Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

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courage up and said to him that we enjoyed doing theatre and working in the chorus of New Girl in Town but what would someone do to get on television? He was so nice. He said that he would give us the names of three people who knew him and he would recommend us."

Anna pauses - remembering the excitement of the moment. "The first man I saw was very nice and couldn't be politer. The second man I went to see was the rudest thing I've ever met in my life. He asked me what I did and I told him I toured with Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, and now I was in New Girl in Town. 'Well, what television have you done?' he asked. 'Well, none,' said I. 'That's why I'm here talking to you.' 'Well don't waste my time,' said he. 'If you haven't done anything leave your picture and goodbye.' I went to the third one and he dealt mostly with radio. He said most of the radio parts are very limited and the old times are getting all the speaking roles."

The lively entertainer began to laugh as she repeated his next words. "'But tell me can you bark?' Well, I said I used to do animal noises when I was a kid. I meowed and did other crazy sounds in one of those offices in the middle of a room where the walls don't go all the way to the ceiling. When I walked out of the offices everybody was looking at me like I was some kind of a weird person. Well, the long and the short of it was I got to meow on a radio program and the guy who was rude about three months later gave me a call. From that came seven shots on the Edge of Night. The rude one had gone and picked my picture out. And that is how I got my first television experience."

The bubbly performer's young life was far removed from the glitter and glamour of stage and screen. Ann comes from New England stock, her family having lived in Middlebury, Vermont, where her dad ran a horse farm. (To this day Ann has a deep love of horses, and is an accomplished sportswoman who has entered many riding contests including the Golden Bridge Hounds competition.)

Ms. Williams attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C. on a scholarship. In her junior year, however, she was adventuresome enough to try her hand at acting - and left school to join Damn Yankees' chorus line. A few years later, she met her husband, Robert Welch. Today, the couple has three children - Amanda, 8, Elizabeth, 5, and Daniel, 3.

"The most important thing is when your big break comes, you better be ready to deliver," Ann adds. "I don't think anybody sits by a pool waiting for the phone to ring and gets any where. All the time I stayed in New Girl in Town, for a year and a half, I used that money to go to school and to study. I was in beginnings ballet class for 13 years, cause every time I got a little bit better something would happen and I would have to drop out. But it's very, very important to be prepared and to do the best you can and if it is meant to be, it will be."

The name "Shirley MacLaine" comes up in conversation, another "hoofer" who made it big from the chorus line.

"I went to high school and jr. high school with Shirley," the Search star says. "She was in Swanson Jr. High School ahead of me and her brother [actor Warren Beatty] was a couple of years behind me. I never paid any attention to him. He was one of those little guys much younger than myself. And she was the nicest girl in high school. She was our champion basketball player. I was a guard and she was a forward. What can I tell you? And when I first met George Abbott we were chatting and he mentioned something about Pajama Game. I didn't know who he was and I said 'Oh gee, Mr. Abbott, do you know about Shirley MacLaine?' He said, 'Do I know her? I directed the play.' I was so embarrassed."

Reflecting on her hard won success and how it affects friends and relatives, Ann said, "Well, I think that when I'm with them, they don't even think about me being on television. I hope. I don't think any of my friends think of me as anyone other than Ann. I'm certainly no different than anyone else next door. I'm very blessed. I have a wonderful family. I have a happy life and a career I enjoy and a husband who loves me for doing everything that I do. I'm a very lucky lady. I don't want to give any of them up."

"I've been on Search for Tomorrow for nine years. I've been doing daytime TV since 1960 pretty continuously. For a woman with a family, it's the best job in the whole world because I'm blessed with understanding producers. They know that I don't want to be away from my family five days a week. The writers kind of see that I'm in there two days a week or maybe three but not every day so I'm home more than I'm at work. But speaking professionally, I'm able to keep the instrument alive. I can keep it tuned up so that if something comes along I'm ready for it."

It's here, however, that the actress draws the line between her soap work and her real life. She sees little in common with her TV counterpart.

"I don't think I'm much like Eunice at all except that I hope that I'm a nice person and she is a nice person."

Although Ann is delighted with her TV work, the pull of Broadway's theater - the arena that gave her that "first break" - still tugs at her heart.

"If something is really worth doing (on Broadway), I definitely would like to do it. If it is something that would make me grow a little bit as a human being as well as an actress, then by all means I'd certainly not say 'no.' But if it's not too easy to find those roles."

She softly added, "I don't think of myself as a celebrity. I'm constantly shocked when people ask for my autograph. I keep looking behind me to see who they are asking."

Another though hits her. "I look very different at home. I get all scroungy with pig tails and don't wear any make-up. I'm just one of those girls who comes in and does the shopping. When I talk, the lady in the line behind me will say, 'You're Eunice...I recognized your voice. I thought you looked familiar.' It's really funny when that happens."

As a closing thought, the gracious performer confided her innermost feelings about the intoxicating rise to fame and stardom.

"I feel that I'm very blessed in this life and I guess I'm a little fatalistic. I feel that whatever happens happens, it really happens for the best. I know it's a difficult thing to believe at times. I lost a baby one time. It would have been my second child. It's almost that any trial you are given on this earth is almost a blessing because the way you cope with it and the way you deal with it kind of gives you brownie points in heaven. It's probably a naive thing, but I find it very reassuring. One never looks for tragedy, but the way one deals with it can be a good thing. It matures you and you learn to appreciate the blessings that you have much more."

With an attitude like that it's easy to see why Ann Williams has risen to the very top. She's star material all the way.

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First part of a Larry Haines interview.

[edgeofnight]

I am going to be getting in the mail a DVD with the very first episode of SFT on Sept. 3, 1951. Can't wait to see it!

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That's great to hear.

[edgeofnight]

Re: Melba Rae's passing...I actually wrote a letter of condolence to her widower, Gilbert Shawn, and recieved a very nice acknowledgement and a photo of Melba...I was 15 or 16 at the time.

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From the August 13, 1985 SOD. Network Publishing Co

Edited November 22, 2010 by CarlD2

[SFK]

Oh. My. God. Mr. Fuji and The Magnificent Muraco, I haven't thought of those names in years! Wow, what a flashback. Look at Lisa hammin' it up...

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I love the look on Jane's face. I wonder if any of her future co stars ever found that and humiliated her.

[SFK]

I don't know what it is about JK, but she has always bugged the hell outta me. She and Marilu Henner.

Just annoying.

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From the April 23, 1982 SOD, Network Publishing Co; a fire at the inn (interestingly enough Crossroads, where the lead character was similar to Jo in many ways, also had an inn fire around this time, although Crossroads fired their lead, whereas at least SFT kept Mary Stuart to the end).

Edited November 22, 2010 by CarlD2

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From the September 29, 1981 SOD. Network Publishing Co

Edited November 22, 2010 by CarlD2

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From the July 1976 Afternoon TV Stars. Lorelei Publishing Inc

Edited November 22, 2010 by CarlD2

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