Phyllis Fraser
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Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner (April 13, 1916 – November 25, 2006) was an American actress, journalist, and children's book publisher, and the co-founder of Beginner Books.
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[edit] Early life
She was born Helen Brown Nichols in Kansas City, Missouri. Her mother was Virginia Owens, daughter of Walter and Saphrona Owens, who were of Welsh ancestry. Her two maternal aunts were Jean Owens, wife of radio actor Vinton Haworth (uncle of Rita Hayworth), and Lela (Owens) McMath, mother of Ginger Rogers.
Not long after her birth, her mother moved to Oklahoma City, where Fraser resided until age 16.
[edit] Hollywood
At 16, she went to live with her aunt, Lela, and first cousin, Ginger, in California. There, Ginger thought up her new name and introduced her to the Hollywood scene.[1] Between 1932 and 1939, Phyllis Fraser appeared in several movies, most notably Winds of the Wasteland (1936) with John Wayne, and Little Men (1934).
[edit] New York
In 1939, she abandoned Hollywood for New York City to pursue a career in advertising at McCann Erickson. Soon after her arrival, she was introduced by The New Yorker editor Harold Ross to publishing magnate and Random House co-founder (and future What's My Line? panelist) Bennett Cerf, whom she married on 17 September 1940. They had two sons, Christopher Cerf, an author and composer-lyricist who has contributed numerous songs to Sesame Street, and Jonathan Cerf, the author of Big Bird's Red Book and the 1980 world champion of Othello, the board game.
She wrote The ABC and Counting Book, a children's book, and co-founded Beginner Books, which is the Random House imprint for young children, along with Ted Geisel, more often known as Dr. Seuss, and his wife Helen Palmer Geisel.
After Cerf's death on 17 August 1971, she married the former New York City mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. on 30 January 1975. They remained married until Wagner died on 12 February 1991.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Rogers, Ginger, Ginger: My Story, HarperCollins Publishers: New York, NY (1991), page 108.
