Larry Randolph on Bea Arthur

Part 2

Part 3

This has to be the quintessential Data Lounge thread. It has everything that DL holds dear to them.

I believe everything he says, but he doesn't seem like he was a picnic either.

Bea sounds exhausting. And belligerent.

The Dame Edna special Larry talks about in pat 1....

^ About as phoney and staged as any visit in her home must have been, I'm sure. Just add her foul mouth.

I'm sure he made up that last line, but I am still laughing.

Fergie was not having it!

Mary Martha Marie!

Another video he talks about Shelly Winters.

Bea was a big alcoholic and never liked wearing shoes. She actually walked outside on the street barefoot around LA. She was very, very weird.

Read the new Golden Girls book. Every guest star big and small interviewed for it had a horrible Bea Arthur story to share.

Bea lying about her military service was also bizarre.

Even her friends like Rue were upfront about what a bitch she was. Rue went public with Bea’s anger when Betty won the Emmy and she didn’t and the fact that she wasn’t the star of the GG like she was with Maude.

Joan Rivers and Miss Coco Peru confirmed Bea’s alcoholism.

This guy is absolutely wonderful. He’s what I miss about gay life. Stories, dinner parties, lifelong friendships.

Bea sounds like a downright cunt.

R13 except that the women who tend to have all gay friends are ...what r14 said.

All these stories illustrate that perfectly (assuming they’re 100 percent true).0

Well that was 8 minutes of my life I’ll never get back for an anecdote that wasn’t worth telling. Christ almighty. It’s like he never heard a zinger in his life.

Memo to old queens: make it short, make it sharp, make it matter. For eight minutes it better be something that brings the ceiling down.

But what did Betty White actually do to Bea Arthur?

What did Bea lie about re: her military service?

R17 Betty's perky personality grated on Bea's nerves and she hated how Betty played to the studio audience on The Golden Girls set.

Bea was also not happy that Betty often brought pets to the studio. They would sometimes pee or poop on the floor and once Bea stepped in it and that was the last straw. That's what led to Bea taking a dump on the floor of Betty's dressing room.

Bea didn’t want people to know that during WWII she was a truck driver in the Marines

She was probably more afraid that it would get out she contracted a nasty VD (one that knocked her out of work for 5 weeks)!

Love that old cow

That bout with VD got her restricted to the base for a few days, and left her unable to bear children. Her two children with Gene Saks were adopted. I knew a girl in the Navy that happened to. She couldn't get pregnant afterwards. And the dude who gave it to her - don't think that anything ever happened to him.

Her first husband was in the Navy too. It's possible he was the one screwing around and gave it to her.

Navy =/= Marines.

Interesting stories, but yeh - what is it about old queens that take FOREVER to get to the g.d. point. They just like hearing themselves.

He remembers EVERYTHING!

I wish somebody would tell us the real dish- is it just professional jealousy?

His stories totally jibe with my experience of her. She came to were I worked to do research. I was helping her and her friend Billy Goldenberg look for things when she asked if there was a good place to eat nearby. I suggested a place, and I heard Bea Arthur say six words that delighted more than any have before or since "Would you like to join us?"

We sat down to order. I asked for a plain cheeseburger. "What are you, some kind of religious fanatic??" she said.

It was a fun lunch. Bea was not at all nasty, and she liked people. Eccentric, yes. Mean? No. A decent woman.

Shelley Winters

She left an enormous amount of money to the homeless LGBTQ center in NYC. (They were able to buy the building and rehab it when she passed away.)

I forgive her anything.

What did Coco Peru have to say about Bea?

Thank you, OP. These are the threads I adore the most.

There was more than one turd dropped out in the open on that set.

And they all didn't have a high vodka content.

Rufus Wainwright, The Bea Arthur Story

I forgive her nothing.

I expected a whole lot more from Larry Randolph's stories. He said nothing. He would go on and on about having dinner with Bea, and then he would say something totally innocuous and nondescript like, "She liked to cook." And the story would be over.

