John KampfeFort Lee, Home

Sometimes you find New Jersey connections to the film and/or television industries in the most unexpected places. For example, my friend Tom, a retro TV fan, recently watched a 1969-vintage episode of The Dick Cavett Show on which the late Academy Award-winning actress Ruth Gordon was a guest.

The ever-entertaining Gordon, sitting next to a young Woody Allen, launched into an unprompted soliloquy about her career — which Cavett described as being more than 50 years long during his introduction — immediately after coming on stage. What was her first acting job after arriving in New York City from her hometown in Massachusetts? We’ll let the irrepressible Gordon tell it:

“I’m only engaged for one night, obviously for tonight, this is, you know, I open and close tonight,” Gordon told the Cavett audience. “You’ve (Cavett) had a lovely season but this is only one night … that’s alright … it doesn’t show any progress. “On the other hand, I’m not slipping because in August 1915, the first job that I ever got, the first money I ever earned was for one day only and I got paid $5 for being in a movie over in Fort Lee, NJ. And for the day’s work I got $5 and now for this night’s work — well, never mind — but at least … I guess $5 in 1915 would probably be about $250 or something now, wouldn’t you think so?”

Gordon went on to wax about her travels from Massachusetts to New York and other topics. We found the interview on YouTube, which you can watch below. In particular pay attention to Cavett’s and Allen’s facial expressions as Gordon continues to chat away … to the delight of the studio audience.

In fact, Gordon had bit roles in at least three movies shot in 1915 in Fort Lee: The Wheel of Life, Madame Butterfly and Camille. She left films to pursue a career on the New York stage. Gordon was a mainstay on Broadway for the next 25 years before making a second, fairly short foray onto the silver screen. Most notably she appeared as “Mary Todd Lincoln” in 1940’s Abe Lincoln in Illinois, which still turns up a few times a year on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Gordon then turned to screenwriting, partnering with second husband Garson Kanin on such Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn vehicles Adam’s Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952). The pair earned Academy Award nominations for both movies. She also continued acting on stage and received her only Tony nomination in 1956 for her portrayal of “Dolly Levi” in The Matchmaker.

Gordon then had a third run in front of the camera beginning in the 1960s and it was her most successful one.

She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1969 for playing the witch “Minnie Castevet” in Rosemary’s Baby after being nominated for the same award four years earlier for the role of “Mrs. Clover in Inside Daisy Clover. Gordon won Golden Globe Awards for both performances. Gordon also received critical acclaim as “Maude” in the 1971 May-December romance Harold and Maude. Gordon also won a Primetime Emmy Award In 1979 for her guest starring role of “Dee Wilcox” on the “Sugar Mama” episode of Taxi.

Gordon continued to act up until the end of her life. She died suddenly of a stroke in 1985 at the age of 88.