Broadcast originally aired on Monday, May 17, 9:30 am, on WRCR Radio 1700AM
We turned our attention to the first lady of the American Theater, Helen Hayes.
Joyce Bulifant, Hayes’s daughter-in-law, shared her fond memories of the stage and screen star Helen Hayes; of her father-in-law, the playwright Charles MacArthur; and of their famous house in Nyack, Pretty Penny. We reminisced with Bulifant and then learned about an effort to establish Pretty Penny as a literary landmark from Joel Vig, who, through the Literary Landmark program, has been working to create lasting legacies from some of our best-known authors.
Known as “The First lady of the American Theater,” Helen Hayes had a legendary career on stage and in films and television that spanned more than eighty years. The accomplished entertainer acted from age five to eight-five. She appeared on Broadway at age eight, and over the next several years received much acclaim for her performances. With the expansion of movies in Hollywood, Hayes moved to California to pursue films. In 1931, she won a Academy Award as Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet. Hayes also received accolades for her Broadway performances in Mary of Scotland (1933) and Victoria Regina (1935). She is the first woman to receive all four entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. One of her final triumphs came in 1990 with the publication her autobiography, My Life in Three Acts. The memoir became a best seller. Hayes died on March 17, 1993, in Nyack.
A star in her own right, Joyce Bulifant is perhaps best known for playing recurring supporting roles and doing guest spots on television series such as Perry Mason, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Dr. Kildare. Beginning in 1971, one year into the eight-season run of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bulifant landed an assignment as a regular on that program; she played Marie Slaughter, the wife of the amiable newswriter Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod), which carried her through the final season of the series. During the 1970s she also appeared as a regular contestant/participant on the game show Match Game alongside such “Me Decade” stars as McLean Stevenson and Mary Tyler Moore Show co-star Betty White. Bulifant's small-screen work continued unabated for several decades; in time, she also moved into occasional bit parts and supporting roles in feature flms. More recently, she has written two one-woman shows—My Life upon the Wicked Stage and Remembering Helen Hayes with Love—which she has performed in various theaters. She is also the executive vice president of the Dyslexia Foundation. Joyce's book "My Four Hollywood Husbands" is available wherever books are sold and the audio book is coming soon!
Joel Vig created touring productions for the Arkansas Art Center and the Nebraska Arts Council, is a contributor to the textbook Creating a Sense of Occasion (Holt), and is a guest lecturer at college theatre departments. He has worked as a director, stage manager, performer and designer, on Broadway, off Broadway, at Theatre at Sea and regional theatres. He originated the title role in the Off-Broadway "Best Musical," Ruthless, and appeared in the original Broadway cast of the Tony-winning musical Hairspray.
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Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, airs on the third Monday of each month at 9:30 am on WRCR radio at www.WRCR.com. Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month.
www.RocklandHistory.org
Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am. From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com.
Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.
The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.
www.RocklandHistory.org
