Betty White and Me
I met Betty White backstage on the “Password” game show in 1973, when I was fourteen. I’m thinking about her today, as she died New Year’s Eve in 2021, and she was born in January, 1922. Older than both my parents.
What’s funny now thinking back, was my tinsel-town excitement in ‘73, for the “Password” game itself, and its host, Betty’s husband Allen Ludden. I was in awe to meet him. I thought he had perfect hair.
L to R: Sammy Davis Jr., Betty, and Allen play the game
“Password” was my favorite of all the game shows because it was the only one I was any good at, playing at home. Like a lot of kids my age in the 60s and early 70s, I watched as much TV as possible. I felt like a soldier in the TV army. It was my duty to boost Nielson ratings! Game shows were the thing to run home to, after school.
In those days, I had just moved to LA to live with my dad, who was a linguistics professor at UCLA. The chair of his department was Bob Stockwell, a conservative Virginian Nixon supporter— the opposite of everyone else in the department, who were quite left wing. (To say the least).
Stockwell was also a fan of Grand Old Hollywood. Somehow he had gotten this preposterous gig being the “linguistics” expert on Password, and had to attend every filming, in case they needed a PhD to break a tie. Ha!
Believe me, this show was no intellectual exercise. But it was part of the hook, that they had to pretend to take words seriously.
“Password” was not my dad’s idea of a good time. Both my parents thought television was reactionary swill. We didn’t have a TV at home until I was seven years old, and then only a tiny Zenith black and white set.
Nevertheless, my father saw my kid-like enthusiasm for the show, and he knew that Dr. Stockwell would love to show off his work environment. Bob got us passes backstage and I met everyone in a multi-episode taping.
I had never seen a TV soundstage before; what a trip it was. The set was so tiny! The people were so tiny! The cameras were enormous!
Betty was a frequent guest, and she and Allen were very much a couple on set. She was just as funny and relaxed as everyone remembers her. I mean, think of it: she had more television experience, twice as much, as anyone who might show up. She had seen it all, and was in her element.