Thursday, February 27, 2020

Meet The Marvelous Miss Maybin Hewes Sherman: Mother of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Creator Amy Sherman Palladino - Old Hollywood's Roots Create this New Hollywood Phenomenon

By Suzanne Ordas Curry

One of my favorite lines from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, one of the first TV shows that ever portrayed a strong, independent career woman, was when Lou Grant, her boss, told her, "Mary, you got spunk." 

After speaking to Maybin Hewes Sherman, the mother of the creator and writer of the Amazon Prime award-winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel over an hour,  I must say, this woman has spunk.  Just like Midge Maisel. 

Though I understand how Midge's character reflects many of the aspects of her father, after getting to know her mom a bit, I see a lot of Maybin in her character. 

Maybin Hewes Sherman grew up in the days of Old Hollywood. With sheer determination coupled with her talent, she made a career for herself in NYC and then California as a dancer and later a producer. She shone in a career not accessible or even dreamed of as possible for most women when she grew up. In the 40's.  Remind you of anyone?

If you're a fan of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, or you have an interest in reading about what active octogenarians are now doing, read on. You'll find out about her humble beginnings in Louisiana, to her nights sleeping in Carnegie Hall, to performing with the legendary Sammy Davis Jr., marrying a well-known stand up comic, rooming with Diane Ladd and still performing shows in her 80's. You'll see the power of ambition, the power of resilience and the power of motherhood. And, you'll get some inside information on the beginnings of Amy Sherman Palladino's career and her influences from the perspective of her extremely proud - and deservedly so - mother. 

Introducing... The Marvelous Miss Maybin.
The Goodman School of Expression

Suzee: I am suprised there are not a lot of interviews about you. You would think someone would want to interview the mother of such a famous mother character.

Maybin: I know! That's what my friends and I say too!

Suzee: Tell me something about your childhood. How did you get started in show biz?

Maybin: I was born in New Orleans, Lousiana, and after about five years we moved to Mississippi. And growing up, there was not a lot, no culture to speak of at that time. There was one little dancing school and my mother put me in that dancing school. And I loved it and I became a very, very good dancer. So that was my beginning.

I had a very special mother though, that I’d like to throw in there. She was quite unusual, and don’t forget this was back in the 1930s. And she had wanted to be an actress, and she came from a Baptist, very strict Baptist family who frowned on anything that was not going to church every other day, ya know? 

Somehow she got an opportunity to go to the Goodman School in Chicago, which is a famous school in Chicago, which is a famous theater company today. The girl that plays Roseanne’s sister is one of the supporters of that theater. Anyhow, it was called at the time The Goodman School of Expression."

MaybinAnyhow, as life would have it. She had to go back to Mississippi and she got married to my father and she had my brother and myself. And, she raised me encouraging me with the arts and stuff. When I was 15 years old, she found a dance magazine in a local library and she looked up all the school in New York that had dancing schools and she so she wrote to them.


Watch An Interview with Maybin on 
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On Sleeping in Carnegie Hall as a Teenager and 
The Sound of a Pianist

She wrote to about 50 schools, and one school answered, and they said they would put me up in the studio in a cot and I could sleep in the studio after all the students were gone. Now at 15 years old, I’d never been out of Mississippi, and she put me on the Greyhound bus and I went to New York and I got myself to Carnegie Hall. I got myself in Carnegie Hall and I was sleeping in the studio.


Suzee: Oh my gosh!

Maybin: And I was taking every single class in the morning from 9 am to six or 7 at night. Now I'd be so tired at night. I had a little hot plate there, I would fix something a little something to eat, fall down on my cot, and you could hear the vacancy of Carnegie Hall late at night and because it was empty. And I could hear a pianist practicing, and you know I’ll never forget the sound of listening to those pianos, practicing till like 1 or 2 o’ clock in the morning at Carnegie Hall. And so that is what got me going, what got me started on my journey.

So when I finally graduated, unfortunately I had a scholarship to a junior college, which I did not want to take because I wanted to go right to New York and continue my studies and get into shows and stuff. But, I got a scholarship to a local girls school, and my mother felt I couldn’t pass up a free education, so I spent two years on scholarship.

Please Tell me How to Use a PayPhone

I was teaching tap dancing and when I finally graduated, I left for New York permanently. And I don’t say I never went back, because I would go visit my mother because she was my #1 supporter. At the show I’m doing now, I talk about this, my time in New York. I make jokes about it. You know I was so green I, didnt even know how to use a pay telephone. So I could never call home! At home, all we had a phone that you pick up and you say, “Hello operator!”


