Betty Garrett

In her two-and-a-half-hour interview, Betty Garrett (1919-2011) talks about her early years training as an actress and dancer at the Neighborhood Playhouse and with Martha Graham in New York City in the 1930s. She describes her stage debut in 1938 in Orson Welles' and John Houseman's Mercury Theatre production of Danton's Death. She discusses her other stage roles, such as Something for the Boys with Ethel Merman and Laffing Room Only with Olsen and Johnson. She speaks about her movie career at MGM and the dark days of the Hollywood Blacklist that greatly affected her and her husband, Larry Parks. Garrett talks about her first work in early television in Chicago and on such New York shows as All Star Revue and Texaco Command Appearance. She recalls her television work in the 1960s on The Art Carney Specials, The Chevy Show, The Lloyd Bridges Show, and The Fugitive. She describes in great detail her most well-known television roles, "Irene Lorenzo" on All in the Family and "Edna Babbish" on Laverne & Shirley. Finally, she talks about later guest appearances on such series as Murder, She Wrote; The Golden Girls; and Becker. Karen Herman conducted the interview on May 21, 2003 in Studio City, CA.