The Lexington Herald from Lexington, Kentucky • 84

RD B6TUJN TH UHS TV's Grand Old Gal DAVID REDD TMviUM EMtaT ATLANTA If you were to pick the grand old lady of television- the name Betty White probably wouldn't come to mind as the first choice Lucille Ball and Carroll Burnet are considered the likeliest candidates for that title But perhaps Betty White known for her role of Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show is a better pick Especially considering her long involvement with' television Betty White's talented performances (she won two Emmys as Sue Ann) on Mary Tyler Moore only scratch the surface of her television appearances She may have logged more time on the air than any woman on the tube today- Betty White you see used to host her own five and one--half hour daily show on Los Angeles television That was in 1949 when TV was a vastly different medium than it is today "It's impossible to imagine filling five hours on television but it would go by so quickly" Betty White explains "We did interviews and commercials by the score They'd come in and the ink wasn't dry on the copy "You'd glance at the copy and then you'd be selling your little heart out The mast we ever did in one day five and one-half hours was 58 commercials At that point they weren't 30 second jobs you'd talk until you blooded American gal "And I got hooked on performing and went to Hollywood making the rounds looking for work" That led to bit parts on such successful radio series as Blondie The Great Gildersleeve and This is Your FBI played just very small bit parts in those shows" Betty White admits "Brief scenes crowd noises just anything On Blondie they were actually hiring another actress by the name of Betty White "She was an actress doing radio work at that time and they used her a lot but somehow I got the call I showed up for work and they were expecting a blonde at that time I had my regular brown hair and they said are you' I said Betty White' and they said 'no you're But it was too late to go find her and so I got the pari" She got to television by acting as sort of a test pattern for the equipment since the medium was just beginning in the late 40s and early 50s "If you couldn't get work on radio they'd put you on television because 'it was such a good showcase' They'd get people to sing and dance for nothing because they know where television was going or how many people were watching" (Turn fo ROLE page 12) jt I-' i tr i BETTY WHITE were exhausted If it was a good product you'd talk for five minutes" Television was new then and such things as five-minute commercials were allowed and (he search for programming for this new entertainment medium was frantic because no one not even Betty White knew how it would develop But it was this searching for new talent for this thing called television (hat brought Betty White from a few bit roles in radio dramas to next season's Betty White Show "I wanted to be a she confesses "And while in high school I wrote the senior play putting of course myself in the lead role like any good red- Barney Miller's Lexington's Electronics Establishment Invites You To Experience Our World of SONY i We Want To Sell You A New SONY TV Downtown Across From First Security Plaza Whr Radio- Television a BmImuu Not a SuMine 2- TV Spotlight Sunday My 31 1977.