Growing Up Laughing_ My Story and the Story of Funny - Marlo Thomas [70]
Shel’s last line hammered home the point: “And so she was. And mighty tasty, too.” (A tough punishment, but these were tough times.) The kids loved it. It was like a comic spin on a Grimms’ tale.
We were all on a mission, obsessed with changing the world, one five-year-old at a time. For one track on the album, we came up with the great idea of interviewing kids and asking them questions to illustrate how children don’t harbor sexist ideas.
We gathered a group of preschoolers and taped their conversations.
“What would you like to be when you grow up?” we asked one curly-haired four-year-old girl.
“I want to be a singer or an ice skater,” she said. Good—nothing sexist there.
“Would you like to be a doctor?” we asked, leading the witness.
The little girl got an adorable look on her face and burst into giggles.
“No!” she said. “Mans is doctors.”
My God, she was four. We were already too late.
WHEN IT CAME TIME to cast the album, we recruited a terrific group of performers, including Harry Belafonte, football player Rosie Grier (who, playing against type, sang “It’s All Right to Cry”) and a sweet fourteen-year-old Michael Jackson. With his creamy dark skin and pillowy Afro, Michael winsomely sang “When We Grow Up” with Roberta Flack. A line of the song would one day be haunting.
“We like what we look like. We don’t have to change at all.” If only Michael had held on to that notion.
All of the pieces on the album came out of our own experiences, and we soon realized we were rewriting our childhoods. But it was lyricist Bruce Hart, Carole’s husband, who came up with the timeless words, Free to Be . . . You and Me—and his title song, with music by Stephen Lawrence, spoke of rolling rivers and galloping horses, marvelously capturing a child’s passionate desire for freedom.
“When We Grow Up”: On the set with Michael Jackson and Roberta Flack.
I called Gloria Steinem and told her I wanted the money earned by Free to Be to benefit women and girls.
“Why don’t you join me, Letty Pogrebin and Pat Carbine in forming the Ms Foundation for Women,” Gloria said. “It will be the first women’s foundation in the country.” It was the perfect fit.
I broached with all of the artists the idea of donating their time and talent. They agreed enthusiastically to help out this new foundation called “Ms.” But when Carole was working out the details with Mel Brooks, he said, “I’m happy to do this for Marlo, but I don’t understand what it has to do with multiple sclerosis.”
So much for my communication skills.
FREE TO BE . . . YOU AND ME became more than we had imagined, first a record, then a book, then an ABC-TV special—which turned out to be the most difficult version. The execs at the network were terrified of the program’s messages. They begged us to take out “William Wants a Doll,” a wonderful song written by Mary Rodgers and Sheldon Harnick. Telling little boys that “It’s All Right to Cry” was bad enough. But telling little boys it’s okay to cuddle a doll? That was dangerous.
Another Carol Hall song, “Parents Are People,” featured Harry Belafonte and me singing the various verses in different locations around New York City. The message of the song was unmistakable: Dressed identically and working at the same jobs, Harry and I happily declared that “Mommies and daddies can be anything they want to be.”
Anyone sounds good in a duet with Harry.
In one of the scenes, Harry was pushing a baby buggy, singing about daddies, while I pushed a buggy alongside him, singing about mommies. That caused a furor. We were already “corrupting” little boys with songs about dolls and crying. But now we were insinuating that Harry and I were married. The racial implications were way too threatening to the network, especially for a primetime children’s show.
Voices were raised and feathers flew—but in the end (and with the threat that we’d go to CBS), all of the songs stayed in.
And guess what? The world didn’t come to an end.
The show won an Emmy and a Peabody, the book became number one on the New York Times best-seller