Web Digest Weekly - Reflections

Reflections
Web Digest Weekly
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Esther Rolle was one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood. She became a star in a time when
African American performers were coming into their own as full fledged celebrities and the appeal of
her persona was so warm and inviting that millions fell in love with her. Her greatest role was of
course that of Florida Evans, the first housekeeper on the hit sitcom Maude and then in its top rated
spinoff Good Times, but Esther’s talents were far more complex and entertaining than network TV
could contain.

Esther was the tenth of eighteen children born to Bahamian immigrant parents. She made her
entrance into the world on November 8, 1920 in Pompano Beach, Florida. An avid student, Esther
finished high school near the top of her class and went on to attend Spelman College, Hunter
College, and the New School for Social Research in New York City. She began her career working
in retail sales in New York before spending a few years in Flint, Michigan, where she was a
maintenance worker.

She didn’t begin acting until she was almost forty years old. Her first roles were on stage and her
highly educated manner, coupled with her commanding presence, made her an instant attraction in
such Broadway shows as The Blacks, The Crucible, and Blues For Mr. Charlie. She soon found
herself in high demand as an actress and her career went into full bloom in the early 1970’s in the
Mario Van Peebles play Don’t Play Us Cheap. It was around this time that producer Norman Lear
invited her to audition for a role on his upcoming All In The Family spinoff series Maude, and
history was made.

As Florida, the housekeeper on Maude, Esther was a viewer favorite from the moment she made her
first appearance on the new series. Her witty remarks, incredible comic timing, and often deadpan
delivery of some of the show’s funniest lines made her irresistible to fans. Maude was a huge hit and
Esther was right at home with series star Beatrice Arthur, often giving Maude her comeuppance in
majorly hysterical ways. As the character grew more prominent, it was expanded and soon Florida’s
husband was added as a recurring guest. John Amos gave the role a realistic and strong character
and he and Esther worked very well together. By the winter of 1974, Florida and James were so
popular with viewers that Norman Lear developed a spinoff series around them, moved the Evans
family to Chicago, and Good Times was born.

Good Times was a hit right out of the box and Esther was very much at home as the star of her own
show. Along with Amos, the new cast was rounded out by the incredibly talented Jan’et DuBois as
neighbor and best friend Willona Woods. The Evans children were played by Ralph Carter, Bern
Nadette Stanis, and newcomer Jimmy Walker. Living in a Chicago tenement building based on the
real life ghetto neighborhood of Cabrini Green, the Evans family lived barely above the poverty level
and storylines revolved around their dreams of making their lives better through hard work and
moving out of the ghetto. The show was a ratings hit, reigning in the Nielsen top ten for much of its
run, but it was troubled almost from its inception.

John Amos was unhappy because he didn’t feel he was remunerated enough as the male lead of the
series. Also making conditions in the cast tense was the immense popularity of Jimmy Walker’s
character, eldest son JJ Evans, whose catch phrase “Dy-No-Mite!” created a pop culture revolution
all its own. JJ’s jive talking, sometimes shady activities didn’t endear the character to Esther either,
who worked tirelessly to abolish racial stereotypes on the series. Amos became so disillusioned that
he left the show in 1976 and James was written off as having died in a car accident during a visit to
Mississippi where the family was planning to move due to James’ having found a better job there.

Now fatherless, the Evans family remained a favorite with viewers but Esther had become unhappier
with the direction the show was taking after the death of James, and she didn’t care for the storylines
revolving around JJ’s wise cracking, not altogether honest persona. Esther had always been proud of
the fact that Good Times portrayed a realistic black family doing the best it could under difficult
circumstances and she had been particularly pleased with the strong father figure role that John Amos
provided. A year after his departure, Esther herself announced that she was leaving the series due to
personal reasons and disagreements with Lear. Florida was written off the show as having moved to
Arizona with her new husband Carl, played by Moses Gunn, and the Evans children soldiered on
with DuBois assuming the lead role on the show. Not surprisingly, Good Times dropped in the
ratings almost immediately after Florida’s exit.

A year later, in an effort to reinvigorate the sagging series, Lear wooed Esther back to Good Times
with promises of cleaning up JJ’s act and returning to more realistic storylines. In the year since her
departure, daughter Thelma fell in love with a pro-footballer named Keith (played by Ben Powers),
JJ began his own greeting card company, second son Michael moved toward college, and Willona
had adopted an abused daughter named Penny (played by a very young Janet Jackson.) Thelma’s
wedding provided the backdrop for Florida’s return – sans Carl – and Good Times enjoyed a
resurgence in popularity until it finally went out of production in 1979, ending on a high note with
everyone finding success through lucrative jobs, college scholarships, and Keith’s receipt of a major
contract with an NFL team. The Evans family, including Willona and Penny, moved out of the ghetto
and finally got what they always wanted out of life.

After Good Times, Esther moved on to a successful career in motion pictures. She remained a
popular guest star on other TV shows of the day as well. Her most famous role in movies came in the
1989 classic Driving Miss Daisy, in which she portrayed Idella the housekeeper. Now in her 70’s,
Esther was suffering from diabetes and its long term effects, but she kept on working in movies and
television. She had a major role in the film version of Maya Angelou’s groundbreaking book I Know
Why The Caged Bird Sings and she was also featured prominently in the miniseries Summer Of My
German Soldier. She played Aunt Sarah in the 1997 hit Rosewood, gave a great performance in
Maya Angelou’s Down In The Delta, triumphantly returned to Broadway in a revival of A Raisin In
The Sun and also in Member Of The Wedding, and her last role was in the film Train Ride.

As the complications from diabetes took their toll on her, Esther was forced to retire from acting.
She suffered renal failure during her last months and underwent dialysis. Esther remained at home
until her death on November 17, 1998, nine days after her 78th birthday. Fans all over the country
mourned her passing and she was celebrated and memorialized in services from Hollywood to New
York City to Good Times’ setting in Chicago. Married once, from 1955 – 1960 to Oscar Robinson,
she had no children.

Esther Rolle was a groundbreaker for African Americans in show business. She fought against racial
stereotypes in everything she did and even though she often portrayed a maid she never allowed
herself to become beholden to the employers she worked for in the many productions she
undertook. She is remembered as one of the finest actresses to have ever graced the international
stage and as the title to her hit series proclaimed Good Times was a motto she lived by.

Carey Parrish

"Good Times"
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Reflections Of Esther Rolle

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