Barbara Eden Documentary

she's so versatile it's kind of like she can do it all that show could have never ever gone on if it wasn't for barbara she was so energetic and fun and she seemed to just be like embracing life oh master i am so excited i'm so excited there are people in the business who have a high likability quotient she's one of those people generation after generation has grown up watching i dream of genie if i'm going to be defined by a role that's a nice one it's a very good one i think she emerged from a 2000 year old bottle and a puff of smoke she enchanted a straight-laced astronaut with a blink of an eye and a knot of her head yes master yeah she had a sort of a magic about it so that that kind of gets in your head a little bit to play clean wholesome sexy it's a tough one and that's there with her i love that show i love genie although known to millions as genie barbara eden's film stage and television career has spanned more than four decades barbara is an actress a consummate actress she's got it off but behind the effervescent smile is a strong-willed woman who has overcome professional obstacles and personal heartbreak in 2001 barbara lost her only child matthew to an accidental drug overdose and apparently he had taken a hit of heroin and he hadn't had it in um oh quite a while i guess a couple of years it killed him it stopped his heart barbara was never the same after her son's death but somehow she found the courage to go on with her life born on august 23 1934 in tucson arizona the baby girl who would one day be known to the world as genie grew up in san francisco california as barbra jean hoffman like so many americans the huffman struggled to make ends meet during the grueling years of the great depression but they were determined to provide a stable and nurturing environment for their only child harrison huffman was a loving father who worked long hours as a telephone line man to make ends meet and although barbara's mother alice was a strict disciplinarian she possessed a lively sense of humor and upbeat attitude my mom and dad were very much affected by the depression and of course poor daddy he didn't make a dime he never he worked so hard for very little so we had a few rough times but we always had fun sheltered by her protective parents barbara enjoyed a carefree childhood often playing in golden gate park with her mother and fishing with her father the huffman household was also filled with music and laughter and singing was a ritual of daily life we always had records mostly classical and when we do the dishes my mom would would harmonize with me and we would sing but by the age of seven the sensitive girl's self-esteem plummeted her classmates teased her unmercifully when she was forced to wear an eye patch and thick glasses to correct a lazy eye to coax barbara out of her shell alice encouraged the child to focus on her singing barbara's confidence was slowly restored when she became a member of the church choir and her angelic voice won her a throng of admirers and alice said barbara you have such a beautiful pure voice that you should take lessons alice was barbara's biggest supporter and that's how barbara started with her mother's encouragement alice wanted barbara to study at the prestigious san francisco conservatory but by now the huffmans had a second daughter to support and tuition was out of the question when a family friend donated 100 for enrollment the grateful team dedicated herself to her lessons with unbridled enthusiasm and discipline and my mother uh heard me singing one day and said barbara you know you're singing every single note exactly where it ought to be and you don't mean a thing you're singing i think you should study some acting taking her mother's advice to heart barbara joined an acting class and to her surprise found a fulfillment in acting she had never experienced in singing in order to pay for her lessons the ambitious 15 year old high school student opted for what was known as the 4-4 plan attending school four hours a day and working another four at a local bank she really wasn't interested i don't think in the normal kid things i think that she was mostly interested in just getting her drama lessons and working after high school graduation seventeen-year-old barbara enrolled at san francisco city college where she soon became a much sought-after campus co-ed when she was in high school she was playing and all of a sudden she developed and all of a sudden people were looking at her differently than they did before encouraged by the newfound attention in 1951 barbara worked up the courage to enter the miss san francisco beauty pageant competition was stiff but with her poise and wholesome good looks she walked away with the crown and a bolstered sense of self-confidence but barbara was more interested in being an actress than a beauty queen a desire her drama coach fully supported she said you either go down to hollywood or you go to new york but if you are really serious about this business you better get started doing it terrified by the prospect of leaving her tight-knit family barbara decided to give hollywood a try and moved in with her mother's sister in san marino 16 miles from los angeles the resourceful young woman immediately followed up on a family connection to a casting director at warner brothers but she was unprepared for the studio executive's blunt assessment he told me that i was a very nice girl and very pretty little thing he said but you're not hollywood pretty he said you just aren't going to make it in this town though initially crushed by the rejection barbara left the lot determined to prove him wrong if