Wednesday, September 28, 2005
BAD PARENTING CONDEMNED
Alan Alda—whose father worked in vaudeville—describes a charming (and envy-making) childhood moment:
He even recalls some intimate dressing room scenes with the dancing girls. “They’d say okay, Allie, we’re going to, we’re going to change our clothes now, turn your back. You know, and I’d turn my back, and I’d stand with my face in—right in the silk costumes that they had worn. And I could smell the perfume and the sweat and I can hear them changing their clothes behind me. And I’m 2-and-a-half, 3-years-old. And you might think this doesn’t make an impression on a kid that age. It does. It does. It doesn’t go over your head,” he said.
Alda’s 20/20 interview was just aired on Australian TV. The interviewer’s instant, unsmiling response to this anecdote: “Do you think that was an appropriate place to leave a young child?”