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PEOPLE & ARTSSaturday 29 April 2017
The stars shined for Mary Hart; now Daytime Emmys will too
LYNN ELBER who are the syndicated
AP Television Writer show’s currency.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) Many such TV magazines
— In the early 1980s, Mary followed to satisfy the
Hart became the face — public’s growing taste for
and the famously insured Hollywood buzz, but what
legs — of a new breed of became a nearly 30-year
TV show, the entertain- run at “ET” made Hart the
ment news magazine. genre’s queen bee.
She quickly rose from cor- Her legacy will be recog-
respondent to anchor on nized Sunday with a life-
“Entertainment Tonight,” time achievement award
powered by a dazzling at the Daytime Emmys
smile, unflagging charm ceremony, and Hart pro-
and an engagingly deft nounces herself thrilled by
touch with the celebrities the honor. She learned of
In this April 26, 2017 file photo, TV personality Mary Hart arrives at the Wolfgang Puck’s Post-Holly-
wood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony Celebration at Spago in Beverly Hills, Calif.
it on a trip to Chicago last
fall with husband Burt Sug-
arman and son AJ to catch
a Dodgers-Cubs playoff
game.
“My jaw dropped,” she
said, when the TV acad-
emy called with the news.
“I know Burt and AJ were
looking at me concerned
that something awful had
happened, because I im-
mediately got emotional.”
“It makes me appreciate
anew all of the years that
I’ve been able to spend in
television,” especially her
time at “ET,” Hart said.
Bob Mauro, president of
the National Academy of
Television Arts & Sciences, a short-lived national talk
said Hart is a worthy re-
cipient. Betty White, Alex
Trebek and Bob Barker are
among past honorees.
“As a trusted anchor in
the genre of entertain-
ment news, Mary’s ability to
be embraced by both the
stars she interviewed and
the audience is the rea-
son that ‘ET’ has been wel-
comed into homes across
the country for so long,”
Mauro said.
Hart, born Mary Johanna
Harum in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, said that compet-
ing in the 1970 Miss Ameri-
ca pageant (she was a top
10 finisher) gave her the
poise and confidence to
aim high — and led to an
epiphany.
“I think it literally was the
first time I was interviewed
on television, I went, ‘That’s Hollywood-centric.
what I want to be doing. I
would love to be talking to
various people about ev-
erything,’” Hart recalled.
She detoured as a high
school teacher for three
years in her hometown, but
then TV beckoned, and she
followed the path through
TV news and hosting stints in
the Midwest before head-
ing to Los Angeles.
After dabbling in acting, in-
cluding a role on “Days of
Our Lives,” she co-hosted
a syndicated TV maga-
zine and, with Regis Philbin,
show in 1982. An interview
with fledgling “ET” about
the cancellation brought
a job offer and an adven-
ture. “We broke ground in
television,” Hart said of the
show. “We created the
genre. And we all knew we
were doing something new
and fun, and it was hard
but it was exciting.”
She held the anchor job
opposite a succession of
partners, including John
Tesh and Mark Steines, be-
fore shifting to “ET” special
correspondent.
Photos and memorabilia
surround Hart in her of-
fice, but she prefers to look
ahead, not back. She still
keeps her hand in as a host
(she’s served as emcee of
Associated Press
the Palm Springs Film Fes-
tival for 13 years), but isn’t
She’s follows world news
and politics closely, she
said, and was set to mod-
erate a panel on the inter-
national refugee crises. She
works with the Simon Wi-
esenthal Center, Children’s
Hospital Los Angeles and is
a National Geographic So-
ciety board member.
Asked to recount some of
her career highs and lows,
the unfailingly gracious
Hart was game.
— She interviewed Rich-
ard Pryor when she worked
on an Oklahoma City talk
show in 1977 and found
him gruff and uncoopera-
tive: “It was kind of an ex-
pletive-filled interview that
was barely usable,” she
said.
He was a far different man
when she talked him in
the late 1980s, in failing
health and apologetic for
his transgressions. Hart and
“ET” visited him regularly
after that to check in and
bring him fan mail.
“There was such a bond,
and I had such apprecia-
tion for what a difference
he made in millions of peo-
ple’s lives,” she said. “And
why every comedian to-
day still refers back to Rich-
ard Pryor as being one of
the biggest influences in
their lives.”q