Taking a Bite out of the Big Apple

I couldn’t wait to get out of high school. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, just that I was ready to be out in the world and off on my own. I was determined to go to New York City to become an actress. I had been preparing for this dream since the age of four when I was the youngest of the Snow children in the musical “Carousel” at the Ottumwa Heights Community College.

I always knew what I wanted to do. Being constrained by the demands of school and the responsibilities of being the oldest of five were too confining for my wild spirit. I needed a bigger playing field, a place to spread my wings. I needed to fly away from the Home of the Heartland and take a bite out of the Big Apple.

When graduation day came, there was no one more excited to flip that tassel to the ‘just graduated’ side of my cap and then toss it way up in the air, the way I’d seen Marlo Thomas do it in her television series, “That Girl.” I was heading to NYC to become ‘that girl’ – the one that was chosen for the role.

I loved performing in the school plays at Assumption High School. I auditioned for every one. We did one play, one musical, and one variety show every year. I played the lead role in almost every production during my four years at AHS. Anne Frank in the Diary of Anne Frank, Marian the Librarian in The Music Man, Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Dolly Tate in Annie Get Your Gun, and more.

I was a cheerleader, on the gymnastics team, on the track team, and the debate team. I was in the Assumptionaires singing group, on the student council, and in the thespian society. So you see, I made the best of my time while in school, but I was bursting out of my catholic school uniform ready to cheer my way onto the Broadway stage. Rah, yea, I’ve got it, uh huh!

I arrived in New York City in the fall of 1978, a few months after graduating high school, wide-eyed and fully prepared, or so I thought. I was attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on Madison Avenue, and living at the Biltmore Hotel on 42^nd Street. The 26th floor was run by two ex-nuns and was for women only. There was a large room at the end of the hall where we could have gentleman callers visit. Very old-fashioned, even then.

Though I had left my home and high school behind, I had rules to follow in my new living environment, and huge requirements to meet within the four walls of my new school. We weren’t supposed to take classes outside of school, or get representation, and we weren't supposed to be auditioning for acting jobs, but I did all three within the first year.

That summer, when all the AADA students went home to see their families and enjoy their break, I stayed in NYC and got my career off and running.

I signed with a manager & agent and started auditioning for commercials, plays and films. I took acting classes with the head of the Neighborhood Playhouse, Bill Alderson and learned the Sanford Meisner technique. I studied singing with Renee Guerin & Sue Seton, and took commercial acting with Bob Collier. Needless to say, I didn't return to school for a second year. I was already on my way to being a working actress.

My first commercial was Fruit Fresh, playing a daughter & wife whose peaches were brown & runny until my mother recommended using Fruit Fresh. My TV husband said to me, “Your mom’s peaches are delicious,” as he tasted one, leaving me standing there holding my glass bowl of brown & yucky peaches. This was how I got my SAG card, and I became a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1980.

I’d go on to make six figures those first few years in New York. Six figures in my twenties in the 80’s. The advertising world was booming and I was in business!

Iowa felt really far behind now.