Sorry, but that is not a dishy or insightful Hollywood story. O like Bea Arthur as an actress, but damn, she sounds exhausting. Everyone was supposed to be hanging onto her every word and movement, and then someone might say something and she would just stare at the person, and then everyone else was supposed to cower in fear. I have met and worked with enough celebrities. I'm not impressed with some stupid look that supposedly defined the person or situation.

She believed that she was Maude.

R38 r39 you both said it better than I could.

Ooooh, she’s giving us the Bea Arthur staredown, we all better bow down in deference. Zing!!!

I don't believe a word of it.

I don't believe she took a dump on Betty's dressing room floor.

R42 That story has been around since the 90s. I've found postings about it from the gossip newsgroups (alt.showbiz.gossip and alt.gossip.celebrities) as far back as 1996. It was apparently posted in a gossip magazine then. Not sure if that's where it originated or not.

I told the version I originally heard at R19.

Betty constantly entertained the audience between takes,. When she flubbed a line, she often made a big production out of it to the audience It annoyed Bea, because she wanted to tape the show and go home. They also had to deal with Estelle remembering her lines as well. Plus Betty had a way of ribbing people. Bea was overly sensitive and despite her gruff outward nature, hurt easily. There's bloopers of the show where all of this is evident.

Also, Golden Girls was not a happy period in Bea's personal life.

The dump-taking story was reported here also as early as 1999, except it was Betty who used the toilet in Bea's dressing room and deliberately DID NOT FLUSH.

Here's the 1996 alt.showbiz.gossip posting:

"And You Think I"m A Vicious Bitch: Believe me. I'm not as vicious a bitch as I could be. Take Bea Arthur...please. My inside Hollywood sources tell me that contrary to popular belief, Ms. Arthur is one of the most intolerable hags this side of the Mississippi. Once, when a new understudy arrived on the set of "The Golden Girls", Bea exclaimed "keep that fucking bitch out of my way or I'll rip her fucking head off!" Now is that any way to behave? That BEA nothin' compared to what she did to poor Betty White. When Betty was out of her dressing room, Bea reportedly snuck in, took a colossal dump and left the used toilet paper strewn about the room, cackling as she exited "I left her another gift." How could she get away with that shit?

It seems like 1999 was when that rumor really took off because there where several refs to it on the gossip groups.

Betty is beloved, but Bea was the best actress on Golden Girls by a mile. She was even better on Maude. Love these videos.

In The Golden Girls book, Bea tried everything to get an actress fired because she was chewing gum. Golden Girls Forever contains one horrible Bea story after the next.

Coco was asked by Bea to cut a drinking story because Bea was in recovery. Joan Rivers also talked about Bea’s drinking problem.

So Bea had a drinking problem. Who cares? Many tv/movie stars do. Did it interfere with her work?

Whatever she was, she slayed in that sparkly aerobics outfit.

Would anyone have indulged her meanness if she wasn’t a rich celebrity?

Ack. It's just like being trapped in the Equity lounge, waiting to audition while the old queens tell their stories.

Yeah, those stories aren’t that dishy. “She called my yappy dog a cunt!” Um, ok. Not exactly scandalous.

Joan talks about booking Bea

Thank you for posting that Joan clip--always miss Joanie.

What was Bea's problem? Did she have a horrible childhood? Trauma? Does anyone know?

So now we know by way of this thread that Bea made a difficult Queen very upset on two occasions where he almost sat in a car and threw gravy all over Joan River’s white dining room.

Sounds like a real good reason for a thread

Come on R56 have you seen the rest of the threads doing the rounds tonight? This is the absolute best we've got.

And I'm always here for Bea.

[quote]What was Bea's problem? Did she have a horrible childhood? Trauma? Does anyone know?

I believe she was gang raped by servicemen during her Marines stint and that's why she got the VD. Can't remember where I read/heard/saw that, though.

