The Case of Betty White
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It’s 1939. Two high Beverly Hills high school seniors, a boy, and a girl, head down to channel 13, a local station in Los Angeles to participate in an experimental TV transmission. They step into the studio with tan make-up and dark brown lipstick so that their faces won’t be washed out under the intense lights from the studio. The young man was Harry Bennett, the senior class president. The young lady was Betty White, and unbeknownst to her, this transmission is the beginning of one of the longest careers in television history.
Every once in a while there’s a person in the film industry that blows everyone away. These are the kind of people that are universally beloved for their kindness, humor, creativity, and groundbreaking work. Up until December 31st, 2021, there was no living person in show business more beloved than Betty White. From her countless appearances in TV, film, radio, and commercials to her dedication to the well-being of animals, Betty White never really disappeared from our collective minds. As the global pandemic raged, the internet called out in unison: protect Betty White at all costs! She was America’s grandmother and by all accounts a friend to everyone who knew her.
When Betty White passed away, she was so close to her hundredth birthday that People magazine already celebrated it on the cover. Her birthday celebration was slated to premiere in theaters. So, this month, we’re celebrating the 100th birthday of a comedy and TV legend by telling her story.
Family/ Young Life
Betty and husband Alan Ludden
On January 17th, 1922 Betty Marion White was born in Oak Park Illinois. Shortly after, her parents Tess and Horace White moved with their young daughter to Los Angeles, California. Moving to California had a great effect on Betty, and placed her on course for a long and wonderful life. Many of her decisions would be based around her love of living in The Golden State.
Tess and Horace White loved animals, and passed that passion on to their daughter. Every summer they would go backpacking in the High Sierras together for 3 weeks. It sparked Betty’s love of animals greatly. She joked that her parents would bring animals home and beg her to let them keep their new furry friends.
Betty White described her parents as completely supportive in everything she did, even when she decided not to go to college.
As Betty was growing up in California in the 1920s, experiments in television (the medium that would one-day make her famous) began all over the world, as early as 1928.
At the New York World's Fair in 1939, NBC presented the first television demonstration to the American public. Just eight years later in 1947, programs were being televised regularly from Chicago and New York.
By 1948, this new form of entertainment was sweeping the nation and stars of the small screen were quickly becoming celebrities. Before television, audiences had to head to theaters and concert halls for entertainment. Television made entertainment so much more accessible, and it widened the scope of what kind of entertainment Hollywood could produce.
But, Betty didn’t initially plan on being an actress. Her ambition was to be a writer. When it came time to graduate from Horace Mann Grammar School in Beverly Hills, she wrote herself as the lead of the graduation play. She would credit that experience as the moment when she “contracted showbiz fever for which there is no known cure.”
Betty graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1939, one month after NBC’s television demonstration at the World’s Fair. Also an aspiring Opera singer, Betty was asked to sing at the graduation.
She looked up to Jeanette MacDonald as an idol as well as Nelson Eddy. She said they were almost as important as her mother and father.
Donning her graduation gown, Betty and the senior class president headed downtown to channel 13 to participate in the experimental broadcast that we mentioned at the beginning of the episode.
But, Betty didn’t immediately begin her TV career out of high school. For 4 years she worked for the American Women’s Voluntary Services to help the war efforts. She met a lot of young men during this time, but her heart belonged to Paul, her sweetheart overseas. Paul had proposed before he shipped out, and every night they wrote each other letters. But, Betty wasn’t sure about the relationship, and eventually broke the engagement, returning the ring to his mother. She ended up marrying a P38 pilot but it sadly lasted only 6 months. Her second marriage would end as she gained a career instead of a part-time gig in television.
As Betty White paved her way towards television she spent time at the Bliss-Hayden school of acting. The school charged tuition from its students that allowed them to perform in productions. After her first performance, they asked her to be in the next play for free! From here she diligently went around to the various radio shows, landing radio gigs such as Blondie, The Great Gildersleeve, and This Is Your FBI.
