Betty Lou Gerson was a character actress who could be seen in numerous televsion shows throughout the 1950’s and 60’s – most notably in one of my favorites The Twilight Zone, in which she starred in the episode Ring-A-Ding Girl. But Ms. Gerson really sealed her fame when she was cast to voice the evil vixen Cruella de Vil (To see her is to take a sudden chill) in Walt Disney’s 1961 animated feature 101 Dalmations.
When I met up with her at the Summer 1995 Hollywood Collectors Show, she was sitting next to Adriana Caselotti, voice and star of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Back in those days autographed photos were generally $5.00 each, but Snow White was ten. I remember thinking that it was only because Cruella was sitting next to Snow White with her $10 autographs, that she too was charging $10 for her autographs.
Nevertheless, I shelled it out in order to get this Disney classic. Snow White gave me an extra photo as you can read about here – but the ever-iniquitous Cruella de Vil (She’s like a spider waiting for the kill) only gave me the one photo, making this, the last of the 1995 HCS autographs, the most expensive autograph of the show.
This concludes the autographs from the 1995 Hollywood Collectors Show. Click here to return to the Hollywood vacation…
Leave a Reply