I had no idea blind men were allowed to serve in the military.

I kept waiting for to get to the story about Bunny Bixler and the semifinals of the ping-pong tournament.

I'm sorry but for the restaurant incident, Larry deserved what he got. He was being a sexist, both to Bea and the female waitress. A man repeating a drinks order to the girl waitress to make sure the older woman got the vodka she wanted, of course "SHE HEARD HER THE FIRST TIME!" That is definitely an "old man" thing to do and I don't blame Bea for slapping at him.

Joan story is better

That Joan clip just reminds me how HARD Joan worked for every thing she had. Sure, she was controversial in her later years (more than ever) but, oh, how hard she scrabbled and scrapped and clawed her way up the ladder of success against the odds (in a man's comedy world). Bea Arthur had her challenges too, of course. Never conventionally pretty and yet so talented. Those stars from older generations get my admiration in spades for such ambition. No WONDER they had balls of steel and were quirky and messed up in some ways. Society was no friend to them. Same with older gay men (of which I am one). It's no wonder we have..."issues."

So she was difficult and eccentric to say the least but her timing in comedy was perfect. Without her GG wouldn’t have worked which was obvious with Golden Palace.

[quote]female waitress

Oh, dear.

R64 I agree but to be fair GP wouldn’t have worked without ANY ONE of them. Estelle would have been the most dispensable of the three, that said any of them missing would be like taking a leg off a chair, the balance would have been all off. They were all irreplaceable.

[quote]Bea tried everything to get an actress fired because she was chewing gum.

That's not the whole story. They were taping the episode about Stan wanting to remarry Dorothy that week. Apparently, it hit close to home for Bea because Gene Saks left her for a younger woman as well. Bea apparently had it in for the actress who played Stan's second wife the moment she stepped on set, and when she was caught chewing gum (behavior that Arthur already thought was trashy) she tried to get the woman fired. But it wasn't really about the gum chewing.

Bea was apparently unaware of her husband infidelities and was blindsided by the separation and divorce, taking it really hard . She left Maude because her marriage ended as well. Either Rue or Bill Macy confirmed that..

R67 but Stan’s second wife wasn’t in that episode. Elinor Donahue played her in the ep where he is about to remarry but you never see the second wife again. I’m confused.

Sorry, it wasn't his wife, it was his girlfriend. I thought Chrissy was his wife.

So who did she have fired then? Another Chrissy?

Is this from the GG out on the lanai book? I read only parts of it and now it’s lost in my apt somewhere.

She didn't have anybody fired. The producers were able to sort things out. But it came down to Bea bringing her own feelings into the show.

Interesting the particular comment that Bea called Larry out on as being 'Betty White' could easily be construed as passive-aggressive. I always suspected that the root of the problem between Betty and Bea was Betty being passive-aggressive to the nth degree.

R43, I was on those Usenet groups and I always got the impression that the story was a joke, until probably the late 1990s when people started taking it seriously.

It's a variation on the old Caddyshack story about somebody taking a dump in Ted Knight's trailer, anyway. Not sure if that one is true either, but I know Chevy Chase copped to it in a special feature with the VHS release, if I recall. He said something like "everybody thought it was Rodney, but it was me."

Gene Saks was screwing a lady 30 years younger than him, so I can see why Bea would be devastated. I recall a friend who worked in Hollywood once say she partly quit "Maude" because she felt there was a chance Gene and his girlfriend would get some of her money in a divorce settlement.

There's an old interview with Barbara Harris about A THOUSAND CLOWNS where she says Saks was the worst, basically the same person he played in the movie.

Bea Arthur stories are out there! Like this one.

Seems to reinforce that Bea liked her booze.

Had Bea lived, she'd be coming up on 100 years old!

We should have a Bea Arthur Centennial celebration in 2022.

She's been gone 10 years this spring.