something comes along that frustrates barbara barbara takes a look at it she then says to herself okay this is a challenge let me see what i can do about this convinced she needed to be closer to the action barbara took a room at the hollywood studio club it was a safe haven for young actresses who pulled information on classes and auditions she landed an agent whose first order of business was to find a more marketable name than barbara huffman after choosing the last name eden from a long list of marquee friendly names the agent strongly advised his client to capitalize on her curvaceous figure by auditioning in sexy dresses reluctantly agreeing to the strategy barbara soon secured guest spots on television shows such as highway patrol and johnny carson's variety series but employment was intermittent and the 22 year old took the opportunity to hone her skills on the stage the voice of the turtle was being done at the laguna playhouse and i agreed to do it because i would never say no and mark robson who was directing at fox at that time saw me and he had me come up to fox for him to read for a film he was doing the film was paid in place and though barbara didn't win the role of betty 20th century fox was duly impressed and signed her to a seven year contract the aspiring actress who had been unceremoniously dismissed as not pretty enough by warner brothers was now a hot new property on the fox slot wasting no time the studio transformed the lovely engineer into a screen siren in the style of marilyn monroe barbara's first assignment was a walk-on as a seductive secretary in the 1957 film spoil rock hunter starring tony randall and jane mansfield this is miss carstairs she's new here good morning mr hunter good morning ms costeros if you want anything just call the actress was loaned out to other studios for television appearances and episodes of perry mason and bachelor father patricia how pretty you look hello bentley forgive the casual look it took me two hours to achieve it the following year foxcast barbara and the tv series adaptation of their hit film how to marry a millionaire about three bachelorettes looking for a rich husband i'm abner j doncourt hello oh and this is my secretary steve chandler barber played the near-sighted gold digger loco a role originated by hollywood's hottest sex symbol marilyn monroe no one could ever be marilyn monroe visually or personality wise so i approached it differently being a person who's worn glasses since i was in the first grade i knew what it was to go around without them and i decided that that would be my focal point with her character how i love these fortune cookies uh that's fried shrimp oh by 1957 barbara had established herself as a working actress and whenever she returned to san francisco the local press treated her like a star how to marry a millionaire ended after two seasons but barbara eden's career on the small screen was far from over after the success of how to marry a millionaire 25 year old barbara eden began filming the musical comedy a private's affair starring sal mineo terry moore and gary crosby hey what's the idea turning it off well we're not going to hide in here like two lonely defeated people are we wanting his life to be lived outside hey you got something there buster uh how come a cute little chick like you joined the army i didn't look good in a sack dress well this would be the first time i ever danced with a sergeant barbara's hectic schedule left little time for a social life but a studio executive was determined to play matchmaker his choice actor michael ansera known to television fans as cochise in the hit series broken arrow are you a child that you thought peace would come easy go track them and capture them we'll turn them over to the military the head of publicity there told mike there's a very nice girl in this next set and you should meet her and mike mike's words were i've got lots of girls i don't need to beat another one and i said you know i'm just working so hard i don't i don't think i want to meet anyone at this point but when the two did meet it was love at first sight and six weeks later on january 17 1958 barbara eden and michael and sarah were married michael was very solid extremely intelligent older dependable not not a lot of malarkey you know he when he said something it was honest and true and i could tell that not only was barbara's personal life flourishing so was her film career the following year the actress landed her first lead role in flaming star opposite rock and roll sensation elvis presley barbara eden whose pale pace beauty fired the conflict in pacer's soul but you don't have to worry about it i suppose you'll always be safe from them now eager to display her range barbara accepted a supporting role in the sophisticated drama from the terrace starring joanne woodward and paul newman are you looking for me i am with your name's lex porter well my name is clemmy shree but i'll be glad to change it if you'll stop looking further well just how far am i allowed to look but despite the high caliber cast the film was only a modest success and over the next few years fox kept barbara busy in a variety of films in 1961 she appeared as a lieutenant on board a nuclear submarine and erwin allen's voyage to the bottom of the sea with walter pigeon and joan fontaine you are there when barbara eden dances to frankie avalon's hot rhythms you are there when the giant of the sea attacks you are there in the most startling underwater pursuit ever built the following year barbara portrayed a school marm swept up in an aerial adventure opposite red buttons and peter laurie in another erwin allen picture five