Not too many performers have as long a career as Charlotte Rae, who died today at the age of 92. She was best known (of course) for playing the not-altogether-there housekeeper Edna Garrett on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, followed by its spin-off, The Facts of Life. Between just those two shows she will live on in reruns forever but she was on a lot of shows before and after, including quite a few on the Broadway stage.
I didn't know Charlotte well but we had some wonderful conversations at parties and such, most of them via the good offices (parties) of our mutual friends, Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin. The most recent was last October when they threw a bash that was more or less in her honor. She was, as always, bright and funny and she reminded me a lot of that wonderful character actress, Charlotte Rae.
When I was with her, we never spoke of her two long-running sitcoms. That's probably because I never saw either of them. We talked instead about two things, one being her role as Mammy Yokum (the first one) in the Broadway play of Li'l Abner. I never saw that either but I've read so much about it and talked to so many cast members, I feel like I did. Several times, I heard her tell a very funny story about being chased around backstage by Al Capp. The cast of the show included many tall, lovely ladies including Julie Newmar and Charlotte couldn't understand why any man would be after her unless he'd, as she put it, "exhausted every possible alternative."
The other thing we talked about was her recurring role as Sylvia Schnauzer on one of my all-time favorite TV comedies, Car 54, Where Are You? With her passing, I believe the only surviving member of that show's cast is my buddy Hank Garrett.
She was delightful…and very honest. Some women would not want to speak only of a long, finally-cured problem with alcohol…or with discovering and coming to terms with her husband's bisexuality but no topic was off limits around Charlotte. (That husband, by the way, was John Strauss who with series creator Nat Hiken composed the Car 54 theme which you've probably sung.) Anyway, I liked her a lot and had to tell you that, though it was probably unnecessary. If you ever saw her perform, you probably guessed she was a very nice, funny lady.