Rally Round the Flag, Girls

 A while ago I had decided to write a piece about women. Not necessarily all women, but a few of the women in my life. I wanted to send a shout out to the editor of my soon-to-be released book, to the two fictional characters and the two women who played them that made up so large a part of my entire persona; to the changes in sexist attitudes I have witnessed and those (me, being ever the optimist) not yet seen.

I thought about including the factoid of the surge in the number of women at colleges as opposed to the reality of my days as an undergrad. I wanted to quote a song by the Four Aces from the 1950s about it being a “Woman’s World” --- lyrics which, not surprisingly, clearly state it was anything but that kind of universe. (Would you believe that in my freshman class at the University of Southern California the ratio of men to women was eight to one? And that this year’s class at USC … indeed at almost every university in the country … has more women than men?)

I wanted to write about that. I wanted to acknowledge the accomplishments of women, the struggles. How, for example, a dear friend, a most successful lung specialist, who … back in the sixties as a top student in the medical school of the University of Washington in St. Louis … wanted to be a surgeon. She was more than qualified, but the medical establishment of that time did not look favorably on giving “girls” that kind of power position.

Today, my very excellent primary care physician is female as are many, if not most, of the doctors I encounter in any given year. I do not view them as “women doctors” but rather as gifted physicians who happen to be women … just as we always said about Cagney & Lacey … “two women who happen to be cops.”

In the piece I was going to write, I would mention that most of the people I have “met” and interacted with at McFarland, my publishing house, seem to be primarily female. Good for them (and, coincidentally, for me).

In that article I imagined there would be (surprise, surprise) references to my memoir … Before and After Cagney & Lacey … in so many ways a tribute to my three (count em … three) wives, my mother, my daughters, the actors who starred in the most successful works of my career: Sharon Gless, Tyne Daly, Jane Seymour, and Kellie Martin. Even a shoutout about my brief tenure on Charlie’s Angels.

The last touches on this second memoir have finally been accomplished … requiring me to read the book … yet again … checking for every error of typography, spelling, punctuation, or fact. Extensive, tedious, creative, technical work.

I refer to “my” work on this final author’s process. The fact is that it would never have gotten done nearly as well … and certainly not in such a timely fashion … were it not for the dedication of two women --- my friend, lawyer, and (now) editor, Debra Weiss Goodstone and her technologically adroit daughter, Marissa Goodstone.

There was, oh so much more to be contemplated and written about, when life … as it so often does … got in the way. Dolly Parton died. I did not know Ms. Parton personally, but our paths crossed more than once. The TV version of her song and motion picture hit, 9 to 5 was a surprise success on the ABC network in the early 80s that all but obliterated the debut of Cagney & Lacey. Dolly dealt us a devastating blow but one could only admire the talent and the power of that show biz wiz.

I had barely processed that fact … the flags flying at half-mast all over the country, the tributes on every TV outlet … when the newsflash of the death … at age 92 … of Gloria Steinem came to the fore.

I nearly wrote, “my friend, Gloria Steinem” but that would have been less than accurate.

“Barney only calls me when he needs something,” Ms. Steinem was known to have said.

That was truer than I would have liked it to be. I felt close to her … grateful. Not as a friend, or even a colleague, but rather as a comrade in arms.

I took up her cause with my work … specifically with Cagney & Lacey but continuing with Christy, and The Trials of Rosie O’Neill. In turn, Gloria took up my cause … when I needed her most … in the earliest days … as she featured Cagney & Lacey on the cover of Ms. with the headline: The Show That Asks The Question: Can Women Be Buddies Under Pressure. It was the first time anything from show business had graced those prestigious pages.

Gloria paraded me all over Washington, D.C., attempting I suppose, to prove that men also can be buddies under pressure. Ms. Steinem was quoted on the cover of TV Guide saying she believed Cagney & Lacey was “… the best show on television.”

“Barney only calls me when he needs something.” What can I say? Back in the day, I needed all the help I could get. I do like to think that back in the 1980s I did my share for the women’s movement but there is no question that thanks to Gloria Steinem I got ample payback. She changed my life and the lives of many others as well … she changed all of us really, whether we acknowledge it or not.

It was (naturally, of course) a woman … Barbara Corday, then a young writer I was dating back in the 1970s (who I later married, and then even later divorced), who raised my consciousness enough so that I was able to visualize Cagney & Lacey in the first place. She used to say, “Barney’s not a feminist but he gets it.”

I got it all right. It was because of her that I got my head sufficiently above water to even know who Gloria Steinem was, and what it was Ms. Steinem was trying to accomplish. Ms. Corday also once paraphrased my pal, Oscar winner Lee Grant, by saying “I’ve been married to a feminist and a chauvinist. Neither took out the garbage.”

Win some/lose some.

Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly walked at the front of the march with Gloria Steinem when she led the million women march in Washington. It was a thrill to be there with them, the fabulous Carole King, and the multitude who all supported the cause.

I am pretty much on the sidelines now … but I think of Gloria every time I vote. That is not a reference to Hillary or Kamala, although both certainly got my enthusiastic support. What I refer to are those multiple ballots I get by email every so often from the various corporations in which I hold shares, asking me to vote YEA, NAY, or ABSTAIN for a collection of potential members of corporate boards.

I think of Gloria Steinem as I open those ballots and abstain from voting for any of the male would be board members, only giving an affirmative nod to those candidates whose forenames indicate they are female. The logic of this is that these women are not part of some “old boys” network and that they must be rather extraordinary to reach the point of consideration for a Board position as a female.

Gloria was right about me only calling when I wanted something, but it was always something I knew her to believe in as well.

So, while this 88-year-old guy’s marching days through city streets may be in the past, I do recall Gloria Steinem’s admonition to never have the ear (or in this case eye) of a group of people without telling them what you want them to do. Here it comes.

March on!

 

Barney Rosenzweig