Love, Gilda

from cancer.org
"Smoking doesn’t increase the risk of ovarian cancer overall, but it is linked to an increased risk for the mucinous type"

 

mucinous?

 

I believe this refers to lung and breast cancer.

 

Thanks

 

My daughter and I just happened to watch the Muppet Show episode with her guesting last night. The Carrots of Penzance was a highlight. My daughter did comment during the tap dancing routine about how alarmingly thin she was.

 

I thought fertility treatments may have been a culprit. Of course, her being so underweight may have contributed to her infertility in the first place. Who knows.

 

In retrospect, Gilda’s suffering from bulimia seemed to generally occur around the same time that Karen Carpenter was dealing with an eating disorder (from 1973, until her death in 1983).

Karen’s health problem really seemed to expose (what was then considered) an “unknown secret illness”, which was highly misunderstood by many and sadly, also considered shameful.

To imagine that Gilda privately suffered from an eating disorder, while also publicly bringing laughter and joy to the public -

In a sense, eerily mirroring both Karen Carpenter’s unique and wonderful talents, and curse -
Is just saddening.

 

Apparently she and Lorainne Newman were in some sort of thinness competition with each other while on SNL.

 

Txs for the reminder. I PVR'd it but haven't watched it yet!

Back when "Saturday Night Live" used to be funny...

 

...and we all know Laraine Newman was as thin as a rail...

 

Yes. I have the original book and original cassette audiobook from when both were originally released. The audiobook is abridged from the book, not by her but she approved the abridgment and read it for the audiobook.
The audiobook was re-released as a download and these pages have samples, and info I did not know - it was recorded [edit: a month before her death on] May 20, 1989, and was her "last performance".

It's Always Something by Gilda Radner on iTunes

https://www.amazon.com/Its-Always-Something/dp/B0000547GX/

An original cassette version audiobook:
https://www.amazon.com/Gilda-Radner-Something-Abridged-1989-07-16/dp/B018X1O4FO/

 

Does the blu ray have any features not shown on CNN? I can't find any info in reviews I've found online.

 

I ever made the connection about Gilda and eating disorders except for thinking that when she did the Patti Smith thing, 'man, didn't know she was that thin'
She really had no clue about what was 'normal', which was sad.
Karen appeared to sense it and hid it as best she could. ( A friend of mine saw her live a year or two before the end and said she wore long flowing outfits that showed very little flesh--ankles, neck, or hands.)

 

Snorting heroin will do that to a person.

 

In retrospect, in the Seventies, at least in the US, what everyone considered to be “normal” or healthy, in terms of weight, was to be skinny.
Or at least “slim”.

(Not as “skinny” as Twiggy, though.)

There was no hesitation to call any female celebrity overweight, chubby, fat, etc.
Even Publicly... in articles.

Wasn’t that sometimes written into contractual stipulations for certain actresses, that they could not exceed nor gain a certain amount of pounds?

I can’t imagine that intense pressure and public scrutiny, considering that specific issue was constantly in question and examined, and would affect their career and work.

It would become the label or adjective to describe them, and not their given talents or skills.

 

IIRC, Airplane Stewardesses (yes, their title at that time, unless you were Paul Westerberg) had weight restrictions. I think there might have been a court case of a "fatty" being terminated.

 

Through my foggy memory...
Especially for those of us who lived in the 70’s and watched TV daily -

Typecasting certain actors and actresses was very much a rigid factor -
All acting talent was pideonholed into all those various character slots:
Fat or Skinny, Pretty or Unattractive, Smart or Dumb, Good or Evil, Strong or Weak, etc.

Especially in commercials!!!

(Yes, that still happens now, but with much less private, public scrutiny and criticism, in a new era where Breaking TypeCast is now in consideration...)

 

Why? Is the original foundation not funding them any more? Or is Gilda not widely remembered any more?

 

Even setting aside her suffering from cancer, the general impression I was left with (from her own words) was that she led a sad and almost empty life.

 

I just looked it up - the local chapter broke away from the larger group for some reason, and was no longer allowed to use the name. They are now called Our Clubhouse.

I thought it was because they thought people did not know who Gilda was any more - I am glad that is not the official reason anyway.

 

at least until she married Gene, that might have been true

 

Can’t speak to her films beyond The Woman In Red, which was OK, and Gilda Live!, which I recall being pretty funny. Haven’t seen it in ages though. I recall a cancer joke that seems eerie, in retrospect.

 

I'd probably never heard of eating disorders before Karen Carpenter, in a way Cass Elliot had an eating disorder, she would apparently overeat at times and then take the crash diet approach which probably weakened her heart. People have thought I had one since Karen Carpenter though (amazingly I don't). I had no idea about Gilda having one before this doc.

 

This is the same documentary that was in theaters recently, correct?

 

yes