weeks in a balloon but in 1962 20th century fox was facing financial ruin as the troubled production of their mega budgeted film cleopatra spun out of control fox reacted by selling off acres of prime real estate and releasing many of their contract players barbara eden was forced to leave the studio that had been her home for the last seven years and her source of steady employment now freelancing she took what she could get returning to the small screen and guest starring roles on tv series such as the andy griffith show and rawhide starring clint eastwood in late 1964 columbia studios sent barbara a tv pilot script written by sydney sheldon about a sexy genie and a handsome nasa astronaut sydney sheldon did call me and his first words were i understand you're my genie it was the easiest job i've ever gotten but the good news was nearly scuttled by even more significant tidings when barbara learned that she was pregnant she was so thrilled she and mike both about having this little baby that even jeannie would have taken a backseat to this baby i knew i had to tell sydney quickly and i said i really have to talk to you right now and sydney facetiously sat down and said you're pregnant and i said yes he said no however sydney sheldon was set on his genie and convinced the nbc brass to let barbara begin filming as long as her condition didn't show and on august 29 1965 barbara gave birth to a son matthew matthew was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me in my life i was awake when he was born and and then the doctor held him up and it was just like a shot of electricity you know just two weeks later i dream of genie premiered on nbc featuring bill daley as captain roger healey hayden lorc as dr bellows and co-starring larry hagman as captain tony nelson an astronaut who after crash landing on a deserted island finds a very mysterious bottle genie i wish you could speak english you're sure hey somehow i must find a way to please thee master you spoke english that's all i had to do was say i wish let me ask anything as i slave master in 1965 the premise of a beautiful genie who moves in lock stock and bottle with her mortal master was considered highly risque i tell you what after i get a little rest i'll pick you up look look who's here tony i've always prided myself on being tolerant but would you explain to me what is that girl doing here but barbara's unique brand of mischievous innocent sensuality made their cohabitation acceptable to television audiences the quality to live in the house with him in the bottle and live together and still pull it off that it's nothing naughty going on is a great technique it's a great charm a living genie who obeys her masters every command seemed to be a male fantasy come true but the battle of the sexes repartee between the lead characters made the show equally popular with women and it's that odd master genie relationship where she seems subservient to him but yet she has all the powers so it's an interesting yin yang between the male female in this particular relationship you've got to get out of here right now and i mean oh i'm happy here with me genie i i hate to do this but i wish you to vanish where where'd i go wrong val has set me free that means that i'm free to please thee and i'm going to please thee very much at 31 years of age barbara appeared to have it all a loving husband a beautiful baby and a hit television series but while jeannie could simply blink away her troubles barbara eden would have to face hers head on by 1967 graphic images of the bloody conflict in vietnam dominated the airwaves for many americans fantasy-based series like batman bewitched and i dream of genie provided a welcome escape in its second season i dream of genie was filmed in color and seen each week by more than 20 million viewers across the country although the chemistry between the ensemble cast was undeniable barbara remained the key to the show's success that show could have never ever gone on if it wasn't for barbara with anyone else it couldn't happen no one knows how brilliant that note is that she does it was innocent it was charming it was lovely oh master you were imagining things oh please maybe we go with major healing yes all right oh you're gonna make a beautiful girl very happy but not until saturday night saturday night you won't forget this i won't forget this oh master i am so excited i'm so excited just think we are going to a nightclub together a nightclub oh my goodness i must go immediately to paris and select my gown she is a terrific comedian she was so energetic and fun and she seems to just be like embracing life basically for her to be carefree and for him to be kind of uptight i think that's where you get the comedy and the chemistry did you not enjoy yourself how can you ask me that well it is very simple did you not have fun you better come up with a very good explanation young lady explanation yeah for what what have i done all right you're gonna play that game with me go on get in your bottle oh master you have no reason to be angry with me i was angry with you but i've decided to forgive you in 1967 barbara was nominated for a golden globe as best female star she became even more popular when a line of genie merchandise flooded the market by now both barbara and michael were working steadily but they managed to make life at home their main priority barbara and mike were family oriented it was very important they enjoyed their home and they enjoyed their pool and and their baby very important although she was now recognized everywhere she went barbara struggled to maintain a sense of normalcy for her son he didn't like to share his