Not to detract from our beloved bitchy Bea, but Ted Knight stories are out there, too. Apparently he was a narcissistic asshole, at times, too. To the nth degree. NOT stupid like Ted Baxter but just full of himself. I have seen some interviews where people have said he was a real piece of work.

Hmm, R77. That's opposite a lot of what was said about him by the MTM folks, who said he was kind and opposite his character.

Unless he became that way after?

The MTM people loved and protected their own. Ted and Ed butted heads a few times over the years. I'm not saying he was holy terror (and who knows how much of it might have come from his health issues in the years after MTM..he had cancer and kept working for several years while in treatment), just that I have seen some of the TV Archive interviews with various people who have commented on him being as ass. Rita Moreno, for example, had some comments about him. I can't recall the specifics or I would try to find the clip.

[quote]Had Bea lived, she'd be coming up on 100 years old!

If she hadn't smoked, she might've made it.

R80 because sooo many non smokers live to be 100...

I think Bea is someone who lived life and deserved to be snarky in her later life. Larry liked Bea, but he sure hated Shelley Winters.

She admits to having a drinking problem.

R75's spaz lady isn't just off her bipolar med's, she probably tossed them out to her adoring fans.

R83 I saw that post before I posted this thread and thought she's a bigger mess than Bea ever was.

Bea sounds like someone who suffers from pathological jealousy. I think she was so jealous of how much Betty White was loved that it made her hate her. But she knew she had to get along with her to a degree, a small degree. Plus I think due to her stardom Bea Arthur also suffered from a much higher opinion of herself than others had of her. She let her celebrity go to her head to the point that she felt no one else's opinion or needs mattered if she was involved. She was the star so she was the one everyone else should demure and cater to.

"I DEMURE you!"

It must be difficult to to be the brunt of jokes like she was on GG. I mean Rose being dumb and Blanche a slut are directed at the characters. But when you make fun of Dorothy's looks you are making them about Bea as well.

R85=Betty White

[quote]This has to be the quintessential Data Lounge thread. It has everything that DL holds dear to them.

Almost everything - it doesn't mention Connie Francis.

r87

But Betty White is stupid and Rue is a whore.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to turn in my gay card, but who is Larry Randolph? I can't view YT at work.

R91 No need to turn in your card, Mary.

Larry Randolph is some old fat queen.

But what is the OFQ's nexus to Queen Bea?

All that old queen had to say was "The sauce was good."

She had ONE job!

I've got news for this guy. Those lunches and dinners in Dallas were NOT "Stories Worth Telling."

I am going to start using "Well, that's a fucking Betty White thing to say" when someone says something to me that I don't like.

It would help if he didn't have the nelliest voice in human existence.

He sounds like Lindsay Graham doing Blanche Devereaux drag.

I was on a gay cruise once and someone told me that Beatrice Arthur was a Lesbian. Betty White was a Lesbian too.

I was up with insomnia last night, and spent a good 45 minutes watching Larry’s reminiscences on YouTube. I really enjoyed them, even as they did help lull me back to sleep.

There's one thing Larry Randolph absolutely, positively never was, and that's "on Bea Arthur."

OP, THANK YOU! Those video were AWESOME! HILARIOUS!

R70. I’m confused. Was it the episode where she falls for Stan again when he’s gotten engaged and meets her at the Hotel bar and sees that she’s being ridiculous?

That actress couldn’t have been more than 10 years younger than Bea. Must be a different episode.

I don’t know why the Lady at r76 keeps going on about how big Bea was. She’s a big lady too!

She’s kind of rude going on about Beas age.

R94. Right? You made me laugh out loud.

I guess show business attracts a certain type of person. Imagine being at that table, they’re all in show business, only one is a star but they all have the ego of a star. Doesn’t sound fun to me.

I also can’t stand people that have to insert themselves into things by saying more than is required. She denied his ass and he got his feelings hurt.

