When I was a kid, there were some television rites of passage when it came to staying home from school sick: The Price is Right, soap operas (mine was the ABC lineup, from Port Charles to General Hospital), and daytime talk shows like Maury and The Sally Jessy Raphael Show. In a pre-streaming and on-demand era, they were Millennial and Gen X sick day staples. Speaking of Sally, she and her fabulous red glasses turned 90 back in February. That is crazy! She celebrated the occasion with a family brunch and then a girls’ trip to Paris. Sally also marked her milestone birthday with an exclusive People interview. She talked about being a working mom who was raising three children at a time when women were primarily homemakers. She also revealed the best parts about being 90.
On being a working mom in the 1950s: “Most women in the 50s were stay-at-home moms. And so a working woman was either single or interesting. It was difficult. It was an all-male world. They got paid much more than I ever got paid, and you never met another woman. There just weren’t women out there. Even in Puerto Rico, I was the only woman doing radio and television. I was the morning woman, but I didn’t think of myself as a woman. I just thought of getting a job and earning some money. So that’s the way [I did it].”
The difficult balance: Of balancing parenting her children — daughters Andrea and Allison from her first marriage and son Jason from her second — during a time when there weren’t many women in the workplace, Raphael admits, “It was hard. Thank heaven I had a husband who didn’t mind being a house husband way back then, and he looked after the children,” she adds of late husband Karl Soderlund.
She’d work three jobs: “But I worked, many times three jobs. In Miami, I worked the morning show, AM Miami, then I worked at noontime interview show and then I worked a nighttime classical music station. I knew nothing about classical music. But three put it together into some kind of salary.”
The men who made up her audience: “They do a thing when you’re on the air to find out who’s really watching. And gay men were there, but the largest audience were straight Black males. I have never been able to figure that out. However, every time I walked past a group of Black males, they all say, ‘Hi, Sally,’ so I know it’s true. And they’re more likely to ask for a hug than White males or White women, so goodness knows.”
The best part of being 90: “You really have no one to please. You don’t care what you wear. You can wear anything. You don’t care what you say. You can say anything. Not caring about people and what they think is the best thing for getting older.”
“You really have no one to please…You can wear anything…you can say anything.” I think at 90, you’ve earned the right to not have to please anyone! I’ve always assumed that when older people are excited that they can say anything, it means that they don’t go home after a social event rerunning all of their conversations in their minds, worrying that they said something weird, overshare-y, or accidentally offensive. Maybe that’s just a me thing? Anyway, Sally was also such a trailblazer. While I knew she started in radio, I had no idea that she worked three jobs at once! She worked so hard, and it really paid off when her show was one of the first of its kind that was hosted by a woman. And apparently gay and Black men knew how awesome she was the whole time!
Sally was no doubt a revolutionary force for women in TV, but IMO, the most badass thing she ever did was that time she offered to induct Rush Limbaugh into the Radio Hall of Fame after he was voted in. This was 1993. Limbaugh accepted the offer and Sally spent the entire speech reading him for filth and chastising those who voted him into the RHoF. That is some f-cking legendary Mother behavior right there. I’d love to hear what she has to say about certain other people who run in the same circles Rush did, especially now that she’s announced that she DGAF about what she says anymore.
Photos credit: Kimberly Butler/Avalon, Ron Wolfson/Avalon, Dennis Van Tine/Avalon, Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Avalon
Good for Sally and she still has her signature red glasses. I’m not 90 but I say what I want and dress in what I want. I am comfortable in who I am. Sally really worked hard during a time when it was tough for women who wanted to work and not just to stay home and take care of the kids.
I loved watching Sally, especially in the early days. Her and Phil Donahue were the best.
I always wanted red glasses but was never brave enough. I always had blue glasses growing up so when I was old enough to pick out my own I wanted trending ones.
I can’t imagine the crap she had to deal with. I’m glad she’s having fun. And I never knew that story about Rush – that is freakin’ awesome.
Not just black men, black people love Sally. I’m so glad she’s still here and giving people hell.
Watched plenty of Sally and Jenny Jones during college! They were my favourites *sighs in old*