Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Madeline’s Biography, Serving All Your Mother’s Day Needs


Somebody else’s mother:
Paula Kahn played Gilda Radner’s mother in this sketch
with Elliot Gould on Saturday Night Live in 1976.

As Mother’s Day approaches, you are probably asking yourself whether Madeline Kahn: Being the Music • A Life is a suitable gift for your mother. I am pleased to help you answer that question.

Does your mother like biographies of single women who worked hard to build a successful career? Does your mother like books about movies and theater? Does your mother like books about singers? Does your mother like books in which dashing sex symbols like Kevin Kline, Burt Reynolds, and Gene Wilder take part? If so, you can give your mom this book with the inscription, “Dear Mom, I know you’re going to love this!”

Do you have a good relationship with your mother? If so, you can give her this book with this inscription, “Dear Mom, Aren’t you glad this isn’t our story?” Because Madeline’s relationship with her own mother was often quite difficult.

Do you have a difficult relationship with your mother? If so, you can give her this book with an inscription along the lines of, “Dear Mom, Let’s clean up our act, so that we don’t wind up in a book like this one!”

Do you have a truly terrible relationship with your mother? If so, don’t give her a copy of the book — she doesn’t deserve it. Instead, you can play your own variation of a game that Paula Kahn sometimes played on Madeline. Send her a card, and enclose several bills with a note saying, “Ma, please pay these for me.”


The playbill for Paula’s one-woman show.
Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Kahn.

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