However, in order to be on the shows you had to be a part of the union, The American Federation of Radio Artists. In order to be a part of the union, you needed to have a specific job (a problem we still face today, amirite?) Producer Fran Van Hartesveldt helped her out by taking a chance and letting her say one word in a commercial for margarine. In order to get her union card she just had to say “Parkay” which was the brand of margarine. For saying it twice, she got enough money to pay for half the union dues and her father was excited and kind enough to pay the other half. She was official. Around 1950, the union expanded to include TV, changing its name to: The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Television continued to rise in popularity, and radio stations were expanding into the TV format. Betty followed, landing a guest spot on “The Dick Hayne’s Show” and shortly after a role on a comedy show called “Tom, Dick, and Harry.” From here she got paid a whole $20 a week to be on “Grab Your Phone” in 1949. It was her first game show.
Game shows would become a large part of Betty’s career, especially because she loved games.
For example, she loved the gameshow Password, and appeared on the program in 1961. This is where she met her future husband, the host Alan Ludden.
Alan proposed to Betty, but she refused several times in fear that another marriage would not work out. Another reason was that Ludden lived and worked in New York, and Betty could never leave her beloved California. Patiently waiting for her to change her mind, Alan wore the ring around his neck until she said yes. He also sent her a stuffed bunny that simply said “Please say yes” and had earrings hanging from its ears.
Eventually, Betty accepted and lived with him for 4 years in New York. Finally, Password’s taping moved to California and Betty was able to move back home.
First Projects
We already mentioned the beginning of Betty’s career, but we’re going to take a deeper look at some of her first projects.
Grab Your Phone (1949)
On this delightful little show on KLAC-tv, host Wes Battersea asked questions to the audience. The audience could then call in to consult a panel of four women with phones in front of them. Every correct answer earned that audience member a total of $5.
During its run in 1949 Betty received a call from a well-known radio host named Al Jarvis. Jarvis had seen her on Grab Your Phone and wanted to make her his “Girl Friday.” This leads us to her next big project: Hollywood on Television.
Hollywood On Television (1949)
Al Jarvis was looking to move his radio show to TV. The plan was to play records on the air, but the audience was more interested in Betty and Al, and wanted to hear them talk! They nixed the records after the first week.
Hollywood on Television had no script, and was on 6 days a week, 5.5 hours a day.
It was the first time Betty was paid to be on TV. She started out at $50 a week and when it became popular, she got $300 a week
Betty was not one to read off of note cards. She and her first costar, Al Jarvis, saw it as cheating. Even for in-show ad reads she would quickly read a description before the show and then impart what she could remember to the audience during the show.
Betty and Al told little husband and wife anecdotes while hosting the show, and the producers wondered if they could make a new TV show based off of these kinds of stories. It became Life With Elizabeth starring Betty White and Del Moore.
Life with Elizabeth
Betty White was the first female producer of a national television show! She produced and starred in Life with Elizabeth in the early 1950s. The show started in 1950 and aired live for two years. Taping of the episodes began in 1952. It ran during the same era as all-time classics like I love Lucy.
The show presented three sketches in each half hour episode, all about the trials and tribulations of a young married couple.
The show didn’t have a big budget, and Betty often said they had about $1.95 for each episode.
There was a flat backdrop with just a few pieces of furniture to work with.
The show ended in 1955, as Betty was already producing her next project.
The Betty White Show (1954)
In the mid-1950s, Betty produced what would be the first of 4 different Betty White Shows over the years!
The show contained segments such as Bill Hamilton singing love duets with Betty, dance numbers, letters from viewers, advice from Betty, and interviews with guests.
Her favorite thing to do was musical variety shows, especially The Carol Burnett Show!
Most Influential Shows and Movies
Betty preferred to do television over movies so there are very few movies that we will list here.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Mary Richards moves to Minneapolis after a breakup and finds a job as an associate producer for the news on WJM-TV. Her boss, though disliking her determination and energy, relies on her for solving several problems in and out of the station.
