My First Five Husbands... And the Ones Who Got Away by Rue McClanahan

My First Five Husbands... And the Ones Who Got Away Reviews

• 
  Tracey

  The Golden Girls is one of my favorite shows so I borrowed this from a friend. I read it in a weekend.
  
  One of my favorite quotes from the book is
  
  Eating habits are hard to change, but it can be done, and with some added exercise, you can change your weight, which matters a lot more than your age. Regular sexual activity is excellent exercise. So is lifting weights. It all depends on what's available. Dumbbells are pretty easy to come by, but since many of them are married, I suggest lifting weights.
  
  Now that's funny.
• 
  Inge

  Honestly. I just want to read something I can enjoy. Something I understand. Something about someone honest and forthcoming and funny and true.
  Something comfortable and lovely without being saccharine or trite.
  This book made me happy and I was sad when I finished it and couldn't read it anymore.
  If a woman can handle 5 marriages (several to near-sociopaths), a Tijuana abortion, breast cancer, and Bea Arthur and still manage to be funny and endearing and fascinating, well, then, hell, the rest of us can deal with our problems.
  This book is like mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. Literary comfort food.
  I wish Eddi-Rue were around. I'd write her a letter and tell her how much I enjoyed this book.
• 
  Emma Rose

  I'd like to thank everyone who helped make this award possible. The rest of you will be in the book.
  Rue McClanahan's Emmy Award Acceptance Speech, 1987
  
  Let me preface this by saying that it's deeply satisfying to wake up to a Mooch alert - an email telling you in so many words that a book on your wishlist is now waiting for a new home. I really enjoy Bookmooch and I wish more of the books I wanted were given up by other people. I really urge you to give it a try - I got rid of titles I no longer cared for and I'm receiving books I'm interested in in exchange.
  
  Rue McClanahan, as you may know, is most famous for her role as the scandalous Southern belle Blanche Devereaux in one of my favourite TV shows, The Golden Girls. She passed away last June and there's always something slightly peculiar reading someone else's life after their death. But what a life that was! I found My First Five Husbands... and the Ones Who Got Away to be a truly inspirational account of an ambitious, disarmingly funny woman who did everything from waitressing in her underwear to acting on Broadway. She met lovely people and terrible ones whom she ended up marrying but learned a lot from everyone.
  The book is interesting and written in a friendly manner, which I greatly enjoyed. It's more Rue talking to a pal and exchanging gossip than Someone Famous cashing on their fame. Rue worked from day one and never stopped - she says at some point that she saw other people whose ambition in life was to marry into money but her wish had always been to earn it. Her life really deserved its own book - she accomplished so much and did got everything she wanted in the end.
  I dreaded her chapter narrating her days filming The Golden Girls, I didn't want my superlative opinion of the show and its stars to be tarnished - while she reveals that the set wasn't the idyllic place I imagined it to be (somehow I thought such wonderful women with such a wonderful script could only have been best friends all along), it remains special and I can now add a very nice anecdote in my collection of Golden Girls gossip - one involving no less than The Men of Blanche's Boudoir, a scrapbook Blanche puts together with nude pics of her lovers that she offers to her housemates and which remains to this day one of my favourite scenes of the series.
  
  I truly enjoyed this book, which was one hell of a ride. Turns out Rue wasn't very different from Blanche, though Blanche got truly lucky in her choice of men. At the beginning of the book, Rue explains that she devised a system to rate her lovers' performance in bed, ranging from A to F. I have a feeling Blanche got a life filled with As. Now let that be something to look forward to ;)
  
  Rose: Is it possible to love two men at the same time?
  Blanche (not missing a beat): Set the scene - have we been drinking?
  
  
• 
  Constantine

  Rating: 3.5/5.0
  
  This memoir made an interesting reading. I love Rue McClanhan since she did The Golden Girls and this book was fun to read knowing her more upclose. Her relationships, love interests, her work and her thoughts and opinion about her colleagues. It was interesting to read the portion she wrote about The Golden Girls and their fun times and struggle on the sets.
  
