Bea Arthur Reflects on Growing Up In Cambridge, Maryland

Interviewer: Maybe we can talk about growing up in Cambridge Maryland. What kind of a kid were you back in those days? Bea: All I remember that-and I shouldn’t say all I remember, was quite a place because it was of course segregated, very segregated, but I remember I was twelve, there was a fashion show in town and my parents owned a ladies dress shop. And I performed. I sang. It was the time of the big band singers, and I remember I sang “Are You From Dixie?” and “I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket”. And I was hired by the band to go to some place in Delaware-the hotel Henlope and had a-a-I got two dollars for the night. It was wonderful. No, it was-I was always into acting, performing, anytime and anywhere I could. And it wasn’t-it wasn’t too pleasant a childhood. This was before there was any kind of bridge or-I mean I’m sure if you’re not from the Eastern shore of Maryland, you don’t know what I’m talking about. But it used to be fairly isolated and there was no-there was a ferry that took you from a certain area to Annapolis and, you know, Baltimore and that area. But-in a way it was a lot of fun, the midshipmen from Annapolis would come over, there were med students from the university of Maryland who’d come over and work in the-the canning factory. You know, doing-looking for spores or whatever – I really don’t know what-what they were called. But it was a long time ago, my god, you know, it’s-was a long time ago.