"Few People Knew Of [Shirley Booth's] Heavy Schedule Of BENEFITS..."

ANNIVERSARY TODAY:
January 12, 1962 - On TV: Here’s Hollywood (NBC), Shirley plays herself.

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Hazel's Wealthy Neighbors...

If you ever want to laugh at the hilarity of the most clueless wealthy seniors ever depicted on television, then watch any and every episode of Hazel which has Herbert and Harriet Johnson. They are incredibly funny as played perfectly by Norma Varden and Donald Foster). In episode #107 ("High Finance Hits A New Low"), Mr. Johnson cosigned a note leaving him owing $8,000. Mr. Baxter reluctantly takes over as their financial manager. Mrs. Johnson is so giddily jubilant that she remarks: "Isn't this exciting, we've never been on a budget!"

Antenna TV broadcasts Hazel episodes nightly.

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There have been many articles written about Shirley Booth over the years. Once again I offer this excerpt from an excellent one by Jessyca Russell Gaver, entitled “Lady With a Light.”

Gaver remarked that although Shirley Booth was “beset by a great shyness offstage,” she should have won a special Academy Award for her off-stage acting. “The few people who knew of her heavy schedule of benefits, luncheons for fund-raising groups, visits to the sick or underprivileged, seldom realized that these are the things with which she fills a very lonely heart.”

Gaver noted, “Just as other women buy themselves a new hat to get out of a bad mood, however, Shirley will tend to cut her hair or perhaps change its color.”

More telling is the observation that “Pain is something she will do anything to ease for others and which nobody can ease for her. She is the first to think up a trip or a treat to distract someone from grief, and those she visits are rewarded by the kinds of gifts that make department store owners happy and rich.”

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For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story
by Jim Manago
Foreword by Leslie Sodaro
Published December 1, 2010
Further details at: http://shirleybooth.blogspot.com

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Now available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076ZCBM2

Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, May 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com