  If you loved Blanche Deveraux then you should read this book to understand where she came from. It won't disappoint you.
• 
  Jennifer

  A fun read from a very funny lady! Her life was like a crazy soap opera, but I really admire how she laughed about it and owned up to her mistakes. She also didn't let any bumps in the road derail her from her dreams and goals. Her work ethic and perseverance were inspiring! My only complaint is that the ending felt very abrupt.
• 
  Chelsea

  The book started out kind of rocky. I found the first few chapters so pell-mell and scattered that I almost gave up, but I'm glad I stuck it out. Once she got around to husband #1, the book started having a logical flow and was more enjoyable to follow. Her effervescent, boistrous personality really leaps off the page. She made a lot of silly choices (mostly when it came to men), but her willingness to admit she'd made a mistake and pick up and move on is admirable. She doesn't come off as slanderous or bitter (which I had somewhat feared based on the title), but shouldered a lot of the blame for the failed marital attempts. It's not the best autobiography out there, but it was a fun little read.
• 
  Peter

  I have to be honest and say it took me awhile to get into this book. No offense Ms. McClanahan! May you rest in peace and sharing cheesecake with Bea and Estelle on that great big lanai in the sky. But once I got into the juicy parts of her life, I couldn't put this down! I am such a big fan of the Golden Girls that after reading both Betty White's autobiographies that I knew I needed to read Rue McClanahan's. I'm also going to track down Estelle Getty's and did Bea Arthur write one? Anyway, I digress. I didn't realize just how much her background was in theater. She has had quite the career even before that house in Miami. Her choice in men leaves much to be desired as evidenced by the number of times she's married though that was because of her own anxieties as well as the men needing time to grown up and change themselves. I mean, a couple kept popping back into her life for Pete's sake. I did love that the one constant male of her life was her son. No matter what she did she always thought of her son Mark. The times when she was forced to be away from him, you could tell just how much in pain she was. She truly was a show business baby. She had to always be working not only to stay sane but also to just live. I hope wherever she is that she knows that Blanche as well as her other much loved characters are still living on in the hearts and on the televisions of her most devoted fans.
• 
  David Olsen

  Oh...my...gawd! What a fabulous woman Ms. McClanahan is! I could read her book over and over and OVER! So completely entertaining and full of adventure, struggle and persistence, not just in her delicious career, but also in her many troubled relationships! What a tasty read and a winning lesson about life! Gays and showbiz folk will like it best!
• 
  Eliza

  I laughed. I thought. And then I laughed again.
  
  Rue may not be EXACTLY the beloved Blanche Devereux but she absolutely has her own story to tell. It was great to read about her pre GG days and how her career expanded over 6 decades. Good entertainment bio! I think I'll add Betty White's bio to my list as well...
• 
  Lauren Sternberg

  As a (nearly) lifelong fan of The Golden Girls, I knew this book would suck me in. Admittedly I did hear it narrated in Blanche Devereaux’s voice, but that was to be expected. ;)
  
  I really enjoyed learning about Rue McClanahan’s life, and her many romantic conquests (so Blanche!) - and of course, her time on the Golden Girls. She was such a talent and we lost her too soon.
• 
  Orsolya

  We all know her as Blanche Devereaux from “The Golden Girls”: the sex pot which a love for cheesecake and men. However, how well do we really know the actress Rue McClanahan? More importantly to the gossip lovers; how well do we really know about her sex/love life? Rue McClanahan opens up in “My First Five Husbands”.
  
  God rest her soul, but unfortunately Rue McClanahan fails to initially capture the reader in early chapters of “My First Five Husbands”. Although providing a firm foundation regarding her upbringing and imposing it with her Southern charm, sensuality, and humor (McClanahan isn’t a far cry from her role as Blanche, after all); McClanahan still fails to truly provide a clear insight into her mind. Not to mention, the backdrop story is not concise and tends to read more like small, abrupt stories on characters (and there are many!) that are mentioned in a tone as if the reader should just know who they are. This causes confusion, distance, and a lack of cohesiveness in “My First Five Husbands”.
  
  However, as the memoir continues and McClanahan begins to focus on the actual men in her life; the reader (especially females) can connect and relate to McClanahan’s experiences, as she lets some of her “guard down” and the narrative begins to flow more smoothly. Sadly though, McClanahan still doesn’t allow the reader into her head completely and therefore fails to provide an emotional connection with the reader. Her experiences are quite interesting and impressive in her nature of being naive and yet courageous/driven at the same time, which could provide an insightful and moving reading experience; but McClanahan opted to simply tell her life story versus offering her thoughts, emotions, and lessons. Simply put: “My First Five Husbands” is interesting but lacks a certain zest.
  
