Managing Editor
‘M*A*S*H’ star headlining at Alhambra
Loretta Swit says she was put into ballet shoes before she could walk. She’s been performing ever since.
“If you love what you’re doing, that is a blessed way of life,” Swit said Monday during an interview with the Daily Record.
Swit, best known as “Hot Lips Houlihan” in the “M*A*S*H” television series that ran weekly for 11 years from 1972-83, is in Jacksonville to star in “Amorous Crossing” at Alhambra Theatre & Dining.
The premier, a romantic comedy, was written by actor and screenwriter Mark Miller. “Amorous Crossing” starts tomorrow night and runs through Sept. 5.
Swit came to town about two weeks ago and has “been working from the get-go.”
“We’ve been working very, very hard,” she said, explaining that “Hard work can be a lot of fun,”
“Amorous Crossing” is a romantic comedy set on a cruise ship featuring two couples, an older woman and younger man and an older man and younger woman.
As these things happen, it turns out that the younger man and woman had been previously married to one another.
Swit said the story is “fun and games” and the type of story needed during the trying times in the world.
“It’s very entertaining,” she said.
Of course, “entertaining” is what Swit, 72, has been doing just about since birth. Swit was born in Passaic, N.J., to Polish immigrants. She has a brother.
An Internet Movie Database biography shows that she began her career at the age of 7 as “The Snow Queen” in a dance recital in her home town.
It was “M*A*S*H” that captured Swit and her character on film for the world to watch for 38 years now. “We have never been off the air,” she said. “You can find it in 100 countries. I’m very proud of it.”
She said that she doesn’t have a favorite episode, but has favorite moments within each. She won two Emmy awards for her performance as the head nurse for a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War.
“The writing was some of the best,” she said, praising “the challenges they presented to us every week. It was a growing experience for everyone. We were learning every day.
“There is always something you can learn,” she said.
She donated her “M*A*S*H” scripts to Yale University.
Swit, who grew up in New Jersey, said she and her mother often went to the movies. Swit knew she wanted to be an actor, but not for the glamour.
“I wanted to be the actor, not the fantasy,” she said. “The hard work, the process, is part of the achievement.”
Swit played Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on “M*A*S*H” from 1972 to 1983, joining co-star Alan Alda as the only two actors to appear in the first and final episodes. She was in all but 11 of the episodes and received Emmy Awards in 1980 and 1982.
She did not appear as Houlihan in the movie. That was Sally Kellerman.
The series also helped to convince her mother that the career was a good choice. Her mother had worried about the security of a career in acting and after a particularly good performance in an off-Broadway show, asked her father to step in.
“My mother said, ‘Lester, talk to her or this is what she’ll want to do the rest of her life.’”
Of course, it was what she wanted to do.
Swit’s father died at the age of 80, while her mother, 104, resides in a retirement home.
Asked her advice to aspiring actors, Swit said they know what it takes. “A fire in the belly” and hard work and study.
“Once you have that, you continue to grow. You layer experience with technique,” she said.
Swit, who has not been to Jacksonville before, hasn’t had time to tour the area but enjoys the Alhambra.
“I love the building. I love the architecture. The theater is lovely,” she said.
She also is restoring the luster of bringing big-name actors to the Alhambra, which opened in 1967 and recently was renovated and reopened after a short closure.
“I’m very excited to be a part of your growth, your future,” she said.
Swit has been on Broadway, in film and in other TV series, including appearances on “Gunsmoke,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “Mannix” as well as “The Love Boat” and “Hollywood Squares,” among other hit shows of the 1970s and ‘80s.
Biographical information shows she was married to actor Dennis Holahan from 1983 to 1995. She has no children and has not remarried.
Swit is an artist - watercolors and jewelry - and an animal-rights advocate. She has written a book about needlepoint- “A Needlepoint Scrapbook.”
In fact, her watercolors will be exhibited at the Alhambra during the run of “Amorous Crossing.”
The Alhambra is the longest running professional dinner theater in the nation and in its first few decades featured the likes of Sid Cesar, Betty Grable, Bob Crane, Mickey Rooney, Dawn Wells, Vivian Vance, Sal Mineo, Tab Hunter, Sandra Dee, Morgan Fairchild, Esther Rolle, Jay Thomas and Sandy Dennis.
The Alhambra reports that another “M*A*S*H” star, Gary Burghoff, who played Cpl. Walter Eugene “Radar” O’Reilly in the series, appeared in a 1982 production, “Boney Kern.” Burghoff appeared in 181 “M*A*S*H” episodes from 1972-80.
The show opens tomorrow. The theater is at 12000 Beach Blvd. Times for “Amorous Crossing” are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. and the buffet begins at 6 p.m. The Saturday matinee is at 1:15 p.m. Doors open at 11 a.m. and the buffet begins at 11:15 a.m. The Sunday matinee is at 2 p.m. Doors open and the buffet begins at 12:15 p.m.
Ticket prices start at $42 for adults and $35 for children and prices include the show, the buffet and parking.
For information, call the box office at 641-1212 or visit www.alhambrajax.com.
356-2466