My Days
Happy and Otherwise
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
For eleven seasons, she was head of one of America's favorite television households. Now meet the lovable real-life woman behind the Happy Days mom.
Before she was affectionately known to millions as “Mrs. C.,” Marion Ross began her career as a Paramount starlet who went on to appear in nearly every major TV series of the 1950s and 1960s—including Love, American Style, in which she donned an apron that would cinch her career. Soon after came the phone call that changed her life . . .
In this warm and candid memoir, filled with recollections from the award-winning Happy Days team—from break-out star Henry Winkler to Cunningham “wild child” Erin Moran—Ross shares what it was like to be a starry-eyed young girl with dreams in poor, rural Minnesota, and the resilience it took to make them come true. She recalls her early years in the business, being in the company of such luminaries as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, yet always feeling the Hollywood outsider—an invisibility that mirrored her own childhood. She reveals the joys of playing a wife and mother on TV, and the struggles of maintaining those roles in real life. But among Ross's most heart-rending recollections are those of finally finding a soulmate—another hope made true beyond her expectations.
Featuring producer Garry Marshall's final interview—as well as a touching foreword from her “TV son” Ron Howard, and a conversation with her real-life son and daughter, Marion Ross's inspiring story is also a glowing tribute to all those who fulfilled her dreams—and in turn, gave us some of the happiest days of our own lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an autobiography as cheerful and straightforward as the author's character on Happy Days, Ross uncomplainingly recounts a life filled with more melodrama than comedy. For 11 years the actress regularly entered American households as the iconic TV mother Mrs. Cunningham, but here she shares the struggles that preceded that success. Growing up in Minnesota during the Great Depression, Ross dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star. With her supportive mother's help, Ross scraped together the money to study drama and speech (losing, in the process, her heavy Minnesota accent when it was pointed out to her). A move to California and a Paramount Studios contract seemed to mark the fulfillment of Ross's dreams until the contract wasn't renewed. Neither an impulsive marriage to an alcoholic nor having to work while raising two children dimmed Ross's dream, but these circumstances did force her to abandon hopes of film or theater stardom and focus on television. Following her divorce, Ross took a small part in the 1970 film Airport, which role led to her being cast in the Happy Days pilot. Interviews with the series' cast and crew, including Ron Howard and the late Gary Marshall, add insight into Ross's contributions to the show's success. While lacking in the behind-the-scenes gossip readers might expect, this book will please fans with its down-to-earth account of the dedicated actress behind an adored character.