  Also absent is the comedic aspect one would expect from McClanahan’s natural talents. Unlike some other memoirs where I actually found myself laughing out (including fellow Golden Girl alum Betty White); this never happened in “My First Five Husbands”. McClanahan does provide some behind the scenes looks at “All in the Family”, “Maude”, and “Golden Girls”, but she still falls short on a true, emotional opening.
  
  The descriptions of McClanahan’s romantic escapades and husbands begin to become tedious with their similar plots and the reader begins to wonder why McClanahan never learned from her mistakes. Some readers could also become frustrated by the clarity that she wasn’t a traditional mother to her son and pursued acting, instead. Although this is subjective; I can easily see some parents becoming upset. At the same time, McClanahan never points fingers at her career, husbands, son, or herself for any of her problems/issues removing bias and any “woe is me” attitudes which offer a straight-path view of her life’s events.
  
  The ending is rushed and would have resulted in a stronger depart if McClanahan spent more than a page describing her last (and favorite) husband (the other husbands got an entire book!). It was like a movie cut short.
  
  “My First Five Husbands has “its moments” but overall it is much blander than expected in terms of entertainment value. An average reader would not gain much and thus, “My First Five Husbands” is only suggested for GG fans or fans of Rue, personally.
  
• 
  Rachel

  "People always ask if I’m really like Blanche, and I say, 'Well, consider the facts: Blanche was a glamorous, oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy Southern belle from Atlanta—and I’m not from Atlanta!'" - Rue McClanahan
  
  
  Alright, I confess - I expected Rue to have been more like Blanche Devereaux in the Golden Girls. I suppose that is because 'Blanche' is the role I first associated with this talented actress. Rue admits that like Blanche she has a lot of love to give, but there is most definitely a divergence between the actress and the role she played.
  
  Rue McClanahan was a consummate professional actress who loved her craft. This bursts through on almost every page of the book. Often, unfortunately, she had to continue acting in her private life because she felt panicky about being alone or rejected. This memoir delves into Rue's past relationships with friends, lovers, and her many husbands. Four failed marriages, including one that was physically abusive, may not have made her stronger but certainly did not kill her and she survived and eventually learned from her mistakes. During all of her personal turmoil, Rue always remained dedicated to her profession throughout her life. She was equally dedicated to raising her son. Thankfully, there were two men who were consistently in her life who were always there for her - her son and her father.
  
  Rue was a fascinating woman on many levels. She was a tenacious and talented actress. She was a feminist. She was a gardener. She was funny as hell.
  
  I am so glad that I read this book. If you are looking for dirt on what happened behind the scenes on set of the Golden Girls, you will be disappointed. If you want to find out who Rue McClanahan was in her own words, please don't hesitate to read her memoir.
• 
  ♏ Gina Baratono☽

  All of us most likely remember Rue McClanahan as the "sexy one" on "The Golden Girls" named Blanche. In fact, she was much like Blanche in real life too. She loved, loved, LOVED men, and actually married six times in her lifetime, the last being to the man who was finally "the one".
  
  Married first at a young age to a man who showed little affection and thought nothing of leaving her with a baby son, Rue wasn't handed anything - she worked very hard to carve a life out for herself and her son. Her success was due to her ability to bounce back quickly when things went wrong, shake it off, and keep on going.
  
  Many people harbor the false belief that, like Blanche, Rue was raised a southern girl in Georgia. However, she was actually born and raised in Oklahoma.
  
  While the book focuses mainly on her many lovers and her numerous amazing rolls in plays and television, it also delves into what made Rue tick.
  
  At the end, she speaks about her fight with breast cancer (which I had always thought was what she succumbed to - I was wrong), it does end on a high note with the love of her life and her successful treatment for that disease.
  
  If you are squeamish about intimate details in the bedroom, I'd say shy away from this book as she is basically an open book about her lovers, how well they did, and what led to her many break-ups.
• 
  m. ✨ On Hiatus ✨

  I have been a fan of The Golden Girls since I was child. I own every season on DVD and watch it whenever it's on TV. People wonder why someone as young I am loves a show about four older women living together in Miami. My answer, it's a good show, pure and simple. When I found out that Rue McClanahan, Blanche Devareaux on the show, wrote an autobiography, it piqued my interest....especially the title. I was pleasantly surprised. I had no idea that what colorful life Rue had prior to her success on The Golden Girls. Not only was she a dancer, but a pretty successful stage actress. I think the juiciest bits of this book are about her six, yes I said six, husbands. Each of them, including former lovers, were graded according their FQ (Fun Quotient). Rue's story was so interesting and funny! I particularly laughed out loud when she talked about a Christmas gift her first husband gave to her in the 1980s. Thinking about it still makes me giggle! I would highly recommend this book to any fan of The Golden Girls or people who just love a good read! Rue's life was not only interesting and juicy, but also proves that a girl from a small town in the middle of nowhere can achieve the success and adoration that people only dream of. This a great book!
• 
  Kevin

  The youngest Golden Girls star offers a chatty, thoughtful and effervescent tour of her surprisingly turbulent professional and private life.
  
