HSRC on the Radio: Memories of Helen Hayes with Joyce Bulifant
Crossroads of Rockland History - A Radio Show from The Historical Society of Rockland County
When: Monday, May 17, 9:30 am, on WRCR Radio 1700AM
About: We’ll turn our attention to the first lady of the American Theater, Helen Hayes. Joyce Bulifant, Hayes’s daughter-in-law, will share her fond memories of the stage and screen star; of her father-in-law, the playwright Charles MacArthur; and of their famous house in Nyack, Pretty Penny. We’ll reminisce with Bulifant and learn about an effort to establish Pretty Penny as a literary landmark from Joel Vig, who, through the Literary Landmark program, has been working to create lasting legacies from some of our best-known authors.
Listen live on 1700AM WRCR - Rockland Radio or wait for the podcast - available wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, etc.).
Known as “The First lady of the American Theater,” Helen Hayes had a legendary career on stage and in films and television that spanned more than eighty years. The accomplished entertainer acted from age five to eight-five. She appeared on Broadway at age eight, and over the next several years received much acclaim for her performances. With the expansion of movies in Hollywood, Hayes moved to California to pursue films. In 1931, she won a Academy Award as Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet. Hayes also received accolades for her Broadway performances in Mary of Scotland (1933) and Victoria Regina (1935). She is the first woman to receive all four entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. One of her final triumphs came in 1990 with the publication her autobiography, My Life in Three Acts. The memoir became a best seller. Hayes died on March 17, 1993, in Nyack.
A star in her own right, perhaps best known for playing recurring supporting roles and doing guest spots on television series such as Perry Mason, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Dr. Kildare. Beginning in 1971, one year into the eight-season run of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bulifant landed an assignment as a regular on that program; she played Marie Slaughter, the wife of the amiable newswriter Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod), which carried her through the final season of the series. During the 1970s she also appeared as a regular contestant/participant on the game show Match Game alongside such “Me Decade” stars as McLean Stevenson and Mary Tyler Moore Show co-star Betty White. Bulifant's small-screen work continued unabated for several decades; in time, she also moved into occasional bit parts and supporting roles in feature flms. More recently, she has written two one-woman shows—My Life upon the Wicked Stage and Remembering Helen Hayes with Love—which she has performed in various theaters. She is also the executive vice president of the Dyslexia Foundation.