She Danced Naked at Woodstock. She Dated Serpico. At 93, She’s Not Done.
The New York Times
Betty Gordon came to New York to become an actress (and have a good time). But her greatest talent may have been helping others.
Betty Gordon is perhaps the world’s most unlikely first-time children’s book author.
For decades she lived at the center of a bohemian New York that has long ago faded into mythology. A glamorous and witty feminist — friends describe her as a modern-day Mae West crossed with Dorothy Parker — Betty mingled with artists, writers and entertainers. She even had a romance with one of the most famous undercover cops of all time.
But it was not until a couple of years ago — when she was in her early 90s, mostly homebound, in ill health and nearly destitute — that she began cranking out the story of Phoebe, the cat who wanted to be a dog. It may seem an odd way to start a writing career, but Betty had her reasons.
“My heart was breaking,” she recalled. “I had to do something.”
Betty Gordon moved to New York from Detroit at the dawn of the 1950s, when she was in her early 20s, taking aim at a career in the theater. Like many aspiring actors, she held odd jobs — filing clerk, restaurant manager and occasionally, by her own account, a terrible waitress. But she was dedicated to her craft, assuming lead roles in productions of Shakespeare, Shaw, Chekhov, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, much of it in repertory and regional theater.
She also spent time in Manhattan nightclubs and Catskills resorts hanging out with jazz musicians, whom she met mostly through her husband of seven years, Hal McKusick, a saxophone player and leader of a quartet, who recorded with legends like Charlie Parker and Bill Evans. She studied acting alongside Sandy Dennis with Lee Grant, both Academy Award-winning actors, and circulated in a world of theater creatures and musicians.
