In honor of Bea Arthur I did a set of mouthy broads on my show this afternoon: Tallulah Bankhead, Marlene Dietrich, Ethel Merman, Mae West and Bea Arthur herself, singing "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from her Broadway album Just Between Friends. All women who "took no guff" as I put in on the air. I was trying to speak discreetly, though I almost slipped and called Arthur "ballsy." I think that's legal but my listeners tend to be older people and I try to keep my language squeaky clean.
Most people my age remember Bea Arthur from "The Golden Girls." I wasn't really watching TV when that show was on the air so my main memory of her is "Maude," which my parents watched when I was a kid. I didn't find out until later how controversial the show was. The Times has a good obituary of Arthur today. From it I learned that Maude's abortion happened two months before Roe v. Wade. Apparently abortion was legal in the county where the show was set, though not yet in most of the country. Now that's ballsy.
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