Mary Beth Interview
“Hollywood Clout”
Air America (internet “radio” program)
Guest Host: Deidre Hall
Transcript: April 17, 2009
Deidre’s intro about Mary Beth before the show:
“And if you don’t know by now, Mary Beth Evans, one of my favorite people on the earth, who played…you’ll know her as Kayla Brady, and is an amazing woman, a darling mother, an entrepreneur, she’s had her own business- she’ll talk about that, she has a new backyard project – she’ll talk some about that.”
Deidre’s intro about Mary Beth before her segment:
“Its so much fun to talk to people that you know and love on the radio. I was going to say television because that’s my field, but I want you to meet somebody who ALWAYS makes me laugh, always makes me smile, who is more fun to stand across from than anybody that I know. She is the female heartbeat of Days of our Lives, she is someone that you have loved and followed for years and years and years. You’ll know her possibly as Kayla Brady, but it’s Mary Beth Evans. Mary Beth, say hi.”
Mary Beth: (via phone) “Hi Dee, thanks for having me on.”
D: “Hi, honey.”
MB: “Wow, how much fun for you, what a step away, huh?”
D: “It is…you know I began in radio when I was …let me think here, a long time ago…”
MB: “…Great!”
D: “But there’s something about doing it live, and doing it with friends…and uh fun, just fun, fun, fun. Thanks.”
MB: (hard to hear some) “Whenever I am doing anything, I’m like ‘let me call my friends.'” (giggles)
D: “Right, how do you ever get through your whole list? So many people adore you.”
MB: “Oh, thank you.”
D: “What people don’t know is she will walk through the room, the make up room at Days of our Lives, and when she leaves people just say ‘Don’t you just LOVE her? Don’t you LOVE her?'”
MB: “Oh, thanks.” (sheepishly)
D: “You are the most natural, authentic person we all know.”
MB: “Thank you. I think I have my priorities straight. I think that’s what drives me. I think it helps.”
D: “I was about to say that because your kids are so vital to you. I always see you out with them at events and functions, and that’s all you talk about. And tell me something about your boys.”
MB: “Uhm, let me just say one thing. When you said that, I just thought…I always thought I could have it all, and I think that’s what’s really cool. And I think that moms, that’s always a struggle for women. Can you have your career, can we have kids, can you be married, can you do all these things? And I always just assumed you could and pursued it that way, and luckily it’s worked out. But like I said, my priorities have always been my family first. And now, gosh it’s so crazy, I don’t know what happened but two of my kids are in college, life went by so fast. I’m shocked. I have one child at home, he just got his driver’s license, so now he’s, you know…gone. And uhm, it’s kinda crazy, I don’t know what happened to the time. In fact, yesterday I volunteered and I babysat someone’s two and a half year old, just to get a taste of the little people.”
(Deidre is laughing)
Mary Beth: (laughing) “And I just planted this big organic garden and it was so exciting. I researched it and dug it, and added the nutrients, and did all this stuff…incredible. And the first thing I did was take this little kid out to this garden and we planted seeds and he was watering, and I thought how great is this in the middle of this sort of city…urban life, and have this pretty good size…25 by 20 space…”
D: “Oh my gosh, it’s enormous.”
MB: “It’s just incredible so … you just have to pick up these little pieces of life and bring them into your world, you know?”
D: “When I was small… when my kids were small, we made a little garden out in the backyard, and my theory was I wanted them to know that food came from other places besides Gelson’s and Ralph’s…and imagine my surprise that it actually happens. But we did the same thing.”
MB: “Every year I have planted some sort of garden, but it ended up being kind of ornamental because nothing was ever that good. So I thought this year, I want to really make it where we really ate off the land, you know, and last night we had some incredible bok choy and arugula that, home grown, is so spicy. It was great, and I told my husband, ‘it’s starting to happen, we’re eating off the land’. But you know, I am a creative person and you are, too ,and whether it’s baking pies or making gardens or painting my house…if you’re a creative person, you have to have your outlets. And when I finished this garden with the scarecrow, I had gone to the thrift shop…it’s a woman scarecrow, she’s got this fabulous outfit and I took these great shoe button things…they’re like broaches I got at a flea market and those are her eyes…Because Jolene, our make up gal from Days of our Lives, went for a walk with me and she saw the scarecrow and said ‘She needs a face’ …”
D: “Jolene would say that.”
MB: “So now Jolene sees it and she says, she needs some beautiful luscious lips. So now I think I am gonna start messing around out there. But I think if you are a creative person, you have to have your outlets whatever they are.”
D: “So good…what’s in your garden?”
MB: “OMG everything, I put in five amazing heirloom tomatoes that are supposed to get… to be, the plants themselves, like 12 feet tall. And I put in, like I said, arugula, broccoli, bok choy, beets, fennel, several different kinds of squashes, several different kinds of pumpkins, cantaloupe, carrots, corn, onions. And then I read in these books how many…what goes with each other, and the corn you really need to kind of plant it together, and it cross pollinates, and it does all this crazy stuff I really knew nothing about… and adding worm castings(?)…and I mean it is amazing…”
D: “OMG! You know you make it sound like you just went out in the backyard and sew a few seeds in the yard and it came out to be… Jack and the Beanstalk.”
MB: “Oh, no. It took two weeks in the trenches and ya, it was this big deal…pretty fun.”
D: “I’m so proud of you, that’s great.”
