Milford chronicle., 1962-12-28
Who Needs Middle AGE?
AP Newsfeatures

NEW YORK (AP) = The way
to turn cartwheels at so with the
agility of a ten-year-old is not to
stop turning them when you're 20,
80. 40. or so.
That is actress Molly Picon's
philosophy about growing older,
and it applies not only to physical
gymnastics but mental ones as
we'll.
On the street, at her corner
grocery, or at the stagedoor after
matinees, women old enough to
have remembered Molly when she
was a star of the Yiddish theater
on the lower East Side 43 years
ago ask admiringly, How do you
do it, Molly?"
While they refer to her gazelle-
like leaps and ferris-wheel spins
along the footlights of her current
Broadway musical, they also sur
vey enviously her ingenue figure
and her mobile face, young with
animation.
If she has more time, and the
occasion warrants it, ageless Molly
will elaborate on the cartwheel
answer. For the wasted capabili-
ties of many women in their
middle years is a subject close to
her heart.
Lonely Years
With grown families and busy
husbands they often become lit
nra Csa n
idleness, Molly knows. Some lose
themselves to reality with til e
television sets. And many los e
their figures via automobile and
automatic household equipment.
so why do you ask me to buy
you new TV and carr" jokes her
husband, business manager play
wright and producer Jacob Kalich.
"Yonkets, you don't have to buy
me new body yet?" retorts petite
Molly. Despite>her calisthenics on
stage, she walks the hour-long
route to the theater each day, and
on weekends at their country home
takes part in some vigorous gar
dening activity.
If your muscles stay used to it,
they don't know they shouldn't
just because they're older.
II your muscles get lazy, you
should expect them to complain. /"
Mental Exercise
The same can be said for men
tai muscles, insists Molly. OF
course, she's been lucky, never
bored day of my life" And she
admits that the average middle
aged woman does not have her
good fortune of having a career
to fill the gaps of being needed.
But nobody should grow stale.
III a woman's family is grown,
maybe that's the time she should
take on other peoples. If she is
feeling sorry for herself, all she
has to do is volunteer for some
welfare organizations and she'll
lind her own troubles are small
compared to others.
No matter how limited a wo-
mans talents are, she can be use
full, and she can feel fulfilled"
Grandma's Words
Molly's and Jacobs fulfillment
came with the adoption and edu-
cation of three European refugee
children, with postwar and years
OF entertaining in Jewish interne-
ment and concentration camps.
Much of Molly's wit wisdom,
philosophy about life in general.
and maturity specifically, cam e
from her grandmother Sarah Os-
trow, a tiny Jewish lady of such
indominable spirit that she did not.
until she was S5 and the doctor
told her flatly, discover she had
grown old.
After years of reciting tales of
her grandmother's troubles with
boarders, matchmaking, and fam
1ly-rearing on stage, Molly recent
~ wrote a book about her called
so Laugh A Little"
1T cost me SIS to find out I'm
DID," Molly says her irate grand
mother protested when she came
home from the doctor that awful
day. And you know what, chill
dren? l wouldn't give you two
cents for it."
And those are MolIy's senti-
ments, too.