Wednesday, October 27, 1976
Chattanooga News-Free Press
Mary Kay Place Tours the Town . . .
Loretta Has Finally Made It To Nashville
By Joe Edwards
Nashville, Tenn.
Loretta has finally made it to Nashville.
Mary Kay Place, who plays Loretta Haggers on the “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” television show, was in Nashville last week for the first time.
Accompanied by Graham Jarvis, who plays her husband Charlie on the show, Miss Place sang on the Grand Ole Opry, was given a tour of the city, and met several celebrities.
On the show, the dream-deluded Loretta and her ambitious husbandhave been trying to travel to Nashville so she can become a big country music star.
In real life, she’s already recorded a country album and now may boast that she’s sung on the Grand Ole Opry, visited the Country Music Hall of Fane, and had her picture taken in front of a wax figure of Hank Williams Jr.
She bought a book showing the homes of the stars, sang briefly for a man drinking beer at the famed Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, and was complimented by Minnie Pearl.
“She IS Southern, isn’t she!” Miss Pearl said after meeting Miss Place and discovering that Loretta really does have a southern accent.
“This is the closest I’ll ever get to the ‘Mary Hartman’ show,” Miss Pearl said. “Minnie Pearl would be a little lost in that atmosphere.”
Miss Place’s album is entitled Tonight! [sic] At the Capri Lounge. Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Anne Murray, and Herb Pederson are supporting vocalists on the album.
Though she has been singing since her days at the University of Tulsa, she is of course best known now as an actress. But she has written scripts for episodes of “Phyllis,” “Paper Moon,” “Maude,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and “M*A*S*H.”
One of her first singing parts came when she sang “If Communism Comes Knocking At Your Door, Don’t Answer It,” on “All In The Family.”
After singing on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” record companies began trying to sign her.
“I knew why people were after me – because I was so well-known from the show,” she said. “I didn’t want to cash in on my television exposure. I didn’t want to do a novelty album.”
She finally accepted an offer to record with the understanding the album would be more than a collection of badly-sung country songs.
The album includes original material, Miss Parton’s hit “All I Can Do,” and the sacred song, “Have A Little Talk With Jesus.”
However, there are suggestions of Miss Place’s television show. One of the engineers for the album was Bradley Hartman-Bradley Hartman.
that way.
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