 Vivian Segall, Carol Bruce and
The Nightclub Circuit with Sammy Davis Jr.

Suzee: Tell me about living in NYC and trying to make it there at that time.

Maybin: Anyhow, that was the start of my, that's where my life started. Because living in Mississippi was, to be honest with you, not much of a life. I just lived for Fred Astaire and the musicals, that was my life, of joy. And, as time goes on I did get into a Broadway show, Pal Joey was one of the biggest hit shows on Broadway at the time. And I stayed with that show for about a year and a half. The star of the show was Harold Lang, Vivian Segall was the woman, and then she was replaced by a fabulous actress called Carol Bruce, of course they are all gone now. But, at the time, they were quite famous, and they were wonderful, wonderful people. I just loved them.

After that I just worked all the time, I did practically every Broadway musical that was around at that time. Finally, I created a nightclub act because I didn’t want to have to, when I wasn’t in a show, I didn’t want to have to take a job outside of the profession. I created this nightclub act, which I would do every single weekend. And finally, I got an opportunity to work with Sammy Davis Jr. and THAT was a big deal.  

Moving out to Hollywood for the Steve Allen Show:
No Babies Allowed

That was and then I met my husband. And he was. He was a comedian and a comedy writer. 
And we got married and we had a darling little girl and he got the opportunity to be signed for the Steve Allen show out in California. So, we drove out to California with a six-week old baby. 

We got to California. In one of my shows I tell the story that after we got here [California], we ended up in the San Fernando Valley, which we hadn’t intended to do, but in Hollywood, they don’t allow babies. Hahah. This was the truth! We checked into this hotel that we had a reservation for, and when they found out we had a baby, they said, “You can’t stay here”! 

Suzee: Wow!

Maybin: "So, we packed ourselves up and we moved to San Fernando Valley, where there were plenty of babies. But we experienced a terrific tragedy. We had our little girl for about 2 and a half years, and she developed a brain tumor...and she died. And that was just, devastating."

Suzee: Nothing worse than losing a child. Nothing.

Maybin: No, no and we had Amy by then. Amy was about six months old, when the little girl got sick.


Amy Liked to Tap Dance

Suzee: Did you encourage Amy in the arts?

Maybin: When she was about six years old, I was giving her all kinds of lessons, art lessons, violin lessons, I was giving her piano lessons and everything and she says to me, “I want to learn to tap dance.” I said, “Well I’m not going to take you anyplace to learn that, I will teach you tap dancing. But, I won’t teach you alone!” Because I didn't want to correct her and have her fight with me. So I said I’ll invite the neighborhood and that's how it started. 

Forget the Commercials, I'll take the Free Pictures

Suzee: The neighborhood?

Maybin: We had classes in our backyard. A photographer who was doing my husband's pictures saw her and wanted to do a composite on my daughter and take it to agents to do commercials!. He said he wouldn't charge anything for the pictures. So I thought, huh I don’t think I want to let my kid go into commercials or anything like that. But, I can get those free pictures!

So, we got those pictures and they were fabulous. She did one little thing, and then I just couldn't stand it. I mean I could write a book on how it is with mothers with famous children or children who their mothers want to be famous. It's horrendous. It’s no wonder the kids are crazy, they grow up crazy. 

Hansel and Gretel in Her Backyard

Maybin: Their mothers are just, impossible. So one time a photographer found out about me teaching and wanted to come out to take a picture of my little ones, the kids wanted to do Peter Pan. And I said, “We don’t have the equipment for Peter Pan”. But we’ll do Hansel and Gretal. So we, did a production of Hansel and Gretel. And we did it in our backyard. And alot of people from the neighborhood came. And this photographer, he sent it to the newspaper. And the newspaper, at the time it was called The Valley Green Sheets, it's now called The Daily News. 

100 Calls and Counting from Stage Moms

They did a whole page, picture page on this little thing that I was doing. And I got 100 calls from mothers all over the valley who want to put their kids into this group. So I was debating whether or not to do it, I was not charging the mothers because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I was still wanting a career myself. 


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Suzee: Right? I understand that quandary as a mother.

And So This is how Amy got Started in Writing.