  Like her TV alter ego Blanche Devereaux, McClanahan charts her experiences through the men in her life (and isn't shy about assigning ratings to the life in her men—she gives enthusiastic "A"s to Benson's Robert Guillaume and Brad Davis, who at the time was nine years older than her son). Days after giving birth, she was abandoned by her first husband and pushed into a second marriage (before her divorce was final). She remembers a photo taken of the event: "We looked happy. Much like smiling travelers waving from the deck of the departing Titanic." Both men continued to play large roles in her life as she navigated through numerous affairs and six marriages. After much stage work, she found success in her late 30s on TV's Maude. Later, "languishing in Love Boat limbo," she was rescued by The Golden Girls, which brought her an Emmy and financial security.
  
  Fans will relish her sweet and tart memories of friendships and tensions filming that show. A breast cancer survivor, she ends the book happily celebrating an active career and a decade with husband number six.
• 
  Michelle

  Surprisingly dark memoir. McClanahan has a very contemporary and upbeat voice which makes for wonderful storytelling; though, she does have a tendency toward the occasionally mundane or empty details or her private life, especially later in life--there's only so much to be said about gardening during your retirement. But she makes up for these brief moments of boredom when telling the outrageous and sometimes atrocious details of her private life, which often make for a far more tantalizing read than the passages on her life in entertainment. However, her passages on Hollywood, New York theatre, and the difficulties living as a struggling actress in the 50s and 60s are enlightening and told with an insightful real-world tone. McClanahan sure wasn't a celebrity who had lost touch with reality, and her down-to-earth charm leaps off the page. Most fascinating lesson: McClanahan did not have a lot of luck with the men, yet her sixth husband--and the one she was with the longest, right up until her death--proposed to her after just a few weeks of knowing each other. So it just goes to show you.
• 
  Joe

  Rue McClanahan's life story is wonderful! I picked this book up over shear curiousity. I am an avid Golden Girls fan, and I am also familiar with some of Rue's other television work...Maude and Mama's Family. She has also appeared recently on Broadway as the horrible Madame Morrible in Wicked. I never knew that her past was sorrid and full of bi-coastal adventures. I loved her personal insights; her wisdom for the ages on love, loss, happiness, and work ethic. The girl has it goin' on! Reading what she has done in her life makes me feel like I have a chance myself. She is definitely an actress/storyteller who has been able to market her "stereotype" to the fullest. She is Blanche Devereaux! And Blanche Devereraux forever! --- For those of you who are skeptical, pick it up when it's a paperback or get it from the library...it will seriously change your life.
• 
  Vicky

  This line right here:
  
  "People always ask me if I'm like Blanche. And I say, 'Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern Belle from Atlanta -- and I'm not from Atlanta!’” -- Rue McClanahan
  
  That was all it took for me to read this since I'm a huge, I mean HUGE Golden Girls fan. I had always thought she played that role with a little too much familiarity! ;)
  
  This book was a fun autobiography to read. I thought I would be so excited to get to her Golden Girls years that I would be bored by everything leading up to it, but that was sooo not the case! She really has some interesting life experiences to share and she does it with a lot of humor and wit. I would recommend this book to any other Golden Girls fans out there; and to anyone who likes to read about interesting, well-lived lives!
• 
  Justin Seals

  I'm not gonna lie, I'm a gay man who loves the Golden Girls. So I picked up this book a few years ago and kept putting off reading it. Boy am I sorry I waited so long. This is one of the best autobiographies I've read, and I've read quite a few. Rue goes through her entire life putting a large emphasis on the earlier part of her life. I went into this book hoping to get some of the dirt from the set of the Golden Girls, but she refuses to go there and instead we are treated with little stories about her start in community theater and how with the help of her mother she raised her only child.
  If you're looking for a great view into the early life of one of our most beloved television stars, this book is for you.
• 
  Chasia Lloyd

  Refreshing and hilarious memoir. Focusing primarily on her relationships with men, Rue boldly does only what a person with age and experience can do - admit her mistakes and embrace them. Even with the worst-sounding of people, she is able to point out their good qualities.
  
