Ray Faiola of Ellenville has uploaded to Youtube a pilot of a 1951 television program with Mary Margaret McBride, who interviews Ed Dowling. Dowling was the director of the first major Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie. The interview takes place in her West Shokan home, which is a two-minute drive from mine. The panoramas of the reservoir and the mountains look as they do today. McBride's house is still there; I've met the owner.
McBride was a personal friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt frequently visited the same West Shokan home in which the interview takes place. According to Wikipedia, during World War II McBride was among the first to break the color barrier in radio. She broadcast on all the major networks until 1960. She was known as the first lady of radio. One of the old timers in West Shokan told me that he recalls Mrs. Roosevelt's visits. In this 1960 newspaper article, Roosevelt writes about an afternoon at one of McBride's local radio broadcasts:
On Monday of this week I went from Hyde Park to West
Shokan, where Mary Margaret McBride lives in a house on the side of a
mountain. The house is built of redwood, and the porch looks out on the reservoir.
Mary Margaret McBride was her charming self, sounding
as though she had really never thought till that minute of the things
she was about to say, and yet never forgetting the thread of what she
said or of what she wanted the person she was interviewing to say. I
think she is one of the most expert interviewers I have ever known.
She had about 50 of her neighbors as an audience, and
she does this local broadcast, with local commercials, just as she once
did her New York broadcasts. I just have a lovely time talking to her,
so I enjoyed every minute with her and was delighted to have lunch with
her afterwards, sitting on her porch and drinking in the beautiful view.
She is one person who accumulates books just the way I
do, so everywhere you go in every room of her house, there are books
and more books. I was encouraged, for I never have enough room for my
books and I felt I could now go on building shelves in many places I had
not thought of before.
Someday I hope I will have the time to read the
books I now have on my shelves, besides all those I know I will
accumulate in the next year or so.
Wikipedia describes her last years, which were spent in West Shokan:
As time went on, she appeared in smaller radio media markets, in upstate New York, and toward the end of her life hosted "Your Hudson Valley Neighbor" three times a week on WGHQ Kingston, NY from the living room of her home. Her longtime companion and business partner, Stella Karn, died in 1957.[2]
She died at the age of 76 on April 7, 1976 at West Shokan, New York. McBride's ashes were placed in her former rose garden. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in radio.[3]
McBride's celebrity was hardly a secret confined to daytime radio listeners, either: her 15th anniversary celebration in 1949 was held in Yankee stadium, the only facility large enough to hold the 75,000 people who filled every seat and formed huge crowds outside. Her magazine show was on the air continuously for 25 years.
5 comments:
Mitchell - I believe this was filmed in 1951. Glad you found it useful to the blog!
Can you tell me where McBride's home was? My mother was born in West Shokan in 1934. Her parents had a general store and boarding house for summer visitors from NYC. My grandfather was the post master in West Shokan- he died at an early age (52) when my mother was 16. My mother and I were just discussing her childhood and she mentioned the Mary Margaret McBride house. My mother could not remember exactly were it was. I remember driving by it as well-but can't place the location. I would love to hear any information you have.
Lisa Whitcomb
Lisa Whitcomb: Mary McBride's house was on High Point Mountain Road. If, coming from Route 28 on 28A, going southwest, you pass the post office and general store (now called Marty's Emporium, in the 1960s Davis's Store) on the right and a short distance (100-200 feet) come to West Shokan Heights Road on the right, take the right and the road ends at High Point Mountain, then take right. (Otherwise, coming from 28 to 28A, turn right at the wooden signs onto Watson Hollow Road, then turn left onto High Point Mountain Road before the bridge. It's a short distance from the turn. I just walked it.) I don't recall the exact house or address, but it is one of six or seven houses overlooking the Ashokan Reservoir on High Point Mountain. If you go into the Town of Olive Office next to Davis Park and ask Jim Sofranko, town supervisor, he can probably tell you. If not, ask for Sylvia Rozelle's number, as I'm sure she (former town supervisor) knows the exact house. There's only a few of the houses high enough on Highpoint Mountain Road to have that kind of view. They're all very lovely. A clue is that the is redwood, and I think there is just one that is.
Thanks for this post. My wife and I have lived in the "house that Mary Margaret built" for the last 30 years. It is at 111 High Point Mountain Road. We have had a business here for many years called Ashokan Dreams. It seems that every local person had some interaction with Mary Margaret or her partner Cynthia Lowery and a story to tell about them.
The house that Mary Margaret built was actually a conversion of the Eckart family barn. Originally built around 1820 by the grandfather of a notable local resident, Bud Eckert.
give us a call.
Thanks, Chester. I have been going for a walk up High Point Mountain Road, and I saw Ashokan Dreams, but I wasn't 100% sure that that was the place. I knew Buddy Eckert for years, and his passing leaves a gap in our town. My wife and I met him on the Kanape Trail, probably around 2004 or so; Buddy passed last year, and my wife passed this year. It's been a difficult time.
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