César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, founders of United Farm Workers, supporting justice in the fields and a safe food supply.
Gail Abarbanel, founder of the Rape Treatment Center of Santa Monica–UCLA Medical Center, supporting victims of rape.
Zane Buzby, founder of Survivor Mitzvah, aiding elderly, impoverished, and forgotten Jewish Holocaust survivors.
My Screen Actors Guild heroes:
Presidents: Ed Asner, William Daniels, and Alan Rosenberg
National officers: Kent McCord, Sumi Haru, Elliott Gould, Anne-Marie Johnson, and Connie Stevens
Board members: David Joliffe, Frances Fisher, George Coe, Joe D’Angerio, Tom Bower, Gary Epps, Jane Austin, Nancy Sinatra, Michael Bell, Renée Taylor, Joe Bologna, Lainie Kazan, Diane Ladd, Jane Austin, France Nuyen, Scott Wilson, Renee Aubry, Loren Lester, Ed Harris, Martin Sheen, Clancy Brown, Esai Morales, Bob Carlson, Russell McConnell, Bonnie Bartlett, Jeff Austin, Justine Bateman, Scott Bakula, and any other actor on or off the board who fought for our union.
James L. Brooks and Allan Burns, thank you for creating
RHODA MORGENSTERN.
My father, Howard Harper, a professional hockey player in the 1930s . . . hot stuff on ice.
My mother, Iva Mildred McConnell, a bright-eyed nursing student, class of 1933, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Mom and Dad in Chinatown, Los Angeles, in the 1940s . . . obviously, just look at her hair!
Me, age three, with my sister, Leah, age five, struggling to hold our baby brother up for the photo—Don was not amused.
At age six, I already knew how to pose for the camera.
Our mother used to dress Leah and me in matching outfits—I loved wearing the same dresses; Leah did not.
My brother, Don (seven), sitting on a log, and me (nine), doing an impression of a pin-up girl at a beach in Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Me and some great girlfriends, 1953–’62.
Me at age fifteen leaping on West Fifty-seventh Street in front of Carnegie Hall as part of a demonstration to save it from demolition. We succeeded!
Rhoda and Joe’s wedding! October 28, 1974.
My then-husband Richard Schaal on an episode of Rhoda.
The original gang from Mary Tyler Moore.
Ed Asner and me with our second-season Emmys for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, 1972.
The cast of Rhoda.
The Cacciotti Clan—Tony, Valerie, and Cristina.
Susan Blakely, me, Sandy Mullins (executive director of the Committee to Ratify the ERA), and Carol Burnett at an Equal Rights Amendment celebrity workshop, 1974.
Chatting with César Chávez at a “Yes on 14” fund-raiser with friends Arnette and Anthony Zerbe (also César fans).
On a Hunger Project visit to Somalia, East Africa, 1980.
So proud of Tony’s public servant son, Michael!
Me and my pal Mary Tyler Moore.
Cheering “girlfriend” Cloris’s induction into the TV Academy Hall of Fame.
Me as the outrageous Tallulah Bankhead in Looped, my Tony-nominated role on Broadway, 2010.
PHOTO CREDITS
1: Friedman-Abeles/©The New York Public
2: ‘RHODA’ ©1974 & ‘THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW’ ©1971 Twentieth Century Fox Television. All rights reserved.
3: ‘RHODA’ ©1974 & ‘THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW’ ©1971 Twentieth Century Fox Television. All rights reserved.
4: ‘RHODA’ ©1974 & ‘THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW’ ©1971 Twentieth Century Fox Television. All rights reserved.
5: © Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
6: ‘RHODA’ ©1974 & ‘THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW’ ©1971 Twentieth Century Fox Television. All rights reserved.
7: Globe Photos Inc.
8: Wernher Krutein / Photovault.com
9: Henk J. Friezer
10: ‘RHODA’ ©1974 & ‘THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW’ ©1971 Twentieth Century Fox Television. All rights reserved.
11: © Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
12: Scott Suchman
Award-winning actress VALERIE HARPER portrayed Rhoda Morgenstern from 1970 to 1978, on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its popular spin-off, Rhoda. The character, known for her sharp wit and bohemian style, was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s 50 Greatest Sidekicks, one of Bravo’s 100 Greatest TV Characters, and her friendship with Mary Richards was called “one of the most renowned friendships in TV” by TIME. She reprised her iconic role in the 2000 made-for-television movie Mary & Rhoda but hasn’t been far from stage or screen ever since her career began in the 1950s. She lives with her husband, Tony, in Los Angeles.
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JACKET DESIGN BY CHRISTOPHER SERGIO
JACKET PHOTOGRAPH BY BLAKE LITTLE PHOTOGRAPHY
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH (ABOVE) © 1978, CBS/LANDOV
COPYRIGHT © 2013 SIMON & SCHUSTER
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Gallery Books
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Copyright © 2013 by Valerie Harper
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
First Gallery Books hardcover edition January 2013
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Designed by Jaime Putorti
Photo credits appear on pages 307 and 308.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harper, Valerie, 1939-
I, Rhoda / by Valerie Harper.—1st Gallery Books hardcover ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Harper, Valerie, 1939- 2. Actors—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PN2287.H244A3 2013
791.4302'8092—dc23
[B]
2012037436
ISBN 978-1-4516-9946-3
ISBN 978-1-4516-9948-7(ebook)
B007Z4RWGY EBOK Page 24