Maybin: And I had just done Gentlemen prefer blondes with Jane Mansfield. Show business in California is so different from New York. I found it not to be easy and I didn't have the patience for it. So I just,well before I knew it I had this full time theater group. Which lasted 25 years heh. But in the meantime, my daughter and I, for the group we decided that we didn't want to do Mary had a little lamb, stuff like that - so we wrote original children's stories. And that's how she got started.

Suzee: Ahhhhhh.

Maybin: Yeah, she got to create, as a child - it was really funny, I would give them a situation, this person does this and this person does that and I want you to write something about how they react to each other and before you know it, she had me on the floor. I couldn’t believe the things that she was writing. She was hard to pin down because she was so young, and I have had to chase her sometimes, and then write it on the back of a bag or something just to get the words out and recorded. But as time went on, the shows got really, really good. And she was a big part of writing those shows."

Suzee : And how old was she at this time?

Maybin: Well, she started at six. 

Suzee: Okay, wow! 



                                           
It Paid Off!

Maybin: That’s when we did our first little, first little performance. And I opened it up to the public when she was 7. She came home one day, we had put her in ballet classes. And one day she came home and she says to me,”I sure hope this pays off”. Haha, this 7 year old girl is looking for the future! Haha. But she was very, very precocious."

Suzee: Well, it sure did pay off!

Maybin: Isn’t it true?! Skipping forward, my husband and I had our 50th wedding anniversary, she gave us a gigantic party, at the Chateau Marmont. This big hotel on Sunset strip. And I got up and I said to them, “Thank you, I want to thank my daughter for the party, and I said your answer is, It paid off!!

Every Little Girl Should Have Ballet Lessons

Suzee: So she has inherited your talent and the sense of humour from the dad, not you? You seem to have a sense of humor.


Maybin: Yeah, well living with him I had to have one! Well I had a different kind of sense of humor. He was from the Bronx, from New York, and I was from the South, it was like a combination, as a matter of fact, my husband, used to say in his act, he said if a woman from the South and a man from the bronx can get together anybody and make it work anybody could do it. Cause it was, it was it was the truth.

Of course, anybody can do it if you have the same values. That's what it comes down to. But anyhow, that's how she started off for her. But then I also had her in ballet. I put her in ballet school, because ballet school to me was a religion. Every girl should have ballet lessons. 

The Groundlings and 
Amy's First Writing Gig on Roseanne

Suzee. I went. It was the thing to do for little girls in the 70's.

Maybin: And she got quite, quite, very skilled and uh as a matter of fact the Joffrey Ballet Company was looking to have her come in and be in their junior company in the summertime. She she didn’t go to college when she graduated, she chose to go to the Groundlings. Do you know what the Groundlings is?

Suzee: No.

Maybin: Groundlings is an improvisational school. And Lisa Kudrow was in her class.

Suzee: Oh cool! So Lisa was her "friend?" LOL

Maybin: Many people have come out of the Groundlings. It's sort of like a Second City, here in California. One of my best friends, her mother, owned the Groundlings and she came to one of my shows. One time she saw Amy in one of the shows and she said she needs to be in Groundlings. So she got her in the Groundlings. She worked in there for like a 4 year course. 

There's a beginning course and then there is the second course which is a writing course. So she got a chance to write. Really, really funny sketches, I’m telling you. They were hysterical. But anyhow, she was working as an actress and a dancer in different shows and she was in a show at a small theater here in town and then she got the job as a writer on Roseanne.

Now that is a hysterical story in itself because she met a girl at the Groundlings, and the two of them got to be chummy and my husband said to her, “You know you two girls should get together and write a script because now the business is changing, they are not hiring older writers anymore, they’re hiring young girls and young people." So the two of them sat down with my husband and he helped them form a script. And that script got them their first job. She got a job with Valerie Harper on her show Valerie.

Suzee: Oh I watched that! And Mary Tyler Moore.

Maybin: And, then their next job was Roseanne. And she was off and running. She was with Roseanne for four years and she left, I think she was the only person on Roseanne who wasn’t fired. Haha. 

Amy Sherman Palladino and Daniel Palladino


The Gilmore Girls, Bunheads 
and Meeting Daniel Palladino 

Maybin: Then she did a number of different shows, some of them worked some of them didn’t, and she finally hit on the Gilmore Girls and then she did the Bunheads, which was not as big of a hit as Gilmore Girls but it was a good show, then she did The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She married Daniel Paladino, he was a writer. And she met him through her ex-partner, that’s how that happened and they’ve been together ever since.