mommy and he shouldn't have to with other kids you know and we'd go to for instance disneyland and i'd wear a red wig so that people wouldn't recognize me so i could take him on you know the rides and things and just be concentrated on him the only problem with that is when i'd opened my mouth they'd know who i was i didn't like it very much there'd be people mobbing her and that was difficult at times you know i you know i think i was jealous of the public in an attempt to keep the show fresh producers started casting major stars such as sammy davis jr and guest spots even barbara's husband michael and sarah got into the act when he played the evil blue gin the producers also spiced up the series by allowing barbara to play genie's alter ego her conniving and sexy twin sister i don't know what your master is like but mine's a drag oh not my major nelson he is a wonderful man so this was genie's dark side to have the sister come in from time to time and mix things up it gave you a chance to see barbara eaton do something a little bit different than just be sweet little blinky genie oh last time so happy to finally see you what's gotten into you anyway oh nothing don't i always kiss you when you come home at night yeah well not that way what a waste but despite their efforts to keep the show contemporary i dream of jeannie grew increasingly dated actresses like jane fonda and raquel welch were shocking audiences with overt sexuality and revealing costumes while barbara's modestly constructed harem outfit exposed little more than a portion of her bare midriff and in 1969 what appeared to be an innocent invitation for barber to appear on rowan and martin's laughing turned into a full-blown controversy the show's producers had decided it was time to unveil barbara's never-before-seen naval to the american public and nbc suddenly who had never even thought about it before went nope no her naval will never be seen you know but i understand they had a meeting with all the suits and all they talked about was my belly button nbc won the war and barbara's navel remained coyly concealed and by the fifth season the premise of jeannie and captain nelson's unconsummated love affair had played itself out the sexual tension that had fueled the long-running series ended when genie finally married her master much to barbara's dismay i dream of genie was canceled in 1970. i was very depressed when the show was cancelled very depressed it's uh it's a big change and shock to your system these are the people you spend most of your life with and it's very depressing and you never see them again exactly that way by 1971 barber was working steadily in a string of highly rated tv movies including the feminist and the fuzz a comedy co-starring david hartman and the stranger within a dark melodrama she's one of those sitcom actresses that made the leap became a marketable tv movie personality at a time when the tv movies were very hot just having barbara eden in a tv movie usually meant you could get a lot of eyeballs to the tv set barbara was eager to expand her growing repertoire and began preparing a nightclub act that would showcase the singing talent which had been all but ignored by hollywood in the midst of all this activity barbara was overjoyed to learn that she was pregnant once again but in her seventh month tragedy struck when doctors delivered the heart-wrenching news that the unborn baby had died barbara's obstetrician advised her to carry the child for an additional two months before labor could be induced i think there's a period of time that they cannot take the child from you because it endangers a mother's life i don't know how she carried that child for two months knowing that it was dead and people coming up to her and saying oh i'm so happy for you and barbara's knowing that the child is dead i just don't know how she did it the anguish that both barbara and michael suffered during the previous months caused tension in their 13-year marriage and the relationship started to unravel as barbara spiraled into a deep depression she struggled to put the tragedy behind her but more heartache lay just around the corner in 1972 38 year old barbara eden slowly emerged from the depression that had plagued her since the death of her child and focused on her upcoming nightclub engagement how she got through i don't know but i think in some ways it was a blessing that we had dates we had rehearsals and she had to show up capitalizing on her little-known talent as a songstress barbara impressed audiences with her one-woman show in las vegas the star performed everything from energetic pop tunes to bluesy ballads a love to last past saturday night she's so versatile it's kind of like she can do it all and i think people lose sight of the fact that she has so many gifts although she had managed to hold her career together barbara's relationship with her husband had reached an impasse in 1973 after 15 years of marriage she and michael divorced i think that she was very upset about the divorce and heartbroken and mostly concerned about her son she had always wanted just a happy marriage and a home life refusing to dwell on the past barbara took her nightclub act on the road while in chicago she was courted by newspaper executive chuck fegert if michael and sarah was kind of the stoic kind of solid introvert chuck fager was the exact opposite he was a guy that wanted to have a good time and do things and go places barbara fell in love with the gregarious [ __ ] and for the next four years divided her time between the windy city and los angeles but in 1976 her adolescent son announced that he wanted to live with his father barbara was