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1954. "Actress Betty White at home, about to leave for studio where her Los Angeles daytime television show is broadcast." (UPDATE: The lady with the fan mail is Betty's mother, Tess.) 35mm negative from photos taken for Look magazine. View full size.
I'm a few decades younger than Betty. My goal is to grow up to be like her. She's simply amazing.
I wonder how many days' worth of fan mail the box at the end of the sofa represents? It's interesting how much stuff she hauled back and forth to the studio -- a purse, a doctor looking bag, a file folder and a makeup case, which looks like it was made of tooled leather.
My mom had a matching set of luggage, the smallest component of which was identical in size and shape to that lovely dark leather piece of Betty's with the two snap closures. There was a mirror on the underside / inside of the lid, and elastic pockets around the perimeter of the lower compartment. It also had the scent of a lady's makeup stand.
My mom had a dress like that when I was 4, just the same time as this photo. But it is too bad they don't identify the woman on the left, who works so hard to keep the star happy.
[The lady is Betty's mother, Tess Cachikis White (1899-1985). - Dave]
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