This Senior is Still Struttin"

Suzee: You're still in the biz?

Maybin: As far as I'm concerned, I’m still doing my shows, I gave up on my children's theater when I got calls to audition and got some parts. I dropped the children's theater and I started writing my own show. And I’ve been doing my own shows ever since

Suzee: Is this the Still Strutting that I saw on the internet?

Maybin: Yes, first started doing it with a partner, and we were playing the Cinegrill, which was a fancy night club at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. And then my partner decided she wanted to become a dramatic actress and she left me, she left me with my tap shoes. I didn't know what to do, somebody encouraged me to write my own stuff, so I did. I was 70 at the time. Today is my birthday, I'm 89!

Suzee: Congratulations and happy birthday, that's amazing. So forget second chapter, that's like a third.

Maybin: Thank you! And we're going to tape the latest show that I wrote. And I’m doing that with other people. As a matter of fact I call the show, Still Strutting, but "with the help of my friends." 

The Curse and Blessing of the Crazy Creative Brain

Suzee: I saw that in a Google search. I already read about your husband.

Maybin: Unfortunately, we lost my husband 7 years ago. He had pancreatic cancer. Yeah, and it was a big shock because he has never really been sick, ya know. Surprise, Surprise! So of course, I was kinda lost, didn't know what I was doing here and I started... welll what I did was I wrote a show about him. I showed alot of clips of his, of him and his act and his performances and I also told some funny stories about the two of us. So I performed that, and that's the last show I did before this one. And I just got the idea of doing it again. I was a really, really good dancer and I'Im at the age where I can't do my good stuff anymore. Haha

Suzee: Well I think thats okay, I’ll give you a pass! Can I ask what is, you are 89 and you have the energy and vitality of someone decades younger. What are your secrets? Is it what you eat, is it the dancing, is it comedy, what is it? 

Maybin: Its hard to explain, and all my friends say the same thing. I say it's because I'm crazy. There's something up in my head, right now as we are talking I'm thinking. I am thinking, "I have an idea for another show”. It's something in your head that I guess you’re just stuck with, its hard to explain. 

Suzee: Yes, it's the busy brain, busy creative brain. There are always ideas coming and it's hard to shut them off. 

Maybin: Thats it, that's exactly it. And then you start to work on it. There was a show in the 50's when I was in New York, called New Faces, which you probably don’t know about but it was a big hit and it was kind of a review, sketch show and alot of really interesting people came out of that show, there was Eartha Kitt who sang monotonous, there was Alice Gosely, Paul Lynde, maybe you don't know all these people. 



Suzee: I've heard of some of them from my dad. I do remember Paul Lynde from game shows.

Maybin: Well, they all came out of New Faces. And well, my idea is to do, 2020 version of New Faces. I have some talented people around me that, I love their talent, I'd love to develop them. You see, I guess being with the children workshop for so many years and developing all those little people. I still see these people as talented even though they are older, just as if they were my kids. I look at them I say, “Hey Kids!” they look at me as if I’m crazy. Its true! They have wonderful, each person has such individual talent, ya know. And to be able to develop that particular talent to show the best that person can do it a challenge, and that is so much fun. That’s what I'm trying to do in this show here.
Suzee: Yes.

Maybin: When I say "kids" well that has a different meaning for me! One of them is 55, and I dont know how old the other one is because she wont tell me. And there are two other kids, one is the smartest girl you'd ever hope to meet and you wouldn’t want to do a show without her because she never forgets anything.  And shes got a great singing voice. And I’ve got a boy, who wrote this hysterical piece of material about being gay. And the idea is that they are all there to help me, and I tell all these silly stories and I sing and dance with them.


Maybin Hewes Sherman choreographed a show for Carol Burnett (picture together, center) that made Carol famous.

A Subrette is not a Hot Dog

Maybin: In my show I was telling my story all about how I left Broadway because my legs were too short, they were hiring very tall girls so I became a subrette. The girls says, “What's a subrette?” Well you sing, you dance, tell a few jokes and sometimes you take a pie in your face. And I finally got into a great show and then I was off and running.

Suzee: I can see why Amy does as much as she does,because you are just so supportive, because you want to nurture the talent in all these people you don’t even know so I can only imagine the support you gave Amy as she was growing up. 