The part of Sue Ann Nivens was written with an “icky, sweet Betty White type” in mind. The creators looked for a woman that could pull this off, but they could not find anyone that was perfect. Finally the casting director, Ethel Winant, went to the real deal for the part. Mary Tyler Moore and her husband were already great friends with Betty and her husband Allen. At the time Mary was a beloved actress and audiences already loved her character, Mary Richards. How Mary reacted on the show could make or break a new character. Luckily, since Mary found Sue Ann Nivens funny the audience gladly accepted the character and Betty was asked to come back several times on the show.
Jack Paar Tonight
This was a late night talk show that brought on several stars to interview and show off their talents.
She was an “irregular” on Jack Paar’s Tonight Show. Jack had extended an invitation to her for anytime she was in New York to come on. Since she was such a staple within Jack Paar’s Tonight Show it would be a while before she was asked to come on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The time would allow Johnny to gain his footing and establish himself apart from his predecessor.
The Bold and The Beautiful (2006-2009)
Betty spent three years on The Bold and the Beautiful. She played a very prominent part as Ann Douglas.
When we think of Betty we do not often see her as a dramatic actor. In a Tulsa World interview, she said "It's... such a great stretch because I don't get the chance to do serious acting," she enthused. "So, to get some serious things to do was kind of fun."
The Bold and the Beautiful dedicated the Monday, January 17th 2022 episode to Betty.
The Golden Girls
Four women (Rose, Blanche, Dorothy, and her mother Sophia) live together in Miami sharing their eventful Golden Years after their husbands have passed away.
Betty almost was cast as the character Blanche in Golden Girls but Jay Sandrich, who shot the pilot, saw her as a Rose. One reason was that he saw Blanche as too similar to Sue Ann Nivens from Mary Tyler Moore. Golden Girls nudged The Cosby Show out of the number 1 slot the first week they were on the air.
They were also able to stay in the top ten of tv shows for the first 5 years of the show. Half their mail came from kids! It went across all the age groups, everyone loved it.
After Golden Girls she was approached about doing a talk show but refused to put another talk show on the air for the American people.
The Proposal
Margaret Tate, in order to avoid deportation back to Canada lies and says that she is engaged to Andrew Paxton. Even though Andrew is a disgruntled employee of Margaret’s he decides to go along with the plan but insists that they must visit his family in Alaska.
This movie brought more attention to her once again, possibly introducing her to even more audience members. In the role, she plays Ryan Reynolds’ outspoken Grandma Annie. For this part, she had to learn some Eskimo. In a New York Daily News article from 2009, she said “It was actually the Tlingit (Klinkit) language-it’s nothing that you can relate to. You have to memorize it syllable by syllable. I’ve been in this business for 61 years, and this may be the most fun I’ve had on one particular production.”
Hot in Cleveland
Three L.A. women are on their way to a vacation in Paris together when their plane must make an emergency landing in Cleveland, Ohio. When they discover how desirable they are in Cleveland versus L.A. they decide to stay. They find a lovely house to stay at that comes with one condition. That condition is a live-in caretaker named Elka Ostrosky (played by Betty White.)
Originally Betty did not think she would have enough time for the show and had set to only appear in the first episode. After working on that first episode however, she could not turn it down and said she was in for the long haul.
In her book, If You Ask Me Betty says “What absolutely boggles my mind is that I find myself in yet another hit series, having a ball with a wonderful cast and crew. One of those in a lifetime is a blessing, two of them is a privilege, but three out of three? I owe Someone big time.”
Many guest stars that appeared on the show were her old friends from past shows. She loved the blend of her past with her future.
Contributions to American Culture You May Not Know
As we said before, Betty White was the first female Producer of a National Television Show. She was a trailblazer in many ways, as she’s also considered to be the first woman to star in a live sitcom.
Betty White famously refused to remove a dancer from her first variety show as some TV stations in the south complained that he was black.
In the Betty White show she had a wonderful dancer and singer, Arthur Duncan. When it aired, audiences in the south demanded that he be removed. Betty refused, and Arthur would eventually go on to be a regular on The Lawrence Welk Show. Arthur said of the incident, “I was on the show, and they had some letters out of Mississippi and elsewhere that some of the stations would not carry the show if I was permitted to stay on there. Well Betty wrote back and said, ‘Needless to say, we used Arthur Duncan every opportunity we could.”
