Mary Tyler Moore was born in Brooklyn, 72 years ago today.
On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Moore played Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman “making it on her own” in 1970s Minneapolis. MTM first pitched her character to CBS as a young divorcee, but CBS executives believed her role as Laura Petrie was so firmly etched in the public mind that viewers would think she had divorced Dick Van Dyke (and that the American public would not find a divorced woman likable), so Richards was rewritten as a woman who had moved to the big city after ending a long affair. Richards landed a job working in the news department of fictional WJM-TV, where Moore’s all-American spunk played off against the gruff boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner), world-weary writer Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod) and pompous anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight). In early seasons, her all-male work environment was counterbalanced by a primarily female home life, where again her character contrasted with her ditzy landlady Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman) and her New York-born neighbor and best friend, Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper).
Angelina Jolie’s dad is 71. That would be four-time Oscar nominee, one-time winner, Jon Voight. Voight won his Oscar for Coming Home, as did co-star Jane Fonda. The film had eight nominations, three wins.
Marianne Faithfull is 63. Faithfull is a descendant of Count Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the 19th century author and source of the term “masochism.” Her signature song, As Tears Go By, was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Mayday Malone is 62. That’s Sam, Ted Danson.
Paula Poundstone is 50 today.
Two-time Oscar nominee Jude Law is 37.
On this date 52 years ago Tobin Rote threw for four touchdowns and ran for another as the Detroit Lions defeated the Cleveland Browns, 59-14, in the NFL championship game. (That was it. There was no Super Bowl then.) It was the Lions’ third title in six years, all over the Browns. Since then the Lions have missed 43 out of 52 post seasons (counting this year) and are 1-9 in games when they did make it. For nearly all of that time the Lions have been owned by William Clay Ford, grandson of Henry and son of Edsel. The Lions aren’t exactly built Ford tough.
The 17th president, Andrew Johnson, was born on this date in 1808. From the obituary in The New York Times in 1875:
The history this man leaves is a rare one. His career was remarkable, even in this country; it would have been quite impossible in any other. It presents the spectacle of a man who never went to school cession of posts of civil responsibility to the highest office in the land, and evincing his continued hold upon the popular heart by a subsequent election to the Senate in the teeth of a bitter personal and political opposition.
And today is the birthday of Donna, great and loyal friend, doting mother and grandmother and aunt, highly regarded federal executive and American Indian leader. She keeps mentioning making posole. She aces that and she’ll be perfect. Happy Birthday, Donna!
One of my Xmas presents from Emmett was the complete set of Mary Tyler Moore episodes.
I actually tweeted about this early this morning. I’d never forgotten what a smart, funny sitcom MTM was, but I’d never actually realized until this past week just how heavily impacted I was by the Mary Richards character. There were so few successful, independent, professional, single female role models back then, and I was in awe of everything about her. She was who I wanted to be when I grew up.
I modeled my first place after her adorable little apartment. 🙂