Dawn Wells - What Would Mary Ann Do?: A Guide to Life

There is so much more to Dawn Wells than Mary Ann of Gilligans Island (the longest running sitcom still showing worldwide in over 30 languages)!

Shes an actress, producer, author, spokesperson, journalist, motivational speaker, teacher, and chairwoman of the Terry Lee Wells Foundationfocusing on women and children in northern Nevada.

She has starred in more than 150 TV shows, and seven motion pictures, including Winterhawk (which she also narrated), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (with Andrew Prine), Super Sucker (with Jeff Daniels), The New Interns, Its Our Time, and most recently, Silent But Deadly.

She has starred in more than 60 theatrical productions, from Noel Coward to Neil Simon, as well as the National Tours of Chapter Two and Theyre Playing Our Song. Favorite productions include Fatal Attraction with Ken Howard, The Odd Couple with Marcia Wallace, The Allergists Wife, Steel Magnolias (Ouiser), and The Vagina Monologues.

Dawn has starred as Gingy in Love, Loss, and What I Wore (by Nora and Delia Ephron) in New York, Chicago, Delaware, Scottsdale, and San Jose.

She was the castaway correspondent for Channel 9 (Sydney, Australia) interviewing actors and directors such as Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Julia Roberts, Rene Russo, Mel Gibson, Ron Howard, and Richard Donner.

As a producer, she brought two Movies of the Week to CBS: Surviving Gilligans Island and Return To The Bat Cave, with Adam West. She ran her Film Actors Boot Camp for seven years in Idaho.

Steve Stinson is an artist and writer in Virginia, where he lives with his patient wife in the worlds smallest five-bedroom house. When he was young and limber, he was a juggler and wrote comic strips. Today, his grandchildren call him Bebop. His four childrens books Grumpypants, Where Kent Went, Darien the Crustatarien, and My Favorite Nursery Rhymes will be classics someday.

A parting shot: My Mary Ann short shorts on display. They were designed to cover my navel. I was told these were the first short shorts on television.

Copyright Dawn Wells. All rights reserved.

This book would not be possible without talent and energy of many, many people. This has been a joyous ride.

Rick Rinehart, thank you for trusting the topic and for seeing the value of the character that has sustained for more than three generations and is loved worldwide, and for allowing me to express my love and gratitude for our Mary Ann.

A special thanks to Steve Stinson. What fun! I thank you for your talent, humor, wisdom, and your creative design of the book. You got me! It has been a wonderful collaboration. I learned so much. I thank and appreciate you from the bottom of my heart. It certainly was a rough road until I finally found you. We did it! I know it wasnt easy.

Thanks to Leonard Carter, my manager, who brought us all together. Thank you for providing me with a place to write in your family cabin in the wonderful Blue Ridge Mountains. Thanks for encouraging me and caring for me. Thank you for good constructive input and criticism. A personal thank you for your talent and insight and partnership and seeing the book through to its final hour. And your smile.

Applause to Jim Bennett, illustrator extraordinaire, for your illustrations of our Mary Anns Terrible Toos. What a delight. I am so honored.

To Sherwood Schwartz, thank you for the creation of Mary Ann and giving her to me to bring to life.

Thanks to Julia Flint and Robert Rauch for keeping me on track and enduring long hours with a positive attitude.

Thanks to Brett Kloepfer. I thank you for beginning the journey with me through the ever-changing process and helping me overcome the obstacles along the way.

Thanks to Fred Westbrook, my agent and supporter for more than thirty years, with my career and with this book. Youre a champ and a marvel. You believe in me.

And, finally, thanks to Harlan Boll of BHBPR, my trusted publicist, for your incredible insight and talent.

Dawn

The day I finished the last pages of this book,
I found out that we lost Russell Johnson. I
thought of a quote from, of all people, Dr. Seuss:
Dont cry because its over.
Smile because it happened.
... and then this from Carl Sandburg:
Life is like an onion.
You peel off one layer at time.
Sometimes you cry.
Love, The Rest

They told me, You should write a book. I said, I dont want to write a book. I want to talk to you. They said, Dawn, we cant make that many copies of you.

As we shall see, they are usually right. So, Im writing to you, but I still wish I could be talking with you.

Now, theres a question. Its usually Mary Ann or Ginger?

Every character on Gilligans Island was given a broad stock comedy role to fill captain, mate, wealthy man, wealthy wife, professor, movie star except one. Mary Ann was not given a character description. She was given a name and location Kansas farm girl. I had to fill in the blanks. So, from the get-go, the Mary Ann character was different. She wasnt a Hollywood creation. She was molded by me, from me.

I think this is why, over time, as the Gilligans Island reruns multiplied and the Mary Ann phenomenon grew, fans of the show came to see the fictional Mary Ann Summers and the real Dawn Wells as almost the same person.

So, when I say, Hi, its me, you might be wondering who me is. Well, lets go with what the book cover says, by Dawn Wells.

Now, I want to talk to you about both of us. I drew from myself to make Mary Ann in 1964. I was 25. Ive had a much longer and richer life since the show that I can now share with you. Still, when I think about it, everything I am today was in place then, when I was 25.

At first glance, Mary Ann doesnt seem to fit in this age today, does she? Her manners. Her innate sense of propriety. Her pony-tails, gingham dress, and short shorts. Her plainspoken demeanor. Would Mary Ann use emoticons today? I think maybe :)

Birth control pills, the feminist movement, and the sexual revolution were barely even known when Mary Ann landed on the island 50 years ago. The whole idea of a good girl has evolvedGilligans Island... to That Girl... to Dallas... to Sex in the City... to reality TV... you get the idea.

Many a good girl today will publicly say and do things that would have made her Scarlet Letter material on the island.

But still, Mary Ann does fit. She fits today just as she fit two generations ago. She fits because she is timeless. The values and principles of her character are timeless. I know this because the core of Mary Ann is really me. I mean, I built her from scratch. You cant ignore it. Its your essence. If you play a character long enough on stage or screen, I think your true self shows through.

I want you to know you are not reading a put-down of Ginger or Tina Louise in any way. Viewers may have thought she was doing a Marilyn Monroe thing. The breathy voice. The eyes. Whatever. If so, she made it look easy and it was impeccably performed.