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"All Over Town" Polly Holliday Hand Signed Playbill Todd Mueller COA

$ 25.86

Availability: 73 in stock
  • Industry: Theater
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
  • Object Type: Playbill
  • Original/Reproduction: Original

    Description

    Up for auction
    "All Over Town" Polly Holliday Hand Signed Playbill.
    This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller Auctions and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.
    ES-4281
    Polly Dean Holliday
    (born July 2, 1937) is an American actress who has appeared on stage, television and in film. She is best known for her portrayal of sassy waitress
    Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry
    on the 1970s sitcom
    Alice
    , which she reprised in its short-lived spin-off,
    Flo
    . Her character's catchphrase of "Kiss my grits!" remains perhaps the most memorable line associated with the series
    Alice
    . Holliday was born in
    Jasper, Alabama
    , the daughter of Ernest Sullivan Holliday, a truck driver, and Velma Mabell Holliday (née Cain).
    She grew up in
    Childersburg
    and
    Sylacauga
    , where her brother Doyle's boyhood friend
    Jim Nabors
    lived. Before acting, Holliday worked as a piano teacher in her native Alabama, and then in Florida. She began her acting career as a member of the
    Asolo Theatre Company
    in Sarasota, Florida, where she stayed for 10 years. Holliday is an Episcopalian who sang in the St. Andrews Episcopal Choir in Mobile, Alabama
    [2]
    and in January 2010 she appeared as herself in an official advertisement campaign for the Episcopal Church.
    [3]
    In New York City, she sang in the Grace Church (Episcopalian) Choral Society in Greenwich Village and ran a chamber music series there called the Willow Ensemble (1995-2008). She is also a registered
    Democrat
    .
    In 1973, Holliday moved to New York City and appeared in
    Alice Childress
    's play
    Wedding Band
    at the
    Public Theater
    . More than a year later, she was cast in the Broadway hit
    All Over Town
    . While working on
    All Over Town
    , she befriended the play's director,
    Dustin Hoffman
    , who later worked with her on the 1976 movie
    All the President's Men
    . In 1976 Holliday was cast — in what would be her major break — as sassy, man-hungry waitress
    Flo Castleberry
    on the American sitcom
    Alice
    . Her character coined the popular
    catchphrase
    "Kiss my grits!" The phrase became part of the American vocabulary. Holliday starred in
    Alice
    from 1976 to 1980, and then moved to her own short-lived spin-off show, titled
    Flo
    , in which Flo left her residence in Arizona and moved back home. The show was successful during its abbreviated first season, but ratings declined during the following season due to a time change, and it was canceled in 1981.
    In 1983, Holliday joined the cast of the CBS-TV sitcom
    Private Benjamin
    as a temporary replacement for series regular
    Eileen Brennan
    , who was recovering from serious injuries after being struck by a car.
    Holliday also made appearances on television shows such as
    The Golden Girls
    , where she played
    Rose Nylund
    's blind sister Lily, in a
    recurring role
    as
    Jill Taylor
    's mother on
    Home Improvement
    , and a regular character on
    The Client
    . Holliday's notable roles in films include
    All the President's Men
    ,
    Moon Over Parador
    ,
    Mrs. Doubtfire
    , the 1998 remake of
    The Parent Trap
    and her role as Mrs. Ruby Deagle in the 1984 hit
    Gremlins
    , for which she won the
    Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
    . On the Broadway stage, she has appeared in revivals of
    Arsenic and Old Lace
    (1986) as Martha Brewster, one of the dotty, homicidal, sweet old aunties;
    Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
    (1990), for which she was nominated for a Tony for her portrayal of Big Mama; and
    Picnic
    (1994). She also appeared in the 1998 remake of
    The Parent Trap
    as the director of Camp Walden. In 2000, she appeared at
    Lincoln Center
    in a revival of
    Arthur Laurents
    's
    The Time of the Cuckoo
    . In 2000, she was inducted into the
    Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame
    .