Mary Amons: My Real DC Housewife

When I met her in 1981, Mary Schmidt (now Amons) - star of Bravo hit/cancelled series "Real Housewives of DC," was the schoolgirl daughter of CTM Chairman Robert L. Schmidt - he who introduced me to the sports, politics and TV worlds and several of the notorious who are named in or cued up for this blog.

Mary Schmidt & hubby-to-be Rich Amons, pre-glamour

The Schmidts lived next door to candy mogul Forrest Mars, Jr. and family in McLean VA, and Bob's nice wife Patty was daughter of Ukelele Hall of Fame 2001 inductee Arthur Godfrey.

I learned a lot by working for Bob Schmidt who is one of the greats: a hardworking, inspiring and personally decent executive; Kennedy administration veteran, college football star, and tireless organizer and promoter of charities like the Georgetown U. Lombardi Cancer Center and So Others Might Eat.

In the early 80's, cable TV folks thought that PBS had the golden goose, and they set out to clone it.  Bravo (Cablevision/Rainbow, pre-NBC) was [then] a high-end, daypart-only entry that competed with similarly high-end Arts & Entertainment (ABC/NBC/Hearst) and pay entry CBS Cable for the cultural high ground.  How quaint now to think of these lofty aspirations... and Lo (Low!), How The Mighty Have Fallen!  Bob had been president of the National Cable TV Association during the launch of HBO, TBS and ESPN and other pillars, and was by the early eighties in the thick of all the ambitious new programming development, particularly the emergence of regional pay sports nets.

Hail, Mary

But if I somehow then could have painted for Bob a vision of the cable TV landscape of 2011, with all those high-brow plans in tatters across a field of pandering, reality-TV detritus, he would not have recognized what Bravo (and the rest) might one day become.  And for suggesting that mischievous daughter Mary might one day star in as curiously exhibitionistic a show as the Real Housewives franchise, I think he might have given me the heave-ho.

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post script: My Coto friends Dave and Betsy live down the block from original "Real Housewives of Orange County" stars Jeanna (Nov. '80) and Matt (Oakland A's) Keough, (and a quick and lively hop-step 'round the corner from Jenna Jameson, at whose doorstep reportedly forms a line two blocks long of costumed fathers on Hallowe'en...).  But Mary Schmidt Amons is my Real Housewife.

Thanks Debbie G. for the tip on what's become of our little Mary!

Lucy Wilson Benson - Absolute Class

I can't tell you enough about how much I admire this lady!  My friend Lucy Wilson Benson serves as Chairman of the Board for the Amherst Cinema Arts Center, operator of the Amherst Cinema and the Pleasant Street Theater.  It has been my privilege to meet and get to know her whilst serving on the Board myself for the past four years.

In Virtue, One Gains Knowledge...

"You Never Can Tell!"  A devoted Smith College alumna, (Class of '49), Lucy married an Amherst man - Physics professor Bruce Benson - and has scaled the heights.  The phrase "distinguished career" is so often overused, but it fits Lucy like a smart Peck and Peck suit.  She became local, then state, then (1968-1974) national head of the League of Women Voters. Jimmy Carter named her Undersecretary of State, at the time the highest ranking woman ever at the State Department. 

''Don't ask me what it feels like to be a woman Under Secretary of State, because I don't know. I do know what it is like to be an Under Secretary of State, however.''

Lucy later served our state exceptionally as MA Secretary of Human Services under Governor Mike Dukakis.  A woman with clear head, a quick tongue - always constructive and right to the point.  A lover of life and funny as hell.

Two Beauties of the Silver Screen

Here is a nice profile written a few years back, in the Amherst College campus paper, about LWB.

I am proud to know Lucy - she went out to change the world after college, did so, and has remained our "United Nations of Amherst" treasure.

And her hair is spectacular!

Happy Mother's Day, from Ben Stiller and Kate Hudson

Ben, Kate, have you called your mothers yet today?

Happy Mother's Day,
Anne Meara, the cheek-pinching mom,
and same to you Goldie Hawn, the mom I'd like to pinch!

With love,

TOM