Reminiscing with a sizable audience of early risers, Marlo Thomas this morning previewed her forthcoming book from HarperCollins, Growing Up Laughing, with jokes and stories about her life as the daughter of comedian Danny Thomas. With the likes of George Burns and Bob Hope frequently showing up in her living room, said Thomas, laughter became "the cushion for life," she said, noting that her father said adults should laugh 75 times a day, as children do.
Thomas also talked about her television show That Girl, which broke new ground for women as the first series about an independent and unmarried career woman. I asked her if she had any idea in the 1970s how profoundly she was influencing a generation of women. "Not until the letters started coming," she said, letters from abused and confused young women asking for her help and advice. "That mail politicized me," she said.
Thomas asserted that it was librarians and teachers who were responsible for the success of her Free to Be . . . You and Me recordings, and who continue to introduce them to new generations of children. Now 72 years old, Thomas showed up in spiked heels, looking like a million bucks, and graciously stood outside the auditorium for a half-hour of "meet and greet" before adjourning for a brief interview and a flight out.
