I saw a documentary on Gilda Radner the other day

[Beringia]

It was very well done. The thing that struck me was she was so incredibly talented and yet seemed to float on the wind to wherever it carried her. I wouldn't say she had any business sense.

Also it showed how she had boyfriends galore as a young woman, one after another. She got married but the husband didn't like her being humorous, so she left. Then hit stardom after performing in Godspell in Canada and being discovered by SNL in its very beginning. There she was surrounded by the dominant male milieu but fit in with them, learning how to get her ideas in. Several of the SNL guys were her boyfriends. Then at long last she fell in love with Gene Wilder and went to great lengths to prove herself to him until he finally married her. She said at one point in the documentary that love was always the most important thing to her.

Anyway I found it interesting that 1) she had such a big number of boyfriends and 2) she wasn't really into having a big career, it just happened

[LisaM]

1. She went to the same high school my mother did.

When she died, in her obituary in the school newsletter, she was referred to as "Mrs. Wilder".

[Beringia]

4. Sounds like a conservative newsletter

[LisaM]

5. Not so much conservative as traditional.

They didn't treat her any differently just because she was famous.

[whathehell]

2. " The husband didn't like her being humorous"

Yeah.. Some men feel thrratened by that.

[in2herbs]

3. I read her biography, it showed another side of her. I liked it. nt

[whathehell]

6. She was great -- So sad that she died young.

Ovarian cancer is awful -- It takes out people young,.

Anothern "great" it killed was singer- songwriter Laura Nyro. Like Gilda, she never saw her 50th birthday.

[Beringia]

7. From the documentary, it seems you can have ovarian cancer

and the doctors can't tell you have it, until it is late stage. But don't know this for sure, have never looked it up. They thought she had chronic fatigue syndrome or it was a psychological problem.

[whathehell]

8. I believe it's highly genetic..Laura Nyro's mother died of it,

Last edited Wed Oct 30, 2019, 02:14 PM - Edit history (1)

and I think Gilda's mother did too.

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. It's similar to pancreatic cancer in that way

They don't produce really obvious symptoms in their early stages when they're curable.

[whathehell]

10. Why would she have to "prove herself"

to Gene Wilder, or anyone else?

[Beringia]

11. Well that is what she says in the film

I have no idea her motivation. She was head over heels in love with Wilder, but he was fairly cool on her in the beginning. Why do we fall in love with the people we fall in love with? Maybe being unobtainable is part of it.