MB: “I’m proud of myself. I felt so good about it, really. These kinds of things I think you feel good when you accomplish them and they really are fabulous.”
D: “Speaking of things you’ve accomplished, talk about… it’s the most impressive thing among your other projects that I’ve seen forever on the market, and you make the most extraordinary apple pies. I know it’s an old family recipe.”
MB: “You’ve been one of my best customers.”
D: “It shows on my whole body from time to time. Thanks so much.”
MB: “Not true…You know, it was just a lark. My husband had read an article about mail order apple pies and he said ‘Oh, you should do that’, and I thought he was crazy because I didn’t know anything about it. But I went for it and, you know, it’s been pretty good. I sold 3000 on QVC in 7 minutes. I’ve been on <inaudible word> kitchen web site last year, and now in the fall, I have these little apple and little pumpkin pies that are going to be in the Williams Sonoma catalog and web site in the fall, for Thanksgiving.”
D: “You know I am going to put that on the web site because people have got to try these. They are so amazing. She makes sheets and brings them for family and friends…whole sheets of pie that…”
MB: “I made that especially for you. I don’t really do that for other people.”
D: “Oh no, sorry that’s not for the public, but I must tell you, at one of the events I gave for my son’s school, Mary Beth had been good enough to provide us with one of her…unavailable to the general public…sheet pies, and we had ice cream, we had all kinds of things, and that went out the door SO fast. And what I want to say about it is; it’s not just an apple pie she sells. Mary Beth makes it and freezes it. And when it’s shipped to you, you carefully follow the instructions; you put it in your own oven, so your guests think you made that pie. The house smells dream…”
MB: “I was going to say, don’t tell anyone that you didn’t do it.”
D: “It’s like one of those four-one-twenty blackbird pies, it’s SO gorgeous. So looking forward to it.”
MB: “It’s a ‘I’ll make it, you bake it’ sort of concept.”
D: “In case they’re curious, it’s Marybethapplepies?”
MB: “It’s MaryBethsapplepies.com, but right now actually, I am revamping the whole web site, and the kitchen that we bake them, they’re moving, so everything’s kind of shut down for a couple of months while we revamp everything and we’ll be back up and running shortly.”
D: “Ok, you’ll keep me posted and I’ll keep the audience posted because that’s…”
MB: “You know also if you go to my web site, you can just put your email in the contact me, and I’m going to contact everyone when we’re back up.”
D: “Ok, we’ll keep that posted in the AirAmerica. You’re so cute. And you’re doing something that’s good for the country and the environment, too. You’re becoming a hybrid mom? Tell me about that.”
MB: “Well, there’s this really great magazine called Hybrid Mom, and you can look it up, hybridmom.com. And it’s all about entrepreneurial moms and juggling mom life, work life, and kind of what I said before. What I really think a hybrid mom is, is the woman who gets to have it all and strives to have it all. It started by… they did an interview with me about my pies, being an entrepreneur myself. And we just kind of hit it off and they said, ‘Hey, would you like to write a article in our next issue?’, and I thought, ‘Gosh, I have never done anything like that before and I don’t consider myself a writer, but I have great tips about entertaining and being a housewife and a mom and a everything‘. So in the last month’s issue I did a whole thing about an easy dinner party with recipes and inexpensive ways to go about a great evening.”
D: “Oh my Gosh!”
MB: “And it just came out. It was great. And it’s so exciting for me. It’s funny, my kids were in art school when they were little and the teacher used to say halfway through a drawing, ‘and your success on this?’ And I used to seriously think, ‘hmm… what does she mean exactly?’ And now I feel like these things, you say that to yourself when you have these little accomplishments, and my success is, ‘Well, I never thought I could do something like that and I pulled it off and wow’. You know, I think we all have to do these little challenges…you doing this radio…whatever it is; we have to do our challenges. So they loved the article. They said they had such a huge response that then now; I am going to have a regular column on their web site called, “Ask Mary Beth”. And people are going to write in. I’m going to give my little tips about things. And right now, as you were calling, I was heading over to the market because their next issue I am doing a whole thing on summer entertaining. For years and years…my closest friends, the Daviches you know, and a couple of other friends and their kids…we were 10 kids and 8 adults…and we used to get together for so many Saturday barbecues. So today I’m preparing the Taco Bar that I talk all about in my article. So I’d gone to the market to purchase some of the ingredients and I am going to go home, make it and take photos. So today I am a photographer for a magazine, I have no idea what I am doing (laughs), but it’s so exciting. All these little things, you know, you have to challenge yourself and be scared and hack at it and throw it out there and it’s like wow, ya, exciting!”
D: “So it’s still hybridmom.com. We’ll put that on the web site, too, because I love that you’re doing it. You know, one of my favorite quotes…and I believe…I should give credit but I am not sure I am right…was ‘When you take that step into the great unknown, into the darkness…you must believe that one of two things will happen: You will step onto solid ground or you will learn to fly’. And I think women are so busy flying lately, and stepping onto solid groun,d that we ‘re coming into our own. You’re certainly doing that. I am so proud of you. I love being around you, listening to you, being a part in saluting your success. You’re a dream girl. I’m crazy about you. ”
MB: “Thank you.”
D: “Off to the market you go….”
MB: “Thank you for calling me. It was fun to catch up.”
D: “We’ll talk a hundred times.”
MB: “Bye doll, take care”
D: “That was my pal, Mary Beth Evans from Days of our Lives.”
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