Uncle John’s Presents Mom’s Bathtub Reader (15 page)

The Mom:
Heather Langenkamp

The Movie:
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
(1994)

The Story:
If you prefer your maternal action with a horror edge, this twist on the
Nightmare on Elm Street
series may float your boat. Actress Heather Langenkamp (who played the teenage heroine in the very first film) is living the happy life of a B-list actress and mom, when suddenly Freddy, the monstrous villain from the film series, is loosed into the real world. Seems that when the movie studio killed off the film series (presumably with 1991’s
Freddy’s Dead
), it allowed Freddy’s evil energy out into reality, where it could invade the dreams of the filmmakers. And since Freddy famously feeds on the children of those who killed him, well, that’s bad news for Langenkamp’s little boy. But it’s not as if our heroine is going to meekly offer up her kid. This leads to her and Freddy going at it in a confrontation that twists reality and Hollywood horror fantasy. Considered one of the better
Nightmare
films by horror fans, it’s doubly spooky for moms.

It sounds like an urban legend, but it’s not. A Monkees’ mother invented Liquid Paper!

B
ette Nesmith never was a whiz at typing. Not that she cared much. She was going to be an artist just like her mother, not a secretary. Unfortunately, Bette’s plans fell through in 1946, when she found herself divorced and supporting her young son, Robert Michael, otherwise known as Mike. She desperately needed a good job.

Opportunities were limited for women in the late 1940s. Bette took up typing and shorthand and became a secretary. To earn extra cash, she worked as a freelance artist. But Bette was the family’s sole provider and found it tough to make ends meet. As Mike later said bluntly, “We were dirt poor . . . just miserable.”

When Bette became executive secretary to the chairman of the board of Texas Bank and Trust, she was determined to keep her job—despite those darned electric typewriters. Back in the dark ages, before desktop computers existed, the only way to type a letter was on an actual typewriter. Electric typewriters powered keys that flew quickly with a light touch, but they also had carbon ribbons that made typos tough to erase. Bette often made typing errors, and when she erased them the paper would get smudged.

Bette wished she could cover up secretarial mistakes the way artists did. They simply painted over their errors and no one was the wiser. One evening she had a brainstorm, and using her artist’s skills, she mixed tempera paint (an opaque water-based paint) to a shade that perfectly matched her boss’s business stationery. She put her solution in a small bottle and brought it to work, along with her watercolor brush. Now when Bette made a typing mistake, she simply painted it out with her new correcting fluid, which she called “Mistake Out.”

Bette’s boss didn’t notice her corrected mistakes, but other secretaries did. They wanted some of that correction paint for themselves! Eventually Bette began selling her concoction and founded the Mistake Out Company. After work she turned her kitchen into a laboratory and used her electric mixer to whip up new batches of paints and chemicals until she had her product perfected. In the garage, her son Mike and his friends used ketchup squeeze bottles to fill little bottles of Mistake Out and supply the ever-increasing orders.

Bette tried to sell her idea to IBM, but they turned her down. Realizing she’d have to manufacture and market her product herself, Bette went back to work after work. Now, along with learning about paint and paper, she read up and sought advice on marketing. In a flash of inspiration, Bette renamed her product “Liquid Paper.” A trade magazine published the story of her little business and she received her first big order. General Electric wanted 400 bottles in three colors!

Bette took the plunge and devoted all her time to Liquid Paper—a risky move, as her business still wasn’t
profitable. But Mike was a big boy now and could support himself, so Bette was really able to focus on the business. Luckily, she had help. In 1962 she married Robert Graham, who helped her run the company.

Mike also married, then went off to California to try his luck in the music business. And boy, did he make mom proud! He rose to fame in
The Monkees
, a sitcom about four young musicians in a pop band. The tall Monkee in the goofy wool hat, Mike was an instant star, known for his dry humor and quick wit. The show was a huge hit and so were the group’s albums and singles, like “I’m a Believer.”

Meanwhile, back in Dallas, Bette’s hard work was finally paying off. As word spread that Liquid Paper could correct typing mistakes, business skyrocketed. Eventually Bette was selling so many millions of bottles of Liquid Paper that she moved her operation into an automated plant. Next, the company built an international headquarters and produced 500 bottles of correcting fluid a minute.

While Liquid Paper brought in wealth, generous Bette set up foundations to help other women. She never forgot the hard times she and Mike once faced. And as a single mom, it was no accident that her company was one of the first to offer on-site child care. Said Bette, “Most people in my income bracket build estates. I can’t understand why. My estate will be what I can do for others. I want to see my money working, causing progress for people.”

In 1979 Bette Nesmith Graham sold her corporation to Gillette for over $47 million, allowing her to continue her charitable work. Meanwhile, her invention continues to save the jobs of the world’s secretaries—one little bottle at a time.

Take a short broom ride, put on some polyester duds, and crank up the pop tunes!

I
n the 1960s and 1970s, moms began to loosen up a bit on the small screen. Witches, mixed families, and rockin’ road trips all made the scene!

The Show:
Bewitched
(1964–1972)

Mere mortal Darrin Stephens married his beautiful wife, Samantha (played by Elizabeth Montgomery), only to discover that she was a witch who could cast a spell with just a twitch of her snub nose. Samantha tried to please him by giving up witchcraft to be a normal wife and mother, but her mother, Endora, was hell-bent on getting Darrin out of the picture so Sam could stay supernatural. Every week, Samantha’s twitching nose would cause all witchcraft to break loose in the Stephens’s household—usually saving Darrin and their children, Tabitha and Adam. Throughout the series, Sam remained true to herself—keeping both her powers and her husband. A powerful statement for the times!

Fun Fact:
Agnes Moorehead, the actress who played Sam’s meddling mom, also played a mother on the big screen in
Citizen Kane.
She played Charles Foster Kane’s mother.

The Show:
The Brady Bunch
(1969–1974) Carol Brady (played by Florence Henderson) mothered the Brady Bunch, of course! As the famous theme song explains, Carol was a “lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls” when she married a widower, Mike Brady, who “was busy with three boys of his own.” The series and its theme song were much loved, but the portrayal of a mixed family endeared it to kids whose own families were a bit more “blended” than the traditional nuclear family.

A stay-at-home mom, Carol was a busy lady nonetheless. She had Alice, the maid, to help with cooking and cleaning, so she could spend time promoting local political causes, singing in church, and indulging her creative side through needlepoint and sculpture. Carol was a mom who liked to use her brain. (Though some would argue that the scriptwriters didn’t.)

Fun Fact:
While we know that Mike Brady is a widower, it is never revealed in the TV series how Mrs. Brady’s first marriage ended. What ever happened to the father of those three very lovely girls?

The Show:
The Partridge Family
(1970–1974) TV moms could be pop stars too, as
The Partridge Family
showed us in 1970. Widowed Shirley Partridge (played by Shirley Jones) needed money and so she formed a band with her five kids and got into the music biz. In an old painted school bus with a sign that read: “Caution: Nervous Mother Driving,” Shirley took her kids on tour and into music success with only a few sour notes.

With hits like “I Think I Love You” and “I Woke Up in Love This Morning,” mom and the kids were one of the TV families who didn’t rely on mom’s husband to provide for the family. Though Shirley didn’t behave too much differently than other sitcom moms, her financial independence signaled that changes were coming.

Fun Fact:
Shirley Jones was a real-life stepmom to David Cassidy, who played her on-screen son Keith Partridge.