Change magazine proudly salutes
National Women's History Month and Arlene Alda
Arlene Alda: A Rhythm all her Own
By Sue Mayfield-Geiger
What are the odds that Alan and Arlene Alda might have wound up living in Houston, Texas? Someone else would have played Hawkeye on M*A*S*H, Arlene may have never picked up a camera, and this story would have a much less interesting twist.
Before Arlene and Alan were married, she played assistant first clarinet with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Alan was in the Army, but anxious to resume acting after military duty. The year was 1957 - a time when most women wanted their fiancé to have a "real" job. But that never entered Arlene's mind. When the concert season ended, Alan came to Houston (even toyed with the idea of performing with the Alley Theatre). They married, packed up and soon headed back east. With faith in her husband and faith in herself, New York was the ticket. Besides, being from the Big Apple and having already traveled extensively in Europe, Arlene felt it was just one more link to where life would lead her.
Growing up, Arlene fortunately had a mother who instilled in her the notion that she could do anything she wanted to do and be anything she wanted to be. At a time when the career norm for women was nursing, secretarial work or teaching, Arlene refused to adhere to those limitations. As a Fulbright scholar who studied at the Music Conservatory in Cologne, Germany, she credits traveling as the one thing that broadened her knowledge and social skills, but says without hesitation that it was her mother and teachers who molded her personality and added to the strengths that she carried into adulthood.
About to celebrate fifty years of wedded bliss to her actor husband, Arlene has not only carved a niche for herself in the world of music, photography and writing (books number fifteen and sixteen due out next year), she has successfully kept her show-biz marriage intact while raising three daughters and juggling helter-skelter schedules. Being married to a well-known television and movie personality took work, but it was mutual work. Arlene and Alan are as devoted to each today as they were fifty years ago.
Arlene was gracious enough to grant us this interview, and we are so very pleased to introduce you to someone who is much more than just Mrs. Alan Alda. Saying she has "gone against the tide" most of her life, she credits music as being a strong influence and leading to a career as a writer and photographer. She is youthful, petite, charming, and wears her warm smile well. Here's her story:
What was life like for you as a young girl?
I was born Arlene Weiss, in the Northeast Bronx, the youngest of three children. My parents were immigrant Jews from Eastern Europe, my father was a lithographer, my mother a seamstress and housewife. We weren't poor by the standards of those days, although looking back; I do wonder how my parents managed with three kids, a dog and themselves in a three-room apartment. Everyone in our neighborhood had about the same standard of living - middle class/working class. Food was always on the table, because of my mother's ingenuity in putting it there, even with my father's periods of unemployment. Rent was affordable, we all went to public schools, and the streets were safe, allowing all of us to play "outside." I think all kids growing up during WW2, in our neighborhood and probably all of New York City played outside in the streets where everyone congregated. Growing up, I never knew of a kid who didn't know all the other kids in the neighborhood by name. It was more like a village within a larger city. I learned to ride a bike, roller skate, run and play ball all within a few blocks of our building. It was a kid's paradise, until I reached high school; when I hungered to get out; to be free - to get into the real world - Manhattan.
