Talk show host, VIRGINIA GRAHAM signed photo
A signed 8" x 10" black & white photograph of talk show host, Virginia Graham, signed in purple ink with the inscription:to my one & only / Kay* – You're OKay / with me. / Virginia*NOTE: For a time, Kaye dropped the "e" from her name and went by "Kay Ballard."
A Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Kaye Ballard Estate will be included upon request.
Virginia Graham, born Virginia Komiss, (July 4, 1912 – December 22, 1998) was an American daytime television talk show host from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. On television, Graham hosted the syndicated programs Food for Thought (1953–1957), Girl Talk, which debuted in January 1963 and ran until 1969; and The Virginia Graham Show (1970–1972). She was also a guest on many other programs.
Graham was born and raised in Chicago. Her father, an immigrant from Germany, became a successful businessman who owned the Komiss department store chain. She graduated from the private Francis Parker School in Chicago, and in 1931, received her degree from the University of Chicago, where she had studied anthropology. She later got a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University.
In 1935, she married Harry William Guttenberg, who owned a theatrical costume company. They remained married until his death in 1980. The couple had one daughter, Lynn Guttenberg Bohrer.
She was described by noted writer Howard Thompson in The New York Times as “a bright, alert, talkative woman of ripe, tart-edged candor.” Another writer, Richard L. Coe, said she looked like “Sophie Tucker doing a Carol Channing performance.”
After World War II, she wrote scripts for such radio soap operas as Stella Dallas, Our Gal Sunday, and Backstage Wife. She hosted her first radio talk show in 1951. Graham was a panelist on the DuMont panel show Where Was I? (1952–53). She succeeded Margaret Truman in 1956 as co-host of the NBC radio show Weekday, teamed with Mike Wallace.
In 1982, Graham played fictional talk show host Stella Stanton in the final episodes of the soap opera Texas. Her book about her husband’s death, Life After Harry: My Adventures in Widowhood, became a bestseller in 1988.
Graham, a cancer survivor, was a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. A former smoker, she denounced smoking whenever the opportunity arose. Still, when asked on her program what she would do if she knew the world would end tomorrow, she confessed she would smoke.
Graham died of a heart attack on December 22, 1998.
+ + + + +PLEASE NOTEItems will be shipped from Indiana. Items for sale were in Kaye’s home at the time of her passing. They were collected from her home and shipped to an executor of her estate who resides in Indiana. As shipments arrive in Indiana from Kaye’s home in Rancho Mirage CA, it is determined which items are able to be sold and those items are listed for sale.
* * *
Virginia Graham signed photo
No returns. All sales are final.