eileenheckart

On this episode of Advanced TV Herstory, we connect the dots between TV and feminism with American culture and politics by remembering the 1979 television miniseries, Backstairs at the White House.

The series is based on the New York Times bestseller by Lillian Rogers Parks, a seamstress in the White House from 1939-1961. Parks based the book on her own experiences and on those of her mother, Maggie Rogers, who, as a maid in the White House from 1909-1939, was encouraged by Eleanor Roosevelt to keep a diary of her time serving the various first families.   

MENTIONS AND REFERENCES 
(We encourage you to visit your local bookseller or library.)

Jackie Kennedy - Interview with Sander Vanocur, NBC - March 1961 - https://youtu.be/j3ZvIzL1JbI

My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House - by Lillian Rogers Parks in collaboration with Frances Spatz Leighton - https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-Backstairs-White-House/dp/092389196X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=my+30+years+backstairs+at+the+white+house&qid=1676494328&sr=8-1

Michelle Obama - Speech at 2016 Democratic National Convention - https://youtu.be/4ZNWYqDU948

White House Historical Association - https://www.whitehousehistory.org

CONNECT WITH CYNTHIA BEMIS ABRAMS

Website - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/ 

Podcast Archive - https://cynthiabemisabrams.com/advanced-tv-herstory

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/advancedtvherstory/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/tvherstory

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Media.Cynthia

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@advancedtvherstory/featured

Luke Yankee (yes, it’s his real name) is a writer, director, producer, actor and teacher. He is the author of the memoir, Just Outside the Spotlight: Growing Up with Eileen Heckart (published by Random House, with a foreword by Mary Tyler Moore). His play, The Last Lifeboat, is published by Dramatists Play Service and has had more than 50 productions in North America. His other plays include Marilyn, Mom and Me, Confessions of a Star Maker, The Man Who Killed the Cure, The Jesus Hickey and A Place at Forest Lawn. His website is www.lukeyankee.com. In 1956, when Marilyn Monroe was cast as the lead in the film Bus Stop, she was the biggest star in the world. She had taken the previous year off to study with Lee Strasberg and had become the poster child for “Method” acting, where an actor has to experience every moment truthfully. The tough, no-nonsense, Broadway character actress Eileen Heckart was cast as her best friend in the movie. As a part of her newly discovered style of acting, Marilyn was determined to make Heckart her best friend – both on screen and off. Reluctantly, Heckart went along with it for the sake of the film and found herself emotionally entrenched in the life of Marilyn Monroe. From all outward appearances, Monroe had it all. And yet, more than anything, she yearned for what Heckart took for granted: a stable marriage, two kids and a respected Broadway career. Forty-five years later, Heckart’s middle-aged gay son, Luke, is trying to unravel his mother’s relationship with Monroe in order to better understand his own path with this highly critical, caustic, yet loving woman. Why did his mother burst into tears every time someone mentioned Marilyn’s name? The play utilizes the chaotic world of movie making in 1950’s Hollywood to uncover universal truths about love, acceptance and what it really means to feel loved and wanted.