  The book is also in some ways a long letter to her son, trying to detail what was going through her mind during some rough times for the both of them. There are a lot of apologies disguised as loving words. Clearly her son was the best man in her life, and I am glad she had them.
  
  Fun read, great for fans but I think people unfamiliar with Rue McClanahan's work could enjoy it too. We need more women to shamelessly reduce men to letter grades.
• 
  Jessica Wilhoite

  This book was super interesting. Rue led a very active life - in and out of marriage :)
• 
  Lisa

  I checked this book out of the library a few weeks after Ms. McClanahan's passing. Is a bad book review speaking ill of the dead?? Hope not! She came off as very selfish. The real heroes of the story were her mother and other family members who cared for her son while she pursued her career.
• 
  Angie

  As much as she probably wouldn't appreciate it, Rue McClanahan is/was quite quite Blanche... With a bit of the hopefully optimistic, adorably naive Rose thrown in. Oh, bless. I had no idea she had such a life!
• 
  James

  Amazing autobiography, if you are a Golden Girls fan! Rue dishes out her life story and does not spare the details on her childhood, acting career, and love life. Nevertheless to say, Rue McClanahan was a real life Blanche!
• 
  Theresa

  One of the best things about this book is you can hear her voice in your head the whole time you’re reading. She is as funny in writing as she is on screen. What a gem!
• 
  Missy Ivey

  I finally reached the State of Oklahoma in the reading challenge and have looked forward to this book all year long. Unfortunately, it only gets a 3-star rating by me. Yes, you definitely hear her voice in these words, which I loved, but there was a LOT of stuff about the hundreds of plays she was cast in and lots of name dropping of people and earlier celebrities that I know nothing of, which made it just a little boring at times.
  
  Eddi-Rue McClanahan of the Golden Girls was born on Feb 21, 1934 in Healdton, Oklahoma, and died Jun 3, 2010, at age 76, of a brain hemorrhage at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She was cremated and her ashes handed to her family. Her autobiography was published in 2007, just three years before her death.
  
  She started ballet in 2nd or 3rd grade and had been drawn to the stage ever since. By the time she was a senior, she was helping to teach ballet when the teacher up and moved off. She was put in charge and paid for her work, and soon owned that school. Her family took a little summer vacation to New York City, and there, at that very moment, she knew where she was going. She enrolled in the University of Tulsa where she majored in drama, then moved to New York with a girl friend with barely enough money to live on for two weeks. She took a part-time job as a file clerk, meanwhile auditioned many off broadway plays. What she learned during this time was that her drama training at the University of Tulsa didn’t do jack-crap for her. She took up some more training in New York.
  
  Most actors start out in New York in theater in Off-Broadway and work themselves up to On-Broadway shows that travel, then to television series and movies in Hollywood. This book tells of all her struggles, barely making ends meet. One year she auditioned for over 60 plays in a four year period and wasn’t cast in not a one. She claimed you had to be gorgeous for film star-dom or absolutely talented. She name-dropped some very talented people who were not very gorgeous...Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Gene Hackman...but were damn good actors and actresses. Well, if she can throw them under the bus, I can throw her too. I really didn’t think she was all that pretty, BUT, I truly admired her for the way she carried herself...like she was the most beautiful woman. She carried herself that way in real life too. So, yes, in a sense, she was beautiful. Also, I never cared for her acting. I felt she was more suited to theater, BUT I did love and watch the Golden Girls as a whole back in the 80’s.
  
  Rue had one son, Mark, who would often go and live with her mother when she was just too poor to take care of another mouth. Her and friends often shacked up with each other to make living in either New York or California affordable enough that they could still pursue their dreams.
  