Maybin: You’re absolutely right, you’re right on the money because when we lost the child, it was the most horrendous thing in the world to us. So, naturally we were just so, so happy to have Amy. We were so grateful to have another child, and we did, we developed, we gave her every chance that we could to help her and develop her talent."

We weren't show biz people, because we didn't have to be. As a matter of fact, when Amy was in my group, I never corrected her, never told her, “You should do this” or “You should do that” because I didn’t want it to be that kind of relationship, as it happened, she is like a sponge, she would suck in everything that I would tell everybody else. She was that smart, she's an extremely, extremely gifted child concerning her arts.

What Mother Doesn't Say 
"I Taught Her Everything She Knows."

Maybin: I do something in the show where I say I was in a show with Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller and they say oh, that was Ben Stiller's Parents, I said yeah and my roommate was Diane Ladd, and they say oh that was Laura Dern's mother and I said thats right! And I am the mother of Amy Sherman Paladino and I did this whole bit about that. And then to end the punchline is, “And i taught her everything she knows!” And we sing this song, “She taught her everything she knows!” Ya know its really funny.




A Little Bit of Maybin in Mrs. Maisel


Suzee: Well, speaking of that I do watch the show, Just getting to talk to you today and learning about how you raised her and hearing your sense of humor and your life stories - and that you are a groundbreaker for what you've done - I think you are part of the Mrs. Maisel character. 


Maybin: "It's true. We both are. She's wonderful. I watch her shows and Amy comes to all of my shows, she flies in from New York to see all my shows. If she's in the middle of taping, she takes a weekend and she comes out. She's very supportive in that way."

A Changing Writing Landscape

Maybin: Her father was such a strong personality, he was truly the funniest person I have ever met in my life. He was not like these comedians of his time that would get up and say, “take my wife please” and tell those corny jokes, he wrote things, stories, he wrote stories that were just so funny. In the latter part of his years, cause he was doing sitcom writing, when he got to California. Then all the sudden the business changed, that’s when Amy got her opportunity, but he lost his because they weren't using older writers anymore.

Because he was a standup comedian, he went back to doing stand up. He wrote this material that was, as a matter of fact the Wall Street Journal did a whole page on him, about this. He wrote this material about the ships, and at first, the people on the ships were a little startled, but didn't know how to take it because he made fun of everything. The people on the ships were crying with laughter. He would describe the rooms and say, “I have a freezer at home bigger than that room!” And he stayed at that for about 25 years, until he got sick and then he left. 


Suzee: I bet my dad knew him. He was a huge of Don Rickles and all the male comedians. 

Maybin: Well that was my husband's hero. And Amy grew up with a lot of people coming from New York to California. People wanted to get into the show biz out here. Before, most of the TV came from NY. Now it was moving out here, and people started moving out here. They would come over to the house and she would hear all of these people sitting around telling these jokes, who knows she was probably there sucking up all this material. So to this day, she considers Midge to be the female part of her Dad.

Mr. Sherman Gigged in the Catskills

Suzee: I have to ask, did you ever vacation in the catskills?

Maybin: Oh, haha it wasn’t a vacation, my husband worked there and I would go up with him all the time. I went to the catskills with him when he was performing.  Yeah, well, there are alot of hotels and, one thing about the catskills, they love show business and show people. They loved show people, they supported show people, it was a great place for show people to work. A tremendous business, so sad that it no longer exists.

Suzee: So, Was Amy ever in the Catskills with you?

Maybin: No, the Catskills was pretty much finished up for what is was known for by the time she was old enough to go. She was living out here in California too. I did one date at the Poconos when I was doing my act, years ago. I think I worked with the Everly Brothers. 

Suzee: The Catskills and Philly were a hotbed of entertainment back then.

Never Too Old To Learn to Rap

Maybin: It was a different time and a different era, kind of a lost era. It's kind of sad. But new things come along. I have a thing in my show where I do a rap. I asked the kids if they can rap, and they say no that’s for the younger people. I do a rap. An 89 year-old rap I call it. They say where did you learn to do that? I say well I had a great teacher. And i bring in this 12 year-old kid who is really a great rapper. She comes in, she does a hip hop and a rap. And then it goes on that they want her to teach them, its part of the plot. Have you seen Hamilton?

Suzee: No, I actually haven’t and I knew about it in previews many summers ago.

