Beatrice Arthur's hair at the 1981 Tony Awards.

Bea was trying to hide her ciggie under the table.

"That bitch!"

He was hoping she'd be spotted for a regional theater production of [italic]A Little Night Music.

She was thinking that she couldn't possibly compete with Phyllis Hyman that night.

.....

Bea and Patti that night.

And Bea and Hal Linden.

She's hiding a crew cut under there.

He was attempting to draw the eye up and away from Bea's big ass and hips

I hope the smoking troll doesn’t see the pix at R7.....

r7's pic shows that Bea smoked Benson & Hedges, the classy cigs!

I like it

The do on the Bea is a Miss!

Oh calm down, OP. It was the 80s. Hair was big in the 80s. It actually looks good. If you think this is bad, you should see some other 80s hair pics.

Big hair was all the rage back then.

Tina Turner totally rocked the big 80s hair. She looked fabulous with it.

Patti looks gorgeous in that pic with Bea. Remember this was the year Patti sang "Buenos Aires" from Evita for the segment on musical leading ladies.

That was her costume from The Floating Light Bulb, which she appeared in that season.

It may be an early 80s, short-haired take on the old Gibson girl/Edwardian-era silhouette, which is wider than it is tall.

It seems like there was a brief revival of turn-of-the-century looks after the outrageous fashions of the early 70s but before the "glamorous" 80s, and this appears to be a hybrid of those styles. Dynasty premiered the next year.

The hairdresser said "let's do something feminine and glamorous" and Bea took a drag and said "let me know when you're done."

Shouldn't have she just wore a sign saying too ugly to live.

“hairdresser” = tornado

She looks like she's ready to fly right out of there.

She looks like Phyllis Diller.

R21 I opened this thread hoping to see that very response. You did not disappoint!

And to think you still complain about her wedding dress?

That 'do is very 80s - Liz wore a similar coif ....

Yeah, but Liz actually looked good in it.

I think she looks tremendous!

^ oops, I see R14 beat me to it

*applauds*

Even Ann Miller went natural when she saw Bea's hair that year.

Who says there was a hairdresser? I think she just stuck her head out the limo window and told the driver step on it!

in the 80s even if hair was relatively short it could still be big

I feel like this truly unique look was not given its hair-due. Please continue to speculate on what could have happened.

My usual reply to comments about the styles and fashions of 40 years ago is "It was the '70s. You would have to have been there." Yes, I'm an eldergay. My reply to OP would have to be "It was the '80s. You would have to have been there."

Judith Peabody

Pat Buckley

She sure as hell didn’t rock the Sheena Easton hair do!

1981 wasn’t really the 80s and big hair didn’t really catch on until around ‘84.

Lol the pic of Bea and John Noretti!

She should have kept her hair natural, like mine.

Pat Carroll is still alive and 91.

1981 wasn’t really the 80s! Lmao!!!!

1980 and 1981 were still kind of a 70s hangover. Fashions, music etc. The 80s didn't really get started until '82.

Oh get over your weird concept of what is and what isn’t 80s. You know shit.

Because you know all the answers r45 lol!

Curly perms were in style in the early '80s--like Barbra in A Star is Born. Big hair was big for quite a while. So were big shoulders on women. The Reagan era was Hollywood glitz and glamor. Bea was in style. Incidentally, I saw her once sometime in the '90s at a market in my neighborhood (Santa Monica). She was very tall (about 5'10" or 5'11") and was with another tall woman whom I didn't recognize (and I generally recognize actors). Bea looked like she'd had her face peeled because it was much lighter than the color of her neck. I wonder if the woman was her partner. I think I read on DL that Bea was a lesbian.

I LOVE that look!

Me too!

Bea’s hair looks lovely.

I thought Bea would've smoked unfiltered Camels or Marlboro Reds, not the prissy Benson & Hedges.

For every month in the 1980s the hair went up another half inch.

Miss her so much....she was such a cool broad

I think R20 hit it, with that hair and the neckline of that dress, coupled with the flower choker, I think she was clearly going with a modern take on the Gibson Girl look.

[quote] What was her hairdresser thinking?!

Liz Taylor was wearing her hair (basically) like that in the 80s, too.

I thought Bea only drove large trucks, barefoot.

It's a pity Bea smoked so much, because her 70s facelift was excellent work for those times.

I'd never look as silly as that.

[quote]I thought Bea only drove large trucks

That was Large Marge.

I wonder if Bea Arthur was considered for Large Marge. She would have been perfect and there were so many other big name cameos in that movie. Ann B. Davis also looked right at home in command of an 18-wheeler.

R55 beat me to Liz's similar hairstyle =

Because she lived so long, I've always assumed Bea quit smoking right before Golden Girls. I've also never seen her smoking in the Dorothy Zbornack aesthetic. She seemed to quit soon after Maude. I could be wrong.

Somebody around here has gotta know what Bea Aruthur was driving back in the day. I remember seeing it in several interviews with people close to her. They'd all end up telling some version of a story about how Bea would come to visit, driving her massive truck/suv, barefoot. Bea, like the Queen, must have forged a fondness for trucks during the war. In my head, Bea was tooling around in this... Sort of an early Escalade.

Here's another photo of Elizabeth Taylor with a similar hair style.

Looks like Grandma Trump’s hair.

Bea smoked during the GG's run. I've seen pics of her smoking from that time. Not sure if she quit later on or not.

Rue smoked until the end, according to the recent Autopsy show on Reelz.

All that windswept, touseled, flick-backed hair - do you think they were aiming for a short, middle-aged version of the Farrah Fawcett so of the late seventies?

Short - so it’s matron-appropriate - but still gets the benefit of the hairdresser’s artifice - and a ton of spray and whatever other product they can get in there... matronly glamour!

Liz would get a laugh from you calling her matronly, then knee you in the crown jewels.

Here's Bea at the finale.

Looks dramatic and good with that dress.

Defying gravity one strand at a time.

[quote] Big hair was all the rage back then.

Saying all the rage was all the rage back then.

I don't think she looks as awful as you all think. She looks like everyone that age in my parents wedding album which was 1983.

BTW the 1981 Tonys opened with a horrific number saluting woman with a bunch of guys singing Nothing Like a Dame. It's on Youtube and it's cringe worthy.

Celebrating the "Year of Women," were Richard Chamberlain, Jose Ferrer, Robert Goulet, Robert Klein, Jack Klugman, Tony Randall, Christopher Reeve, Jason Robards, Tony Roberts, Richard Thomas, Ben Vereen, and Billy Dee Williams.

Rumor was Jason was loaded.

Drunk loaded or rich loaded? I'd believe drunk before rich.