PHOTO BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Florence Henderson, seen in this 2014 photo, died Nov. 24, 2016 in Los Angeles at the age of 82.
By BILL BROTHERTON
Here’s a story of a lovely lady.
Everyone knows that Florence Henderson, who died Thursday in Los Angeles at age 82, portrayed one of America’s most beloved television moms in “The Brady Bunch.”
Not everyone knows that Henderson and her character, Carol Brady, had ties to Swampscott.
In November 1970, during “A Fistful of Reasons,” the eighth episode of Season 2, hubby Mike Brady asks Carol if she really had a lisp as a child. “I sure did, only it was worse for me as I grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts,” she replies.
How the heck did the Swampscott reference end up on one of TV’s favorite sitcoms?
Henderson’s manager Kayla Pressman told 01907 magazine “Florence had relatives that lived in Swampscott and was fortunate to spend some happy times there. Therefore when the script called for a lisp, she thought of Swampscott.”
A 01907 reader had another recollection, saying her Swampscott friend, the late Natalie Gelbert, had a sister, Mildred, who was married to Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of “The Brady Bunch” (and “Gilligan’s Island”).
Gelbert told her friend that on a visit to Swampscott, Schwartz made note of the funny-sounding name of the town, leading to it being in the script. “Perhaps that was Sherwood’s way of recognizing his sister-in-law Natalie,” wrote the 01907 reader.
“The Brady Bunch” is still rerun almost continuously on TV.
A silly, scintillating, story about a sitcom staple and Swampscott, Massachusetts, to be sure.