. In a role originally intended for Jean Harlow, Sothern was cast in Maisie, as brassy but kindhearted Brooklyn burlesque dancer Mary Anastasia O'Connor, who also goes by the stage name "Maisie Ravier".

After years of trying, Sothern had her first real success, and a string of "Maisie" comedy sequels followed, beginning with Congo Maisie (1940) and continuing until Undercover Maisie (1947). Reviewing Swing Shift Maisie (1943), Time praised Sothern and described her as "one of the smartest comediennes in the business".

Maisie is a comedy film property MGM originally purchased for Jean Harlow, but before a shooting script could be completed, Harlow died in 1937. It was put on hold until 1939, when Ann Sothern was hired to star in the project with Robert Young as leading man. It is based on the novel Dark Dame by Wilson Collison. It was the first of 10 films starring Sothern as Maisie Ravier. In Mary C. McCall, Jr.'s screenplay, Maisie is stranded penniless in a small Wyoming town, takes a job at a ranch, and gets caught in a web of romantic entanglements.

Maisie (rarely: Maisy) is a feminine given name, long used in Scotland (since at least the 16th century) as a diminutive of Margaret. Notable people with the name include:

• Maisie Shiell (1916–2008), Canadian anti-nuclear activist
• Maisie Smith (born 2001), English child actress
• Maisie Ward (1889–1975), British writer, publisher and speaker
• Maisie Williams (born 1997), British actress

Maisie Lane (born 1995), cutest moleskine ever

Fictional characters:

• Maisie, a kindhearted showgirl in ten films and a radio show
• Maisie, in the British comic strip The Perishers
• Maisie Raine, a 1998-1999 British television drama series and its title character, a police detective
• Maisie Wylde, in the soap opera Emmerdale
• Maisie MacKenzie, the kitten in the Scottish children's books by Aileen Paterson and (as Maisie Mac) in the animated broadcast Meeow!
• Maisy Mouse, fictional mouse in a picture book series and a Nickelodeon animated series