devastated by matthew's departure horrible that was horrible but you know it was the best thing for matt at that time i guess we all thought barbara married chuck on september 11 1977 and although she now resided primarily in chicago the actress had no intention of slowing down she made her first foray into the world of independent film and a movie based on the popular tune harper valley pta nobody expected it to be as successful as it was and we took the picture out and opened it in different areas and it just caught on and it became the sleep ahead of that year when nbc created a series based on harper valley pta they asked barbara to reprise her role as stella johnson a brassy small town single mother who shocks the locals with her free-spirited attitudes you know it's the truth and i know it's the truth but the pta board has their own kind of truth what are you gonna do about it i don't know i don't know they take me off the committee but they can't keep me from working the carnival bingo survivor i thought we kicked her off the committee we did but we can't stop her from working in the booth five dollars please harper valley was a rating success but when the executive producer sherwood shorts left at the end of the first season the show began to flounder and in its second season the series went through a succession of producers and writers it was very difficult for barbara because she still had to finish her commitment and get up and knowing that the show was going down the tube and i think that nbc really respected the fact that barbara didn't put any blame on anybody and criticized anybody barbara in general deals with life's uh challenges in a very interesting way barbara's a very positive person and why that i don't mean to say that she she doesn't look at what's negative but she deals with the negative and she brings it up to a positive level but despite barbara's best efforts harper valley pta was cancelled and by now the differences in barbara and chuck's lifestyles could no longer be ignored you know everybody gets confused in life and thinks they want different things and and they make certain decisions and sometimes they make bad decisions and i think my mom made a bad decision in 1982 the couple filed for divorce and barbara moved back to beverly hills there she seized the opportunity to spend more time with her 18 year old son matthew who was now attending junior college but barbara was about to make a startling discovery he wasn't going to school and he had lied to me and he never lied never i knew something was horribly horribly wrong i was just dropping my classes and i was just doing drugs constantly i mean it was morning till night i had never left the room i think i turned to drug use because it just numbed me out and i didn't have to feel i know it killed my mom although she was shattered and terrified by the revelation barbara took action and immediately sought expert advice i'd gone to al-anon meetings and i had a little counseling myself to find out how to cope with this i learned you can't get them well they have to do it themselves but at least you can offer the opportunity and all you can do is keep offering it but it was hard it was hard for him it's hard for me hard for his father as she had so often before the 51 year old actress sought solace in her work in 1985 she returned to the role that had made her famous and starred in i dream of genie 15 years later but when larry hagman was unavailable to reprise his role wayne rogers stepped in as major anthony nelson i think she enjoyed coming back to it she's nobody's fool and she knows exactly what she's about so she did it because she was having fun barbara's always been proud of the fact that she had a series that brought a lot of happiness and joy to people over the years and so rather than reject it she's embraced it barbara slipped back into her harem costume this time with her navel in full view and bill daley returned to his role as roger healey i was doing a scene and barbara came out and she had god that's the most unbelievable thing i've ever seen she had the unit the same outfit and she looked the same and i really couldn't go on i just kind of took my breath and went wow the tv movie earned high ratings proving that ageless beauty's immense appeal and although barbara eden had endured a series of professional and personal heartaches in the eyes of the american public she was forever the sprightly and youthful genie following the success of her 1985 return to tv as everyone's favorite genie barbara continued to face challenges in her personal life she was still struggling with her son's drug addiction and her mother alice was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer caused by years of smoking i learned everything from my mother she was a very very wise woman i didn't always listen to her but i'd always find out she was right and then i tell her you know i i have a lot to thank my mother for barbara took on the role of caretaker until her mother's death the following year as a result she became actively involved with the wellness community a support program for cancer patients in 1989 barbara's life took an unexpected turn when she was set up on a blind date with contractor john i schultz probably the only american male over the age of 21 who didn't know who she was i did see a rerun of my dream of genie before we had a date at least knew what she looked like i saw that and i said yes i do want a date with that lady on january 5th 1991 after a two-year courtship the couple was married in barbara's hometown of san francisco he's a good guy he cares about my mom a lot i feel comfortable with them being married