Betty Furness

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Betty Furness
from the film Mama Steps Out (1937)
2nd Special Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs
In office
May 1, 1967 – January 20, 1969
PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byEsther Peterson
Succeeded byVirginia Knauer
Personal details
Born
Elizabeth Mary Furness

(1916-01-03)January 3, 1916
New York City, U.S.
DiedApril 2, 1994(1994-04-02) (aged 78)
New York City, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Leslie Midgley
(1967-1994) (her death)
Hugh "Bud" Ernst[1]
(1945-1946; 1946-1950) (his death)
Johnny Green (1937-1943)
Children4

Elizabeth Mary Furness (January 3, 1916 – April 2, 1994) was an American actress,

commentator
.

Early years

Furness was born in Manhattan, the daughter of wealthy business executive George Choate Furness and his wife Florence.[1] She attended the Brearley School and Bennett Junior College.[2]

Furness made her stage debut in the school holidays in the title role of Alice in Wonderland. She also posed for commercial advertising. She began her professional career as a

RKO Studios. Her first film role was as the "Thirteenth Woman" in the film Thirteen Women
(1932) but her scenes were deleted before the film's release.

Over the next few years, she appeared in several RKO films, and became a popular actress. Among her film successes were Magnificent Obsession (1935) and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Swing Time (1936). By the end of the decade, she had appeared in over forty films, but during the 1940s, she found it difficult to secure acting roles.

Career

In 1948, Furness was performing in the

Studio One, which was broadcast live. She filled in for an actor to promote Westinghouse
products during the advertisement break, and impressed the company with her easy and professional manner. They offered her a contract to promote their products and she thus became closely associated with them.

Early television commercials often utilized radio performers who had a difficult time adjusting to the visual medium of TV, leading to sometimes embarrassing incidents such as a Westinghouse commercial where a woman demonstrating an electric stove spilled hot chocolate all over it. Furness, due to her experience at Studio One, felt that she could do a better job. An advertising agency offered her a shot, and she found that she had a natural talent for commercials. Making $150 a week at first, Furness did three Westinghouse commercials (they were the sole sponsor of the show) for every episode of Studio One, all of them shot live as video tape did not yet exist. (One live spot featured a refrigerator door that refused to open, causing one of the most famous bloopers in TV history; however, this was not Furness, but actress June Graham, who was substituting for her. For decades, Furness was "credited" for the blooper, until she set the record straight in the 1981 TV special TV's Censored Bloopers.)[3]

Furness proved a successful spokeswoman because of her good looks and attractive, but neat and modest clothing, which she changed three times a day. She also proved strongly independent-minded about her appearance and image, refusing to adopt a stage name or wear an apron after Westinghouse offered these suggestions. She did however agree to wear a wedding ring on camera to appear more like a housewife. Furness also purchased all of her clothing herself, not wanting Westinghouse to decide her appearance for her. During the political party conventions in the 1952 presidential election, which was heavily sponsored by Westinghouse, Furness wore 28 different outfits, enough to become the subject of a Life story.

Furness's contract with Westinghouse eventually resulted in her receiving an annual salary of $100,000 and her advertisements caused sales of the company's appliances to soar, with the one notable exception of the dishwasher, which proved a hard sell after market research found that American women were reluctant to buy a device that would in effect completely automate their kitchen and give them nothing to do.

One of television's most recognizable series of commercials had Furness opening wide a refrigerator door, intoning, "You can be sure ... if it's Westinghouse." (The spots were so well known they were often parodied: one Mad magazine gag imagined the words on a neon sign, with a few key letters burned out: YOU CAN ..SU.E IF IT'S WESTINGHOUSE!")[4]

Furness hosted

Your Kaiser Dealer Presents Kaiser-Frazer "Adventures In Mystery" Starring Betty Furness In "Byline" which ran in November and December 1951, and again on ABC in syndication in the fall of 1957. The series was produced by the DuMont Television Network and ran on DuMont under the title News Gal
.

In 1953, she appeared in her own

Democratic Party
.

Furness has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for her contribution to motion pictures at 1533 Vine Street and for her contribution to television at 6675 Hollywood Blvd.[6][7]

Consumer advocacy

In 1967,

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports.[1] She was appointed by then-Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller in August 1970 to serve as the first chairman and executive director of the New York State Consumer Protection Board, and served in the position until July 1971 before returning to television. In 1971, Furness was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.[9][10] In 1973 she also headed the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs.[1]

Signed by

Personal life

Furness married four times. Her first marriage was to composer-conductor

CBS Television series Yes, Dear and Man with a Plan is her granddaughter.[citation needed
]

In 1990, Furness was treated for

age discrimination
. She expressed her desire to continue working, but a recurrence of stomach cancer prevented her from doing so.

Furness expressed her philosophy of never declining a job, and she believed it was the reason that she progressed through such an unconventional series of professions. During her illness, she stated that she wanted nothing more than to be able to work, and mentioned in an interview that, as far as her cancer went, "the treatment is worse than the disease."[citation needed] Her health continued to deteriorate until her death from stomach cancer on April 2, 1994, at age 78 in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.[7]

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  2. ^ Oliver, Myrna (4 April 1994). "Betty Furness; Ad Star, Consumer Advocate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  3. ^ TV's Censored Bloopers, NBC, 1981
  4. ^ Mad magazine, January 1960, p. 45
  5. . Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  6. ^ "Betty Furness". October 25, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Betty Furness - L.A. Times Hollywood Star Walk
  8. ^ "Betty Furness Is Sworn In As Top Consumer Advocate". The Lewiston Daily Sun. May 1, 1967. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  9. ^ William E. Farrell (11 August 1970). "Betty Furness Heads State's Consumer Board". The New York Times. p. 29. Archived from the original on 6 January 2015. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
  10. ^ Staff writers (9 July 1972). "State Will Name Consumer Chief". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
  11. ^ "Buyline: Betty Furness". www.peabodyawards.com. Retrieved 20 July 2016.

External links