Linda Blair | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan
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What experiences shaped Linda Blair's early career as a child model?
I remember their faces, their eyeballs getting really, you know, big, and said, can you do it again but angrier?
Watching people talk about you, you know, in a sort of outward way, you know, you become the avatar of what's spooky.
We go in, we talk to Billy, and he's like, what are your questions? And I said, well, for me,
I was the most famous person in the world, and they want a piece of that.
And the headlines, it was a hot mess. So there's really no plan on a future career in the arts.
How did Linda Blair become known as the 'avatar of what's spooky'?
Hell no.
It's animals and animals. And I have a little bitty surprise. Okay. And then I'm going to tell you something that is really important that I need the public to know.
Linda, thank you for being here. You honor me with your presence. I'm so excited to talk to you.
Well, vice versa.
We're going to go way back, okay? Yes, we are. Because I started here. How does one become a child model? That's what I want to know.
So in around 1966, I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. My family moved up to Connecticut when I was two. So New York is very close. There was an article in Time or Life magazine talking about children modeling and in commercials. Now, there were a few kids that were maybe doing Broadway or you had your child actors in California, but this was something, oh, you know, like a model. So mom found an agent and got the pictures done. Her name was Dorothy Lohman. And we just started getting interviews.
How old?
It's about six.
And you remember this?
Oh, yeah. I mean, some of it is through photos that you can remember certain things. But then I booked my first commercial, which is Downy Fabric Softener. Okay. And I had to learn how to jump rope. And all the kids are outside playing in the snow. And mom would be like, Linda, you have to come in and learn how to jump rope, jump rope. So it was in like a lion, out like a lamb. And then there was a child jumping rope.
What role did animals play in Linda Blair's life during her childhood?
I don't know, Billy, you tell me. But that was my first commercial. And then you book another one. So whether it was Ivory Soap, I did about six of those. Did Golden's Mustard, Libby's Buttered Vegetables with Tony Randall. I did all the doll commercials. So a lot of stuff is starting to appear on YouTube now. So Tubsy was a doll. Splash, splash, Tubsy in a bath. Little girl, yay. I was the Hi Heidi girl. You push her button and her hair would grow. I think because there was only about six of us really working, that you're hired because you become a professional. Use your hand this way. Pick up the doll this way. Move over here.
You get a rep, basically.
I think that's what, because I did over 75 commercials.
Shirley Temple, in her great book, her memoir, she talks about commercials. being very conscious of what she was in control of. And she just said, I knew what I was doing, and I was very good at it, even though I was a little girl. Were you conscious of that at that time? Sort of being in... Not in control, but, like, knowing, okay, these people need this from me, and...
Yes, that part, yes. And there's three things that come to mind. Number one, it wasn't necessarily something that I was interested to do. I had always told mom, and you can go back over every interview since I came to the public's attention, that I talk about that I wanted to be a doctor to the animals. And mom would always tell me, You wanted to be a doctor to the animals. So obviously we knew that was a veterinarian. We don't know where it came from, but all my money was put away.
So your drive, your drive was, this is going to go towards my future education.
It was a carrot.
So you're okay. So it wasn't, I want to be famous or I want to be pretty or anything like that.
Oh, no. And I still don't want to be famous. However, that was the carrot. And then I could save my money. And we had a lot of cats, the cats. So the animals were what kept me going. The companionship through if I was lonely, I went to public school in Connecticut. And so I had great friends and they were used to me working. Mom was always like, you leave the work in New York. We don't talk about it. We don't anything to your friends, to anybody.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What experiences shaped Linda Blair's early career as a child model?
0:00–0:42
2
How did Linda Blair become known as the 'avatar of what's spooky'?
0:42–2:32
3
What role did animals play in Linda Blair's life during her childhood?
2:32–24:51
4
How did Linda's early career influence her later acting choices?
24:51–57:55
5
What were the challenges Linda Blair faced in Hollywood?
57:55–58:58
6
How did Linda Blair's experiences shape her advocacy for animals?
58:58–1:00:06
7
What led Linda Blair to write her book on veganism?
1:00:06–1:01:06
8
How does Linda Blair connect her personal struggles to animal rights?
1:01:06–1:50:07
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