I have great affection for Dr. Ruth. As I became a teenager I somehow found her radio show and listened to it covertly on a walkman at night. Her forthright manner, openness and acceptance was important for me to hear at that age. She was a wonderful lady.
She spoke honestly and openly about sexual relations publicly before everyone was doing it. I enjoyed listening to here on the radio as a teenager, and learned more from her than I ever could learn talking to friends.
I remember her, too.
Not only did her content and delivery seem inherently positive and helpful, it also put in stark contrast how Puritanical our society remains.
n.m.
Stranger
She was also very funny and a frequent guest on David Letterman and Conan O’Brien’s shows:
Dr. Ruth Tackles The Tough Questions About Sex | Letterman
Ruth Westheimer on Late Night December 27, 1996
(That’s the only one I can find with Letterman and looks like her first time as a guest but IMDb.com lists 22 appearances on Late Night With David Letterman and one on The Late Show, with an additional 8 appearances on *Late Night with Conan O’Brien.)
Stranger
I met her in 1986, shortly after she became a nationally-known figure. She gave a presentation at my college, and several of my friends and I were able to get tickets to a reception afterwards. I got the chance to talk with her for some time, and she was every bit as kind and funny as she came across on her show.
She was deadly with a rifle.
According to Wikipedia, “When she was 90 years old, she demonstrated that she was still able to put together a Sten gun with her eyes closed.”
She made a better conductor for sexual enlightenment, both as an old cutie and as a link to Viennese psychology; especially when compared to opportunists like Hefner and Gurley-Brown. But of course her message fell behind along with theirs, especially after 2015 as MeToo was emerging; when she claimed that, once both parties are present and aroused, consent can’t be withdrawn. And she cited Jewish tradition for credibility.
I remember her telling the story of taking her grandchild to a carnival where there was a shooting game, and she won multiple prizes until, as I remember, the game operator asked her to go away.
Was just reading her Wiki page. Wow, what a life she had. A movie should be made about her.
There was an off-Broadway play about her life, in which she was portrayed by the woman who played Kitty Foreman on That '70s Show.
I saw her in some old episodes of Hollywood Squares recently, alongside Richard Simmons and Martin Mull. It seems a remarkable coincidence that they should all have died within days of each other.
(I wonder if Shelly Duvall was in any of those episodes too…)
Debra Jo Rupp.
I had to look; according to IMDB, no, she never appeared on Hollywood Squares.
Unless I was hallucinating, she did in the Tom Berenger iteration, around 2003–2004.
There is a biography on her at libraries, its got to be fascinating.
She will be missed.
If so, it didn’t make it into her IMDB profile.
I know; I figured more people would know the character than the actor’s name.
I think those episodes have all been archived, so I’ll go through them when I have the time.