i know he'd do anything for barbara's love of my life i didn't realize that a relationship is strong as we have been able to develop and enjoy was possible she's the most important thing that's happened to me with john barbara could settle into the stable domestic life she loved filled with family and friends they're a very loving couple they're great together and they're best friends and that's the most important thing the couple traveled as much as possible experiencing new worlds and new cultures barbara's constantly reading barbara loves history and i think that's where her love have traveled to go and see the places that she's read about comes from throughout the decade barbara continued working on the small screen appearing in more than a dozen made for television movies and yet another genie installment and in 1993 she won critical praise for her dramatic portrayal of a therapist with psychic powers and visions of murder i've seen things that are real hell things that are actually happening it could mean gloria hager's body is in the bay i saw hager dump something in the bay it could have been a body and it could be your imagination gloria was frightened of him she said that sometimes he lost control hey we all lose control sometimes including you it doesn't make us criminals they have a child hal what's that supposed to mean it means that if i'm right at this moment that little girl is living with a killer barbara also earned rave reviews in 1995 for her role as a vixen in the play nightclub confidential a glitzy musical spoofing cabarets of the 1950s i would sit out in the audience and she'd start singing and i'd hear people say i didn't know she could sing she has a wonderful voice they just never think of barbara having a voice they think of genie since its cancellation in 1970 i dream of genie has continued to run throughout the world in syndication and in 1994 the series premiered on the youth-oriented nikket night cable station introducing genie to a whole new audience what's interesting though is a lot of shows and genie is one of them might not have been a big cultural icon at the time but by being seen every day by new generations of people the show's legend begins to build and build by repeated exposure she's been on the air for more than 30 years without an interruption generation after generation has grown up watching i dream of genie in 1998 there was yet another resurgence in barbara's popularity when the star appeared as genie in a very creative ag camp this will never do introducing the first luxury suv that doesn't ride like a truck the rx 300 like no other vehicle or value on earth well hello there you know actors are always defined by one role it seems and if i'm going to be defined by a role that's a nice one it's a very good one i think but to barbara her most important role was that of a parent and in 2001 barbara experienced a mother's worst nightmare when matthew was found dead in his car the victim of an accidental heroin overdose in an interview with good morning america only eight months after her son's death barbara was shown a clip of this a and e biography where matthew made a now chilling statement my mother never seemed to lose hope in me she always had a belief in me when i didn't have belief in myself i mean i feel like she saved my life he'd been away from it for a while the police told me that probably i'm so sorry that's okay that's okay probably he wasn't aware that there was stronger stuff out there and that's what killed him it was painful for barbara to look back at matthew and hear how grateful he was for her support during his lifelong battle with drugs he knew he hadn't beaten it he knew he was winning the best thing from matthew was a.a um and it was the last i guess seven to eight years that he's been wanting to be clean and sober the last two or three years he was and it was it was a joy he was just a different human being unfortunately matthew's sobriety didn't last and his death left barbara with a lot of unanswered questions matthew had a frame of reference with his mom his mom and dad he knew that that we didn't use drugs we didn't over drink he knew that i guess there are hundreds of things i would have changed in my life but you can't worry about what's in the past just go forward and that's exactly what barbara did after her son's death barbara threw herself back into acting from guest starring roles on sabrina the teenage witch lifetime's hit series army wives and the hallmark channels always and forever she has kept busy over the years but it was her on-stage reunion with former co-star larry hagman for the play love letters that brought her acting career full circle although she has embraced the mystical character that has made her world famous yes master i am going it is barbara eden's down-to-earth personality and optimism that have brought magic into the lives of those closest to her there are people in the business who have a high likability quotient she's one of those people i think everybody loves barbara barbara is a very special person a very giving person a very unselfish person there's little or nothing about her not to like it is your sister genie she's just my sister and she always will be people always say oh well genie is you know does she really cross her arms and blink and i say yes she does she is jady it's a hit with kids hot hot burn ranger rated peachy so wow you

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Views: 1,438,420

Rating: 4.8131495 out of 5

Keywords: Barbara Eden (Film Actor), Documentary (TV Genre)

Id: XnRxKL8mMGk

Length: 45min 44sec (2744 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 16 2013