In 1983, Betty was the first woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Game or Audience Participation Show. It was for the game show “Just Men!”
Here is a link to the youtube episode, complete with 1980’s commercials!
Betty always said she had two passions: acting and animals. Her friend Dr. Rob Hilsenroth said on the Morris Animal Foundation Website, “In the 1990s, [Betty] suggested pain management should be an area of future research and funded the first few studies. Today, if a veterinarian performs an elective surgery, like a spay or neuter without using pain management, she/he could face a malpractice charge. You can thank Betty White for that revolutionary change in the way we practice all phases of veterinary medicine today.”
Awards
Betty White’s TV career lasted about 75 years. Over the course of this time, she racked up a lot (and we mean a lot) of awards. We’re going to list just a few.
Overall, Betty White has 22 emmy nominations
1952 Emmy for Most Outstanding Female Personality (Life with Elizabeth)
The awards were not very big then, with no red carpet or photographers in sight. She was surprised when she found out she won, especially because she thought Zsa Zsa Gabor was going to win for “Bachelor’s Haven.” She lovingly referred to this first award as her first “golden girl.”
1975 Emmy Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Mary Tyler Moore Show)
1976 Emmy for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Mary Tyler Moore Show)
1986 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (The Golden Girls)
1996 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (The John Larroquette Show)
In 2010 she won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series when she hosted SNL. Her hosting was brought about by a Facebook campaign that garnered a lot of support. Lorne Michaels revealed he had asked her 3 times throughout the years but each time she said no. She said that she thought she would not fit on such a New-York oriented show. Luckily for us her agent, Witjas, would not take no for an answer.
In 1988 she got her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Many other awards as well, including the 1990 Winner of a Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy from the American Comedy Awards, the 2010 Winner of a Britannia award for Excellence in Comedy, in 1986 she shared a Golden Apple Award for female star of the year with the other Golden Girls, in 2015 she won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite TV Icon, and so many more.
In January of 2010, Betty White won the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. Recently a clip of her receiving it from actor Sandra Bullock went viral, as Betty White delivers a hilarious insult to Sandra.
Betty with her beloved dog Bandit
Animal Advocate
As a child, Betty grew to love all animals as did her parents. While she was growing up she had dreams of being a zookeeper or forest ranger, but at that time women were limited in what they were allowed to do.
Betty loved pets so much that in 1971 she had a show called The Pet Set where celebrities would stop by to talk and bring their pets along with them! The show would also discuss important issues such as wildlife preservation, pet care, and more.
Betty served as a trustee at the Morris Animal Foundation from 1971 to 2013. She was even convinced to be the Board President from 1982-85. Her final gift to the Foundation was The Betty White Wildlife Fund. In 2009, she won a lifetime achievement award from the Jane Goodal Institute.
Legacy and Death
Betty’s career never ended as long as she was alive. Her last on-screen appearance was filmed 10 days before her death, and it was for her 100th celebration movie. The film came to theaters for a one-day-only event on Monday, January 17th.
Six days before December 31st, 2021 Betty had a stroke at 99 years of age. She was just about 2 weeks away from her 100th birthday. She passed away in her Los Angeles home in the Golden State that she so loved. As the world learned of her passing, people everywhere expressed their grief and gratitude. Upon her death, her agent Jeff Witjas released this statement: “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever. I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”
Betty White lived almost 100 years, and never wasted a single second. She was truly remarkable, breaking through barriers and making it look easy. She discovered her passions and seized life. This was a woman that lived her life so well in the eyes of the people around her, that they felt she deserved to live forever. And in many ways, Betty will. Thank you for everything, Betty; for the laughs, the lessons, and of course, for being a friend.
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Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/betty-white-stroke-cause-of-death/
https://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/article/morris-animal-foundation-remembers-betty-white
Betty White on TV: From Video Vanguard to Golden Girl by Wesley Hyatt
Woman’s World Icons: Betty White 2020 Issue
PEOPLE Betty White at 100 December 31, 2021 Issue
Here We Go Again by Betty White
If You Ask Me by Betty White