R82, I love Bea’s story about meeting Tallulah Bankhead and how she was in awe of her until Tallulah smacked her down with the cunty remark: “This will never happen for you. Want to know why, dear? Bone structure. It’s all about bone structure. You don’t have the bone structure.”

Bea ending the story calling Tallulah a cunt made it all the more delicious.

Rufus Wainwright is as poor at storytelling as Larry Randolph: they both use too many words and too much time to get from A to B.

It's not because they're gay, though, as someone suggested upthread. It's a failing some people have. They just aren't focused when spinning out a narrative. Attacking a tale with concision is a skill.

^ I agree. I remember when Dlisted tan Rufus’ story over 10 years ago. It was old then and being a fan it’s hard to believe he hadn’t heard the Grandma bit about Bea before. He was a druggie though.

Of course he has to talk about his dog, his apartment (and how Bea loved it!), how he had better taste than Charles (whoever that was), the ups and downs of HIS career and how he didn’t take shit off these people! You’d better believe that!

Ugh, how’s tiresome. Where’s the humility in people?

Larry is a “Lindsey Graham” type. Pretty common here in the South. Kind of like an old maiden Aunt. They love to go on about their money and travels but at the end of the day they are lonely as hell and just bitch about how guys on Grindr try to shake them down for cash.

Did anyone see his headshot with the Obit? Wow.

“Could Ms. Arthur please get some more sauce for her TATERS?”

I’m colorful because I talk country. Whew-boy-I-tell-ya-what.

How did he survive school?

R102, she's at R75.

And not just "a tranny" but an actress and singer.

R108 and part-time or full-time crystal meth user?

I thought Rue and Bea were close friends, but after watching R82's video, it's obvious that it was mainly a professional relationship. Rue was upset that Bea decided to leave the show. She also said that Bea was never happy, despite the show being a huge hit. You can tell by listening to Rue and Betty that Bea separated herself from the rest of the cast. Bea was a big diva.

R109 Not at all, since she appears on TV and on Broadway shows and is a professor of theater.

She may be over the top for YOU, but that doesn't make her an addict, you fat whore!

R110 Rue and Betty were closed and phoned to each other after Rue moved to NY. Rue also called Estelle even after she had forgotten GG and who Rue was. Rue said it didn’t matter because she cared of her.

[quote] Larry Randolph is some old fat queen.

Correction: Larry Randolph WAS some old fat queen. He dead.

[quote] It would help if he didn't have the nelliest voice in human existence.

The old queen was friends with Charles Pierce. What did you expect him to sound like?

Bea's sons certainly turned out differently. Pretty Matthew on the left and fugly Daniel on the right. I don't know how old that picture of Matthew is, but I hope he hasn't turned into a troll like his brother.

R110. This has some good information. Btw, all of them but Estelle have full-length interviews.

They all have different takes on Golden Girls. It meant more to Rue than any of them I think. Bea liked it, but ultimately was unhappy she had to she the spotlight with 2 women. Estelle was always supporting.

Bea's sons were both adopted. Matthew the handsome one born in 1960 is an actor, and Daniel the fug was born in 1964 and works as a set designer. Matthew appeared on GG as a very cute cop. He’s the shorter one in this clip.

Poor ol' Larry looks jaundiced in the OP's first video cover image.

Elizabeth Taylor...

R116 I love The Monkey Show so much.

The more I read about Bea the More I would rather just watch her as the great Dorothy Z. She sounds - not necessarily mean, but just totally insufferable.

Though not as much as this guy.

I just watched Larry’s video on Shelley Winters. It seemed he had a rage hatred towards her and while she came off annoying and dramatic in the story he prefaced the story like she was a walking potergeist.

He was such a bitter queen

Since he worked on Hotel, how come he doesn't have any stories on Bette Davis and Anne Baxter?

When did Larry die?

Who is she?

Who was she?

Who did she want to be?

never mind found it.

Read the definite biography on the series, "Golden Girls Forever". Jim Colucci interviewed everyone still alive that worked on the show. 99% of the them had a horrible Bea Arthur story.