Maybin: If you don’t see Hamilton, then you don’t know whats going on! That's a new generation of show business, I believe. The whole play is, I'm just telling you, it's coming back here again and I'm planning on going again to see it, it's wonderful. So that kind of rap is almost like, you know what its almost like a modern day opera.

Suzee: Yes, exactly right, never thought of it that way.




A Story About All Those Fabulous Hats

Suzee: It seems that you take care of yourself. So in The Marvelous Ms Masiel, everybody is always dressed impeccably, were you really into fashion? 

Maybin: "Well, I guess, but I never wore hats. And there's a great story I read in the Times one day, maybe you know this, there is a woman who lived in NY and she had this fabulous collection of hats and when she died her sons didn’t want to just give them to the Goodwill, so they were looking around for a good place to give those hats. They ended up giving those hats to the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Those hats that you see, are the hats that this woman made. Kind of a neat story."

Suzee: Love the hats in that show.

Maybin: "What I think is so wonderful about the show. My first love is music. I think what really makes that show so wonderful is that it is wrapped around with such great music. If you notice, each scene has, not only are the lines funny and cute, but the music will give you a lift, just hearing that music. 

Suzee: Yes, and even at the end of each episode. There's lots of 80's songs. . 

Maybin: "Uh-huh, hmm I have to watch for that. I bet she carefully picks each song, becuase it fits so well.I have a whole series here, they sent it to me from Screen Actors Guild. Were supposed to vote on stuff."

Suzee: Does she have your vote?

Maybin: "Hahaha, I think so. Did you see the new season? "




On Performing for the USO


Suzee; Yes, a friend of mine is one of the episodes. I watched the whole thing already. Loved the locations, the colors, the storyline, the military scenes.

Maybin: "The first episode where they open up on the USO show. That really knocked me down. Cause you know when I was a kid, there wasn't any show biz in Mississippi, but there were two very big army bases. And I used to do all these shows for those army guys, and I'm telling you I could cry cause the reception that those guys gave to us performers was just unbelievable.

They could make you sit down and cry, they are so appreciative of ya know, even me as a little kid, they gave me a rousing applause. They are just so appreciative of talent and entertainment. It's really heartbreaking because that was in the years of the war when I was performing there, as a child.That scene with the boys when she comes out and she starts talking to the boys and they are all screaming--AH! It took me back." 

Suzee: Oh wow…So, I would say thats your favorite episode then? Cause it brings back so many memories?

Maybin: Well, thats my favorite episode for that reason. But the Paris episode is hard to beat! 

Suzee: Ohhh, I like the catskills ones the best!


Maybin: I'm so crazy about Tony Shaloob?. He is the bomb! He is the sweetest, darling guy in the world, I remember him from a show called Wings

Suzee: Oh yeah! He was on Wings and Taxi!



Suzy for President

Maybin: I didn’t know he was on Taxi. I don’t remember him from that, wow! And then he did Monk, which I think is still running. Oh, oh thats a gem. That is a gem. But the Paris episode with him. I don't know it just kills me I can watch it over and over. And she is wonderful that girl. Mariam? Shes a surprise, that girl is really talented. And of course, Alex, she's great.

Suzee: Oh my gosh, I can't look at her without laughing and thinking of a plumber. 

Maybin: I know! But do you want to know something that's really amazing?  And it's really unusual I think, there isn’t anybody, any class, any religion, any person of any age in this country that is not fixed on her. 

Suzee: I know! She's hysterical. 

Maybin: My brother lives in Tennessee. They came up to watch the premiere of the lastest season of MMM. And all they wanted to do, they call her Suzy, we want to meet Suzy! Hahaha, such a riot! It's hysterical. I am saying it means there may be hope for this country! If everybody can come together on one thing!

Suzee: Suzy for president right?!

Maybin: Yeah! Hahaa.


Life is About Change

Suzee: So lots of changes and turns in the show.

Maybin: Life is a series of changes anyhow, I mean you're a child, you go to school, you grow up, you become an adult, you get married or you don't, you struggle with you careeers. I know alot of times, one of the biggest problems we have in life is we remember the good days we had behind us and now it's not so good.

Suzee: Were there shows you watched with Amy as a child?

Maybin: Well, here's the thing, most of her growing up years, I had my children's workshop and she was in my children's workshop, so she was with me all the time, ya see. We spent a lot of time making entertainment.