  And, yes Rue was married five times and had many lovers in-between that she talks about in the book. But, it wasn’t like her character on Golden Girls. She was actually a virgin throughout her college years and up until she moved to New York and met her first soon-to-be husband. She got knocked up and they got married. Rue was afraid of being alone, just spending time in her own head. She always had to have somebody. Her first husband mentally beat her down when she was fat and pregnant, but she loved him until the day he died. The Italian used her and beat her and squeezed her like a tomato and took all of her savings for her sons college and more from her. One was always just a friend, and they loved and helped each other until the day he died. One was just a mistake...but he was A+ in bed. And her last marriage to Will Morrow in about 1997 was everlasting. He helped her through chemo and dealing with her breast cancer. Rue was married to him the longest and still married the year her book was published in 2007. She seemed extremely happy. I’m sure she was still married to him until the day she died.
  ----------
  A FEW TIDBITS ABOUT RUE MCCLANAHAN I DON'T WANT TO FORGET:
  
   She read "Gone With the Wind" while in sixth grade. That's amazing! I read the book when I was a senior in high school, and I will tell you that was one hard book to get through. She read biographies of Pavlova and cherished Nijinsky, but her favorite book in her high school years, which she claims to have fingered to death, was "The Marx Brothers".
  
  She went out a few times with Robert Guillaume, the black man who played in the TV series, "Benson". It started as a blind date, and she thought he was fine. She even stayed with him for a while during her financial struggles and gave him an A+ in bed. She definitely was not a racist.
  
  She tried and hated Hollywood and left it for good, she thought, in July 1964, but how strange that she would leave behind all her grandmother's quilts, her diary, most of her clothes, her old car. I wonder if anyone found them, especially her grandmother's quilts and her diary. Of course, in the 1980’s she was chosen to play Blanche in the Golden Girls and moved back to California where she bought a huge house in Encino, Los Angeles, California, which she could barely afford, until payments started coming in from The Golden Girls...$1,000,000 a season.
  
  In 1979, Rue began working on a King-sized Mexican quilt. She worked on that quilt-from-hell for 29 years, but never did say if she ever finished it...or what happened to it. I wished she would have taken a picture and put inside her book with all the other photos.
  
  Around 1997, Rue found a lump under her right arm...breast cancer. Her doctor told her it was due to the synthetic hormones she had been on for the past 17 years. She went through chemo-treatment and lost her hair. She was beautiful without hair. There is a photo of her in the book.
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  GOLDEN GIRLS
  ----------
  Rue was very naive about things of life (such as who was gay on the set and who wasn't). Bea Arthur used to think she was faking, but Rue was actually a pretty sheltered child growing up.
  
  Rue was cast on the tv show “Maude” with Bea Arthur. That is how they come to know each other. When Rue’s mother had her first heart attack on October 15 (my birthday AND, incidentally the day I started reading this book) in, I think, 1973...Rue was about 39 years old...then two more heart attacks shortly after, in which the 3rd heart attack killed her, Bea opened her house for Rue to stay with her for a few days so she wouldn’t have to be alone. They were good friends for about seven years, then it dwindled off a bit because after Rue’s divorce with the Italian, Bea continued to invite that swindler to her house parties. Rue quit going.
  
  Bea was annoyed with Betty White during the filming of The Golden Girls because Betty liked to mingle and entertain the audience between shoots. Bea thought that was entirely inappropriate.
  
  Estelle had major memory and panic attacks while shooting on Fridays. She would do good and remember her lines until showtime. She finally had to use cue cards in telling her…."Once, long ago, in Sicily..." stories. Rue felt so sorry for her and tried to help her as much as she could. Maybe it was a precurser to the Alzheimers she would get later on, or Rue noticed Estelle didn't have a memory problem after Bea left the set at the end of the run and they went into filming for the Golden Palace.
  
  Rue was an animal lover. She had six dogs (small and large) and eight rescued cats. She often did benefits for PETA. Bea had two enormous German shepherd guard dogs. Betty had a little poodle but would adopt a retired seeing-eye dog every few years. Estelle didn’t have pets until Rue encouraged her to get a cat for company when she we t home each night. Estelle did and it drove her crazy because the cat was crazy. So Rue encouraged her to get another cat for company for the cat. And that worked. Estelle grew to love those two cats like they were the only cats in the whole wide world.
  
  After a 7 year run and success of the Golden Girls, Bea wanted out. So the producers decided to continue with a show called the Golden Palace. It was suppose to simply start up on the same channel and at the same time as the Golden Girls, but the channel dropped them without notice. It did run for a few shows on another channel, but since it wasn’t advertised or anything, the Golden Palace was dropped. I never even heard of it. Guess I will have to YouTube it and see what its about.
  
  In 2007, when the book was published, Rue was getting 2 cents for every DVD of the Golden Girls sold. I have every Golden Girl DVD there is..."Your welcome, Rue". She didn’t say how much she was getting for re-runs on television.