It's a play, It's a book, It's both ... either way, audiences are flocking to see and hear more.
"The people kept arriving until we ran out of chairs," declared Connie Kalter of Alison Arngrim's book signing appearance at Vromans on July 2nd, adding "After hearing Ms. Arngrim, I know why. She
offers so much more than a book signing. It was a performance!" The engagement marked the third for Ms. Arngrim, in one week in the Los Angeles area. Like Vromans, both Barnes & Noble at The Grove and Larry Edmunds on Hollywood Blvd, discovered that the audiences had at no shortage of questions for the former childhood star, who created the iconic character of Nellie Oleson on "Little House on the Prairie." Among the friends and colleagues that showed for Alison's LA launch were Gloria Allread, E.G. Daily, Romi Dames, Tippi Hedren, Kate Linder, Rose Marie, Cathy Silvers and her Little House co-star, Rachel Greenbush (Baby Carrie) - All joined her later at TART on Fairfax Avenue to celebrate.
As in her one woman show, Alison holds nothing back, while answering questions from the audience about her troubled and abusive youth, starring as America's most hated TV character, how the death of fellow cast member and TV husband, Steve Tracy, led to her AIDS activism and
later how she became an influential voice in politics as the spokeswoman for PROTECT.org. She mentioned to one fan that playing Nellie Oleson probably saved her life. It gave her a way to vent and unlike all of her poor contemporaries who played sweet and innocent, she wasn't tethered to the same restrictions, giving her a freedom to be mean ... something that has come in handy when speaking up to politicians on behalf of thousands of children with no voice.
Alison Arngrim gives audiences a reality check on "the facts of life" like no one else has ever done before, but sure as hell should have in CONFESSIONS OF A PRAIRIE BITCH. And you thought she was out spoken on that damn Little House on the Prairie? Vanity Fair declared her "TV history's #1 one bitch" and now after her successful run in New York and Los Angeles, she's taking her new memoirs and show on the road returning by popular demand. Additional scheduled appearances for the book, "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch," and her one woman show by the same name are planned for San Francisco, Boston, St Louis, Chicago, and even Walnut Grove, before taking it back to Paris, where Ms. Arngrim enjoys a heightened cult status ... as Alison claims, "The French don't think Nellie is mean, they think she's French."
Photo Credit: Bill Dow