R124 = Jim Colucci

It's not definitive, because it doesn't cover every episode and it doesn't include Estelle's take.

What part of "still alive" don't you understand?? It doesn't cover every episode because he couldn't get info on them. It IS the definitive book. The book even contains the kitchen wallpaper which he tracked down via the set designer. The book even says where each piece of the set was purchased. Get over yourself, hon.

Larry on Elizabeth Taylor at R118 is a nice remembrance. Almost makes me want to watch some old Hotel episodes.

R75 - That Alexandra Billings' Bea story is not cute and is rather nasty. Its sort of ironic that Billings herself has morphed into a bit of a battleaxe herself recently. The older years are not kind, I see, to a woman such as herself. Enjoy obscurity, Alexandra.

The Alexandra Bea story is charming. It's all tongue in cheek and all very "theater people" which may be why it's going over the heads of so many here.

I love that Larry looks kind of like Blanche all made up at that photo at R123

Yes, R128, charming. Alexandra is a peach!

R114 That' Matthew Settle, he's not her son

Here’s Matthew visiting with his muppet mother.

There was a Remembering Bea Arthur memorial hosted by Ang Lansbury a few months after she died.

Some of the comments on these photos are....well, odd.

But, Coco Peru!

"Producer Daryl Roth, who backed Arthur's solo show "Bea Arthur on Broadway," has nothing but fond memories of the departed star."

Hmmm....did we suggest otherwise....?

Thanks for posting the interview with Rue McClanahan, R115. Rue seemed a bit prickly at times with the interviewer. In her defense, he did ask LOOONNNGGGG questions and I think she just got a bit impatient with him, but there were other instances where I thought she was a bit snappish. Not as much as Bea could probably be, but still a bit surprised as I've always heard nothing but great things about Rue.

R135 I think as she got older and in poorer health she became more like that. Her memory also wasn’t all that great.

Thanks for this OP. This is why I come to DL.

R135 I was introduced to those fantastic interviews here. I watched and was very impressed with the Suzanne Pleshette and Alan Ball ones. As much I like Rue as an actress, I have to admit she is difficult in that interview. Sure the interviewer is long winded and asks some “silly” questions about the characters she played. But, it’s for the archive of television so it comes with the territory. You can certainly feel the tension at times.

For those not familiar with Charles Pierce, his shows are well worth a look. He did a great Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck and Crawford.

To be fair Bea Arthur had several awful Bea Arthur stories as well.

Didn’t Bea always deny being in some Star Trek special or Star Wars, I’m not a sci-fi fan clearly. But from the clip it’s clearly her. Bizarre.

No, she was in the Star Wars Holiday special and never denied it.

She did deny being a Marine, though.

She denies the Star Wars special in the television academy interview linked above ^^^

She’s confusing Star Trek and Star Wars although the interview said it was ‘68 so who knows who’s confused.

Bea denied Star Trek. In the archive the interviewer asks her about Star Trek 68 but Bea answers about Star Wars!

She also says in that interview how she hated hosting SNL. I think it was a decent ep from what I remember (the last season of the original cast, I think).

Here's the 1978 Bea Arthur Star Wars Holiday special. Bruce Vilanch and George Lucas were also involved in this production.

Bruce talks about working on the Bea Arthur Star Wars Holiday special on Gilbert Gotfried's podcast, starting at around 37:30.

(At the 1:09:30 mark, Bruce tells the story of Joan Crawford's peeing over the banister onto David Niven's head.)

I would have bought Larry's book in second.

He’s like a real life Mickey from “The Comeback”.

R148 He even looks like Red.

Omfg I thought it WAS the actor who played Mickey!

Oops, Mickey LOL

Bea on Perry Como

I have never felt more second hand embarrassment for a celebrity than I felt for Bea at Jeff Ross’ classic but brutal joke about Sandra Bernhardt during the Jerry Stiller Roast.

