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WAS RIGHT: "You don't have to be tall to be great."
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Legendary actress, Estelle Getty, died
at the
age of 84. She had been suffering for years
with dementia. What do we know about
this star of "The Golden Girls"? One Yiddish
proverb applies to Estelle: "Me darf nit zayn hoykh tsu zayn groys." (You
don't
have to be tall to be great.)
"nomen" (name)
Estelle Getty was born Estelle Scher. She
was AKA Sophia Petrillo.
"religye" (religion)
Jewish
"tate-mame" (parents)
Charles and Sarah Scher
"man" (husband)
Arthur Gettleman. (Deceased) Estelle
derived the stage name "Getty" from him."
"kinder" (children)
Two sons, Barry and Carl
"kindhayt" (childhood)
As a youngster on the Lower East Side of
Manhattan, Estelle began her stage career
as a member of Yiddish amateur neighborhood theatre groups. At the age
of 18, Estelle worked for a while as a
stand-up comedienne in the Catskills,
using a style she later described as being a
cross between Joan Rivers and Totie Fields.
"kleyntshik" (tiny) stature
Estelle said, "Being tiny has been difficult for me in a business that regarded
physicality as the most important part of
your life...And I always had to fight against
the fact that I could do things even though
I was small. And eventually I proved to them I could play mother to six
footers."
"muter" (mother)
Getty writes, "I've played mothers to heroes
and mothers to zeroes. I've played Irish
mothers, Jewish mothers, Italian mothers,
Southern mothers, mothers in plays by
Neil Simon and Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. I've played mother
to
everyone but Attila the Hun."
"mekhaber" (author)
Getty wrote a book titled, "If I Knew Then
What I Know Now...So What?" Getty was
not particularly proud of her 1998
autobiography, calling it, "a thin, little book."
Fiction
While Getty is aware that Sophia is fictional,
many of her fans appear "umvisndik"
(ignorant) of this fact, approaching her on
the street and talking in Italian, asking
questions about her late husbands, and
the three other women she lives with.
Cast
The cast of The Golden Girls are Estelle
Getty, Beatrice Arthur, Bette White and
Rue McClanahan. Getty's character is an
80-year-old Italian mother with a saucy
mouth, ribald humor and trademark "baytl" (purse) from which she is never
separated.
Estelle played mother to Bea Arthur.
However, Bea is actually older than Estelle.
Age
Getty says, "Age does not bring you wisdom; age brings you wrinkles. If
you're
dumb when you're young, you're going to
be dumb when you're old." She continues:" Older people are important,
they're viable, they can live the life they choose and
not be grunged under. It makes me happy
to see that older people are having a
greater impact on society."
"eytse"/"aitzeh" (Advice)
Getty says, "Don't allow people to say,
'You're old, you can't do this.' You can do
anything you want to do."
Sophia Petrillo
Estelle plays the feisty, sharp-tongued
octogenrian mother on Golden Girls,
Golden Palace and Empty Nest. Kids are
some of her biggest admirers. "I think they
look upon me as an old child, because I'm
so little," says Getty. "But they love the fact
that I talk back to Bea Arthur."
"oytomobile" (automobile)
Estelle Getty lived through "di depresye"
(the Depression) and knew what it was to
need money for food. To the chagrin of
her managers and agents, Getty dared to
park her used, "oranzh" (orange) Toyota
Tercel on the Golden Girls studio lot long
after the show became a big hit. People
started coming up to her in the hall:
"Estelle, I'm sorry to tell you this, but
someone took your parking spot." Her
reply: "No. No one took my spot. That's
my car." They would "breyt shmeykhlen"
(grin), certain that she was joking. When
they realized she wasn't, they were aghast.
It wasn't until Getty's business manager
informed her that her Toyota could no
longer be deducted, having fully depreciated, that she finally consented to
purchase a "nay" (new) automobile.
