- Great Grandma Prudence had another name, which I never knew. - No.
- Yes, yes! [upbeat music]
[birds chirping] - Four years ago, when
my mom was diagnosed with a lung disease due
to pesticide exposure, her doctor said she had to walk more. And I encouraged her to
use the time on those walks to tell me the stories I'd never heard, and for us to share deep
truths with each other. So I wanted to bring Mom
back to where it all began, to New York City, to see if we could write a new chapter together and maybe make a new memory. So honored to be here with you, Mom. - This is a thrill and a
half, a kick in the head. - I have so many memories
of growing up around you and Dad's friends, and all your
stories came from this room. - You can feel the souls of the greats. Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean,
Marilyn Monroe came here. Everybody came to it.
- You, Dad. - Me and Bruce, you are a
baby at The Actors Studio. When you were born, you were
the first child of two people, Bruce Dern and Diane
Ladd, who were members. - Take me back then to your first professional
play in New York. - I came here from
Mississippi, 17 years old. My first professional play was Tennessee Williams'
"Orpheus Descending." He tried to make it a hit for 20 years, and I told him, "Let us do it. "And if it's not a hit, "I'll eat your script with ketchup on it." And it ran for over a
year, it was a huge hit. That's how I met your father. He played Orpheus and Lee gave me away at my wedding, Lee Strasberg. He was wise as they come. - What do you think you have
in you that made it possible for you to leave the South
and the comfort of home and family to come to this massive, magical space of New York City? - Two things, I have faith, and number two is they gave me genes. There's some blood flowing
through these veins that came from some
ancestors that had courage. - Speaking of your blood, I'm
going back through Ancestry® to see what else we can find out, okay? - What?
- Okay, so it says here, Aunt Prudie.
- Oh my, my Aunt Prudie, my great grandma. - From Pearl River County. - Oh, she's something. - This map shows the origins
of her family who settled throughout Pearl River County. - She's called the mother
of South Mississippi. This woman at 15 went to
New Orleans, to the library, let's say she borrowed
all the medical books 'cause they had no doctor. And in her lifetime she
delivered 3,000 babies. One time she fell off in snow. They say she broke her leg, they say the birth was breached. She got back on that horse somehow, went and delivered the baby,
and then had her leg set. - Oh!
- Now if that's a true story, that's one heck of a pioneer. When I was five years
old, she pulled me aside and she hugged me and she
says, "You gonna be a teacher." So I think of myself as an actor, a teacher to reflect humanity. Saint and sinner, good
and bad, everything. - So when you wanted to become an actress. - I thought of Prudence.
- And made your way here. Yeah, I wondered.
- Aunt Prudie she was called. - Did you always remember that? - Oh, always, always, never forgot it. What else does this say? - Let's see what else we can find. A 1920 census. It shows her occupation here as a midwife. - She brought all those babies into life. - And self-taught doctor.
- That's right. - I mean, that's incredible.
- That's right. - This.
- What? - Is incredible.
- What? - Look.
- What? She's holding a gun [laughs] and she might've been going
hunting for breakfast. - I want to have a portrait of
you that looks just like that in front of The Actors Studio. - [laughs] Well, she's got
determination, hasn't she? 15 years old she started
helping people that was sick. - Well, you were saying that because we're here discovering
your roots as a young person, finding your way, that you said, "Hey, I wanna take you somewhere "where you first were as a kid." What were you thinking?
- It's a secret. - [laughs] I can't wait. - Okay, I love you so much.
- I love you too. [upbeat music] - We're heading through
another favorite place in the world, Broadway. You come here when you are
young, walking down the street and you dream of your name in lights. And I actually had it happen. [upbeat music]
- Carnegie Hall's right around the corner, what
was your story there, you? - I took a dance class. The choreographer let me teach his class. He had me take over his class. Lord, I could do the
"Shuffle Off to Buffalo." Woo, I could tap. I told you when we left the studio, I wanted to take you
some place with memories. - Yeah.
- So one place is Central Park.
