over there until 1948. I spent 4 years in that wonderful house. Then, I went up to Tulsa to go the
University. So, I was Oklahoma all the way!
Freya: Did you always know, even as a small
child, that you were going to be a performer?
Rue: Yes, when I was in kindergarten at 5 years
old, we put on a production. It was an afternoon
performance for the parents called, “Three Little
Kittens” and I played the mother cat. I took it
very seriously. The other little girls in the play
were all giggling, and it made me very upset. I
didn’t say, but I thought, “We are not giggling
little girls performing for parents, we’re cats! We
should be cats now.” I liked the idea of transforming myself into another character.
Freya: When did you move to New York?
Freya: Rue, I am going to ask you some questions. The way I would like to proceed is on a
very personal basis, to let people know who you
really are…your precious sweet self! You were
born in Oklahoma correct?
Rue: I was born in southern Oklahoma. I was
born in Healdton that was a little oil town of
about 35,000 people in the 1930’s. I am not sure
what my dad was doing at that time, but I don’t
think he was working in oil, I think he just happened to locate there. Anyway, my mother had
moved there to work when she was 16. This was
her first job and she and my dad met there. He
was able to do all kinds of different things. He
was a carpenter, and learned that skill in his boyhood. My parents met, fell in love, got married,
and ten months later, I was born. Healdton was
just a darling little town and I had a happy five
and a half years there.
Then, we moved next to Lafayette, Louisiana. At
the time, my father was
working on building
roads; called “corduroy
roads.” I went to school
there, spent some time
in Louisiana and went to
second grade in Houston, Texas. Following
this, we moved back to
Duran, Oklahoma. We
stayed there all through
the World War II years.
That was a wonderful
place as well; southern
Oklahoma once again
– it’s the head of the
Choctaw Nation. It was
a wonderful, lazy little
town of about 15,000. I
made great friends there,
many of whom I still
have. In high school, we
would go to Ardmore after the war was over. My
father was working there
and it took him several
years to build our house,
so we didn’t actually get
Rue: Right after college, as soon as I could graduate, I went to New York. I got there in January of
1957, which was a good time to be in New York.
I studied drama with Yuta Hagen. Before I came
to New York, I had been studying and teaching
ballet. I had my own ballet school when I was a
junior in high school. It was called the” Oklahoma
Dancing Academy” with 53 students. I got the
opportunity to do this because my dancing teacher
moved away to Texas, and asked me to run the
school for him; he even gave me half of the profits.
So, I ran the school and the next year, he totally
got out of it. It was altogether my school during
my senior year. I studied at the Metropolitan
School of Ballet and the Holmes Modern Dance
Studio. I took modern jazz with a man named
Matt Maddox (my heart was not in dance, unfortunately), and of course, studied drama with Yuta
Hagen as I mentioned before. I auditioned for the
Erie Playhouse that spring and was accepted. I was
asked to come and work that fall in Erie, Pennsylvania for the winter season. That was my first
paying job. It was non-equity but still, it was an
acting job.
Freya: So you got the “bug” immediately.
Rue: Well, I got the bug when I was 5 and it just
kept “bugging” me. I am telling you it is an extremely virulent disease that acting bug.
Freya: Coming from a performance background
myself, I would have to say that to make it in entertainment; you’ve really GOT to have that bug.
Rue: Well, honey, I’ll tell you the truth. It had to
be…do or die. It was truly do or die for me. It was
a very serious proposition for me. I thought there
was going to be either death or success. I would
just become an actress or…well, there just wasn’t
an OR. There was not an alternative. I just had
to (make it).
Freya: So that was your destiny.
Rue: Really, it would have been spiritual death to
have not succeeded. I felt that I had to succeed.
And, I will tell you why - I admired good actresses
and good performers so much; I wanted to be admired by those people. The only way I was going
to do this was to join their ranks. I wanted to be
recognized as one of them. That’s what I really
wanted. I didn’t want to
be a big star. At this time
I didn’t even think about
moving to television, I really just wanted to be on
the stage.
Freya: That is a totally
different medium. What
is the difference in the
way you actually feel
when you are acting on
Broadway, versus doing a
TV show?
Rue: It doesn’t have to
be on Broadway. It could
be off-Broadway, it can be
in a smaller theater, or it
can be anywhere. But on
the stage, the actors are in
charge. After the rehearsals, they have to make it
happen for the audience,
every night, and every
performance. Making it
Cont. on Page 20
Woman
The County
Magazine
17