Quotes

[on Rita MacNeil]: I knew by the way she looked that producers were going to try to change Rita. They're going to demand she lose weight, forgetting what made Rita such a big hit. She's got a very sweet face. Rita is very sensitive about her weight and I was too. And she's sensitive about the media and I was too. If they can pick on your voice, they'll pick on your body.

Sorry I was so long. I met a friend in there. The mirror. I know I'm a big Polish broad, but I don't want to look like one.

They wanted to change me or the songs I sang. They wanted me to dance around with male dancers. They wanted to do long-distance shots, but you lose eye contact with the audience if you do that, and they wanted to do up-your-nostrils extreme close-up shots. I've got a nose with a bump on it, and it wasn't a perfect nose for television. I wanted straight-on shots. If I saw the camera was moving, I moved with it. I wouldn't let them get away with it. Oh, there a lot of quiet little wars going on.

They used to say I had wall-to-wall teeth. They called me Florence Welk. I guess I was criticized the most of anyone on Canadian television for my hair, my smile, my teeth, for my happy attitude. They just didn't think I was real. They thought it was phony and maybe hokey. But it wasn't. It was just the way I am, and people liked it.

It hurt me when they called me a bitch. But sure, I was demanding. I was called the Iron Butterfly long before Margaret Thatcher came along.