- Oh, I'm so excited. - Just for a quick visit
because of all the memories that we had together here. Look at the leaves changing here. There's nothing like the
holiday time in New York. - I think about coming
here on my big wheel, going to the playground with you. - Roar, you drove.
- Whenever I'm here in this park, I think about
all the people that came here for the first time and they
came here for a new beginning. - And they got it. - So I have our information. I'm just curious, who
else, if anyone else, also came here for a new
beginning, should we find out? - Yeah, please. - Immigration record.
- What? - Oh my gosh, okay,
I'm gonna start crying. Your great-grandmother Magdalena Honard, began her voyage to the United States on New Year's, 1860.
- Oh my God. - From Mainz, Germany alone.
- Oh! - How brave to come here
by herself, by ship. - And I thought I was brave
to go across the country. She went across the water. - Magdalena is named after her own grandmother,
Magdalena Cleimann. There's a naming pattern. Grandma Rosa was named after her grandmother Rosina Cloete. Diane is named after her grandma, Rosa. Can you believe that? I mean, what's amazing is that you're saying
how brave Magdalena was. - Yeah.
- That's exactly what you did. - Maybe she inspired me. Maybe she was with me,
maybe she helped me. I got one more place I
need to take you today before it's too late. - I don't know if my heart can take it. - I don't know if I can take it, but I'm gonna take you one
more, a little special. This one you'll kind of really
enjoy and have a little fun. [upbeat music] The reason I brought you here today, when your father and I got married, this is where we came to
have our wedding breakfast. This restaurant.
- At Tavern on the Green. - That's right, to celebrate. And I just wanted to
share this with you today. - Oh Mom, I can't believe
we've never done this. - But Chef wanted to surprise you with the banana pudding.
- Oh, oh, oh, oh my God. - A recipe from our book? - Recipe from "Honey, Baby,
Mine" Book, oh honey, oh. - Oh, that's so beautiful, thank you. - You are so welcome.
- Like I'm gonna cry and my mom's so excited and it really does look like
my grandma's banana pudding. That's so kind of you.
- Bless you. - Thank you, mm. This banana pudding tastes
just like Grandma Mary's. - It makes me think of Mississippi. It also makes me think of the
song that Daddy sang to me. ♪ You get a line and I'll get a pole ♪ ♪ We'll go down to the
crawdad hole, honey ♪ - Thank you.
♪ Baby, mine ♪ - Thank you, Tavern on the Green, she'll be here here every
Wednesday night [laughs]. - Honey, I'll be appearing. And let's see, Woody Guthrie. He recorded that song,
"Honey, Baby, Mine." We got our title for our
book from "The Crawdad Song" that daddy sang to me. And that was recorded
here in New York in 1944. - Papa, my grandpa, your dad, Preston, used to sing it to you.
- He loved to sing. - And then you sang it to me. But who do you think sang it to him? Like who started that tradition? Was it Aunt Prudie or I don't? - As a matter of fact, it was Aunt Prudie. And I got something else to show you. I got something here that I
did not know, I did not know, and Ancestry® helped me discover. Well, great Grandma
Prudence had another name, which I never knew,
and I want to show you. [bright music] - No.
- Yes, yes! And I didn't know why I named you Laura. Can you believe that one?
- I can't believe it. And she, of all your
relatives, was your muse. - But Laura was her real name. - Mom, we just discovered
the naming tradition. - Rose, Rose, Rose.
- That's incredible. - Now, Laura, Laura.
- That's incredible. - That's a miracle in
our life to learn this. - I mean also to have a namesake because I was always like,
why did you name me this? - I got namesakes.
- I know. - Didn't know you had a namesake. - Thank you so much, Mom, for
taking me on this journey. That's so beautiful.
- Yeah, yeah. - And stories that I now get to share with your grandchildren.
- Yes. - I hope our journey, our
book, our time together, all our discoveries encourages others to do the same together. - So they can be richer in their lifetime. - Yeah, tell each other the truth. - While they have the
chance on planet Earth. [bright music]