Suzee: People make not think entertainment is so important. But it really is. 

Maybin: Its everything! Its relief from the tragedy of everything! Of all things that are going on today. To me, when my husband died I went through this funk and I was not eating and I was just not where I wanted to beI found myself getting sick. And I said. "wait a minute, as long as I'm going to be here, I've gotta be as healthy as possible because I do not want to be one of these sick people living in the homes in a heelchair and waiting to die.  You know, that's one reason why I picked up this show. I'm producing. 

You Gotta Do What Makes You Happy

Maybin: You know, everything is in your head. Because a lot of times we all get depressed., Well I think I can choose to feel bad or I can choose to feel good. I have that choice. I may not have a choice of what's going to happen to me, but I do have a choice of how I deal with it. And that has pulled me through.

I'm surrounded by a lot of neurotic people! Ya know? It's hard, it's very difficult, but I just belive that you have to do what makes you happy. I see so many people, and when my husband was on the ship, so many people would come up to him and say, “Oh I wanted to be a comedian but I had to support my family so I couldn't do it.” These are unfulfilled people! And they are not willing to go through what it taked to live that life. It can be a terrible mistake. 

Suzee: Which is just what...drumrolll please, Mrs Maisel does. She's just going and doing it. 


On Not Feeling Sorry for Midge

Maybin: That's right. I think the best Thing about Mrs Maisel is when the husband cheated on her, I was thinking, she's gonna say "oh poor me". She didn"t do that. She picked herself up and she went out and he got her own life. And actually in most plays and stuff, the husband cheats on the wife and you feel sorry for the wife. That didn't happen here and I think that's one of the reasons why people like it so much because its an uplift, not a downer. When bad things happen, she just goes with it. 

Suzee: Yes, as a female, to me, that's one of the things I love about the show. 

Maybin: Right, right. To me, that was the first thing to hit me. When the guy cheated on her I though, oh I'm going to be sad now, but she wasn't. It was like, "he's a jerk!".  

Suzee: So do you get a clue a to what's going to happen on the show?


Maybin: No, she'll tell me where she's going to shoot. She'll say I'm going to go to Florida, I hate Florida!  I was in NY when they were leaving for Paris, so I knew they were going to Paris. I knew he was going to do the Catskills. 


Suzee: I loved those episodes, the dad discovering her as a comic, everything that happened. I love that doctor, I was rooting for him!


Maybin: I know, well he may still be in the picture. I'm not sure. He was for her, but she wasn't for him. He was very good, very pleasing to the eye haha. That's another thing. That cast is so good.

Suzee: Well, I don't want to take up more of your time, but pardon the pun, it was really marvelous to talk to you. I could see how she became who she is and how you were strong influence in her life.

Maybin: Well, I'll tell yousomething before you go, something about my mother. that my mother was one of those, she lived in an era where, well our family wasn't the happiest family. And she had no choice, at that time, we were just stuck there. She was the most incredible person, and underrated persoon and strongest and most talented person ive ever known. Im sorry that my daughter was not able to know her better. But I see a lot of inherited things in Amy that were in my mother as well. My mother never gave up. She would never give up, she would just stand there and fight the wolves as they came to the door ya know. She was my most important supporter. And as a matter of fact, I always wanted to do something for her to make her life easier and I used to send her money to make her life easier and you know that when Amy graduated from high school, the money that i had sent to her she gave to my daughter. 

Suzee: Did you ever think of dictating your stories to someone? And putting it in a book?

Maybin: Well, people have been asking me to do this, so that may be one of my projects moving forward. I have alot of stuff to do, im only 89 years old now. It's so funny becuase people come to me all the time and they say, oh look at this woman, she 100 years old and look what good shape she is in! That really makes me feel good HAHAHA!

Well unfortunately, I fell and broke my arm 2 years ago, and I've been going through alot of health stuff since then.  I'm feeling better now, Im not back to my old, 60 year-old self again, but I'm much, much better. 
I Do Everything I Can!!

Suzee: What do you do to keep yourself in good shape?

Maybin: I do everything I can! Well you know, if you dance all your life, your body is accustomed to it. The real damage is when you stop dancing. That is when you fall apart. And I did get to the point where I couldn't dance like I used to. I was good then. But you know something, I have made the adjustment, I dont really care. I just do what I can do and that makes me happy. 

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Photos Courtesy Maybin Hewes Sherman and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Facebook Page.