Rue McClanahan has the unenviable task of launching her new memoir, My First Five Husbands…And the Ones Who Got Away (Broadway Books), the same week as the tragic killing spree on Virginia Tech’s campus. It’s a hard time to visit talk shows to discuss the autobiography that PW called “a chatty, thoughtful and effervescent tour of her surprisingly turbulent professional and private life.” As the review notes, readers might be surprised by the adversities and challenges that McClanahan has overcome and be inspired by her optimism and perseverance.
Most people know McClanahan as one of The Golden Girls —the youngest of the four actresses who starred in that long-running TV sitcom. “Bea, Betty and Estelle were all born during the Harding administration, and I came along a dozen years later with FDR’s “New Deal,” she writes. Although she had some success on stage and appeared in supporting roles in a handful of movies (including 1971’s They Might Be Giants), her career didn’t really take off until she joined the cast of Maude at the age of 39. When that series ended she found herself “languishing in Love Boat limbo, I’d done five stints in Captain Stubing’s celebrity purgatory.” That’s when The Golden Girls arrived and she found herself an “overnight success” at 51.
McClanahan still knows how to work a crowd. This week, I attended her first reading/Q&A/book signing in Manhattan. An overflowing crowd of more than 300 people laughed and applauded throughout her reading from two sections from her memoir. She knew exactly what sections would guarantee that people would want to pick up the book to read more. The first section described how working as a nude model for $2 an hour in 1959 introduced her to Beatnik sex. The second, detailed her initial reading for The Golden Girls and how the producers originally wanted her to play dim Rose and Betty White to play sexpot Blanche.
“We’ve clearly seen she has a passionate fan base,” said Random House’s David Drake, who’s handling her tour. “Obviously she has huge support from the gay community and female fans who watched The Golden Girls, but I’ve been surprised how many young women are in the audience.”
Working her base, McClanahan appeared last night at the New York gay bar Baracuda, wrapped in a feather boa and allowing herself to be coaxed into discussing the mixture of friction and friendship on The Golden Girls set. The Drama Book Shop sold books at the venue. McClanahan isn’t shy about assigning A through F grades in her book to all her sexual partners. Fans attenting future Q&A sessions might want to ask about the "A" grades she gave to Benson’s Robert Guillaume and Midnight Express’s Brad Davis, who at the time was 9 years older than her son.
On Monday, April 23, she’ll play up Blanche Devereaux’s Southern Belle heritage at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Georgia. The following day, she’ll be visiting with the Pulpwood Queens at the only hair salon and bookstore in the world, Beauty and the Book. Owner Kathy Patrick wrote a Publishers Weekly Galley Talk about My First Five Husbands that raved, “This is one romp of a read. I was instantly smitten by her tenacity to overcome many obstacles regarding her private life and public one.”
McClanahan will be on tour—making more stops in Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, North Carolina, and Illinois—until May 14, the day after Mother’s Day. This book should be a very popular and easy handsell for everyone searching for the perfect present for mommie dearest.
