Josh and I recently accompanied Marie to a performance of “Spamalot” on Broadway. It was a weeknight, but smack in the middle of what seemed this year like an endless number of “spring break” weeks and so the theater was piled high with families and young people. Now normally when I’ve gone to a play or concert where a celebrity was in attendance, I’ve observed that fans are pretty respectful and generally leave the stars alone to enjoy their evenings without being mobbed for autographs. Not so with Marie. Throughout intermission, following a slow buzz during the first act of murmurs that Marie was sitting over there -no, over there – a deep and steady line appeared in the aisle populated by young, excited fans seeking her autograph. Marie could not have been more gracious in accommodating the requests of the teens and twenty-somethings (mostly girls) and I was struck but how utterly approachable she was to these many fans who were obviously delighted to see her.
“Approachable”, in fact, is one of the many personal attributes that respondents ascribed to Marie when we did some polling recently. Added to that were descriptions of her as “compassionate”, “funny”, “sincere”, “down-to-earth_ and “trustworthy”. But, of course, attributions such as these don’t appear out of a vacuum but, instead are natural responses to a person of substance and depth - someone like “Marie” who I like to call (borrowing from Tom Wolf) is try a “Person in Full”. Yes, Marie is a great entertainer and a living brand forty years in the making. She has appeared on Broadway; Written a NY Times Best Selling Book; She’s had immediate, positive impact on ratings in both daytime and primetime; She’s sold over $350M worth of porcelain dolls and raised nearly $4 Billion for The Children’s’ Miracle Network, a charity that she founded with her mother. But there’s more. She’s experienced every imaginable heartbreak. Divorce, Post Partum Depression, a young son in Rehab, the illnesses and deaths of her parents, her own struggles with weight and heart disease. And, she is the mother of eight children, seven of whom are at home with her. She is a single, working mother.
Let’s add to that the fire that burned down her house along with years of personal treasures including the journals she kept over the many years that she studied at the knees of the likes of Ethel Merman, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Sammy Davis, Jr., and more. Priceless, irreplaceable artifacts. She set out to recreate the stories for the benefit of her children in a book that will be released around Mother’s Day, 2009. The book is aptly titled, “You Might as well Laugh About it Now”. You see, Marie’s philosophy is simple – Life+Tragedy=Humor. You’re going to laugh about it eventually so you might as well laugh about it now. The book is written in the voice of Erma Bombeck which is, I realize, a missing voice in American culture and television today. A hopeful, humorous voice that everyone can relate to. Everyone that is who has children, parents, or experiences the realities and verities of day-to-day life in America.
A person in full with a fabulous sense of humor who can sing. Viewers are simply going to love her and, they’ll always be rewarded with a smile and an autograph.