Around the 42:20 mark.

Bea Arthur was a fucking Marine with VD, she's a tough broad.

She was fucking a Marine with VD, or she [italic]was[/italic] a fucking Marine with VD, R154?

Does anyone know what Bea, Rue and Better got per episode on GG? I know upthread it sounds like Bea got some syndication money.

Rue tells it in her book but I’m completely blanking. Has anyone read it recently? During the run she had a home in Encino but she couldn’t afford to keep it when the show ended so it can’t have been a fortune. Bea probably got paid more because of her success with Maude.

R157: Rue must have sucked at money management. Residuals from GG, and she had to have some as well from Maude and Mama's Family, plus she didn't get alimony from her 70 divorces? Really?

Here Bea evades talking about her WWII Marine experience.

I found an IMBD notation that Rue made $100,000 per episode for the final season of GG, so I'm guessing Betty and Bea made at least that much as well. With Estelle being a supporting player, I'd guess she was lower.

I wonder what they made when it started? I suspect Bea got more since she had been a lead in a hit series before. Betty and Rue had only been supporting players (although I think Betty had her own show in the 1950s).

[quote]plus she didn't get alimony from her 70 divorces?

Maybe she had to pay alimony.

I believe she did have to pay alimony. She never married well, her husband’s were oddballs and losers.

There used to be some old ET clip on YouTube that said the Girls (or it may have just been Bea and Betty), got 40-50k an episode. That seemed awfully low considering.

And Meredith Baxter at the time (FT’s final season) was the highest paid woman on TV (more than Joan Collins!) with 120k an episode. THAT I recall clearly because it was so ridiculous (but I know it was because she lucked out with a favored nations clause).

So yeah it’s plausible that even if they all got raises after season 5 Rue wasn’t making all that much...

100 K was generally the highest than actor got at that time, and that was rare. Most were making around 50 - 75K. Michael J Fox got such a huge salary because of his movie successes, and Meredith lucked out big time. A million per episode was completely unheard of.

Bea got a substantial raise the last two years she was on the show, even getting a small percentage of ownership in the show. They had to really wine and dine her to get her to do that seventh season. Not sure if Betty got the same deal.

When it came time for Golden Palace, all three each made a million total that season

Bea and Betty seemed so close. Not

that was appalling what she did at Joan Rivers house, all out of jealousy and spite

I did a brief NY theater project with Rue in the late 1990s after she was done with GG and found her absolutely delightful.

But I was appalled to go to a little party in her home to find that she still lived in a crummy over-crowded rent controlled apartment in an anonymous building in a non-neighborhood a couple of blocks from the Midtown Tunnel. I think she was recently married to Husband #4 or #5 then. He was very negligible.

I don't think Rue or Betty got Bea money on GG. I think upthread she ended up getting some royalty rights of GG. As for as Joan Rivers goes. The lesson learned here, is never serve gravy in an all white dining room to drunks.

R114 just to add: her sons were adopted.

R116 sorry I overlooked your comment about adoption

Larry Randolph reminds me of Bill Kennedy who hosted 5he teatime movie in Detroit—a bit player in Warner Brothers b-pictures in 40s and a drunk. I once saw him putting a bottle away after a commercial break.Anyway, he was always yammering on about nothing which usually involved some tenuous link to someone famous. He had a following of old fraus and was around forever, but when some b-grade player from Detroit died—someone he claimed to have had as a friend in Hollywood, he called the family (in Detroit) on 5e air and they had no idea who he was,At least,unlike Larry,he managed to not publicly catalog every slight he ever experienced with someone famous.

.....

Sorry, that was the opposite of entertaining. In an 8 minute clip, it took him 6 minutes to get around to Bea. Then the story boiled down to Bea snapping at him and then apologizing without actually saying "I'm sorry." The rest was endless blather about himself. I would say the clip needed editing but even with editing, the story would have no substance.