Attitude
Getty tells the story of sitting in a restaurant with her "zun" (son) while a
woman with blue-green hair stares at her
intensely. Baffled by the attention of this
woman, her "zun" gently reminds her that
she's being stared at because she's Estelle
Getty. "It never occurred to me," remarks
Getty. "I never think of myself that way,
and just as well. I still have the same friends, same outlook. Nothing
has changed for me."
"baytn" (to change)
At one point, Estelle did purchase a new
house with a huge garden, pool, gazebo, two bars, four bedrooms and four bathrooms. She
wrote that she was still
stunned when she awakened every morning.
Pilot Episode (Sept. 14, 1985, NBC)
The first show centered around Blance who
announced her engagement to Harry.
Betty White and Bea Arthur are "bazorgt"
(worried) about where they'll live after
Blanche is married. They also feel uneasy
about Harry. Sophia arrives after her
retirement home, Shady Pines, has burned
down. Blanche's wedding doesn't go through because Harry is arrested
for
bigamy. Blanche is crushed...until she
realizes the value of the "family" ("mishpokhe") she already has.
Audition
After auditioning "fir" (4) times for the role
of Sophia in "The Golden Girls," Getty hired
a makeup artist to age her, went shopping
in thrift shops looking for a worn polyester
dress way too big for her, and a handbag.
She went to the audition in her "costume,"
stayed in character the whole time, and
landed the part, which later won her an
Emmy.
Opening Theme
"Thank you for Being a "fraynd" (Friend)"
"Picture It"
Sophia always began her outrageous
made-up stories with the words "picture
it."
Late Bloomer
Getty resented being called a "late bloomer." She felt that she had been
blooming for fifty years.
"arbet" (work)/Jobs
Through the series, "The Golden Girls,"
Sophia held a few part-time jobs mostly
involving food, including fast-food worker
and entrepreneur of spaghetti sauce and
homemade "chuck wagon" sandwiches. In
real life, Estelle once worked as a secretary
at a company called Snap-Out Forms. (See "obituary")
"daygen" (to worry)
Getty has avoided one worry through her
late success. She said, "People who make it
to the top when they're young have to
worry about staying there. The nicest thing
about making it at this stage is that I don't
have to worry about staying up there that
long."
Jimmy Hoffa
In one episode of "The Golden Girls," Sophia accidentally let it slip that
she knew
what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
Retirement "heym" (home)
Sophia never had good things to say about
her retirement home, and she alluded to
poor treatment by the staff many times
throughout the series' run. In one episode
meant to raise awareness about poor-quality nursing homes, she did admit
that
the treatment at Shady Pines was satisfactory.
"nekrolog" (obituary)
The New York Times obituary (7/23/08)
included the following story about Estelle
Getty: Ms. Getty recalled one of her last
secretarial jobs, at a company called
Snap-Out Forms. Here she kept her acting
ambitions a secret for fear of being fired.
"At Snap-Out Forms, the first day I came to
work, I had an audition, and I said, 'Can I go
for my lunch at 10 o'clock?'" "The next day
I had to go someplace else. I said, 'Can I
take my lunch at 2:30?' The next day I asked
if I could take lunch at 11 o'clock. The office
manager said, 'You have the strangest eating habits of any secretary we've
ever
had.'"
Zingers
Sophia Petrillo is a "khakhkome"--a Yiddish
word for a wise woman. Her wisecracks are
heard in every episode of "The Golden
Girls."
Examples: When the libidinous Southern
belle, Blanche, boasts, "My whole life is an
open book," Sophia cracks, "Your whole
life is an open blouse."
When a man-crazy young female visitor is
leaving their home in Florida, Dorothy,
politely says, "We enjoyed having you."
Sophia adds, "And so did half of Miami."
______________________
Estelle Getty, Estelle Scher, Sophia Petrillo,
whatever your "nomen." We'll miss you!
Rex Reed was right when he wrote that "Estelle Getty is the most endearing
Jewish mother to be seen on the New York stage
since Molly Picon, only prettier and more
believable."
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