OBIT: Detroit movie hostess Rita Bell, 78
Kathi
personalities. For 21 years, Rita Bell hosted Prize Movie on weekday
mornings.
According to her husband, the 78-year-old actress and singer succumbed
to cancer Tuesday.
Rita was discovered by a Channel 7 production chief while she was
working for the United Way in Detroit. At Channel 7's 50th Birthday
Celebration in 1996, Bell reminisced about her start on television.
"Remembering my first night on television, I tried very hard to be
calm, cool, collected and to act poised and with dignity, but my
pounding heart I felt could be heard all around the nation, especially
in Kokomo, Indiana. Why Kokomo, I don't know," Bell told a crowd.
Rita Bell was a true television pioneer. She was the first female
weather forecaster in Detroit. She once said she aired over 6,000
movies as hostess of Prize Movie, and added that she watched every one
of them.
http://www.detnow.com/news/0312101202.html
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Rita Bell Hansen, San Diego: Host of popular movie show that aired in
Detroit 18 years
By George Hunter / The Detroit News
A generation of Metro Detroiters often spent their mornings with Rita
Bell when she hosted the popular "Prize Movie" show weekdays at 8:30
a.m. on WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) from 1959-77.
"She was a great lady - one of the nicest human beings I ever met,"
said longtime Channel 7 newscaster Bill Bonds. "She was like
everybody’s big sister. She had time for everybody and helped a lot of
people in the business."
Her married name was Hansen. She died of cancer on Tuesday, Dec. 9,
2003, in California. She was 78.
Mrs. Hansen was born in Detroit and attended Mackenzie High School,
where she sang in the school choir. After high school, she attended
Marygrove College in Detroit.
She was discovered by a Channel 7 production chief while she was
working for the United Way in Detroit. She was hired in 1957 to
broadcast the weather on Channel 7’s newscasts, making her the first
female weathercaster in Detroit television.
She worked for the station for two years, giving weather forecasts
before she was awarded her own show, "Prize Movie," which aired more
than 6,000 movies during its 18-year run.
"She was a great communicator," Bonds said. "Back in the early days of
television, we didn’t have all the bells and whistles like we have
nowadays, and success depended on how well the people on camera could
communicate."
Mrs. Hansen’s penchant for communicating didn’t always win her
accolades. She told The Detroit News in a 1969 interview that her gift
for gab often got her into trouble when she was in school. She said
she regularly had to stay after school to write "I will not talk in
class" 500 times.
"It got to a point that I would write extra copies in advance," she
joked.
In addition to her television work, Mrs. Hansen was an actress who in
1968 had a cameo role in the ABC western television series "Big
Valley."
She most recently lived in San Diego with her husband, Jerome Hansen,
a veteran Detroit newspaper man. She claimed to have watched all 6,000
movies she aired on her show. Her all-time favorite?
"Gone With the Wind," she told The News. "Every time I see it I find
something different to enjoy about it. The scenery, the direction,
acting - everything that makes a great movie is there."
Her all-time worst movie?
"House of Women," she said. "Absolutely the worst. It’s all about
women in prison. It’s so depressing, I’ve asked (the producers) never
to run it again on the show."
Mrs. Hansen served as president of the Women’s Advertising Club and
was active in the American Women in Radio and Television, and the
Industrial Editors Association.
Survivors include her husband, Jerome; a son, Michael; and two
grandsons.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at a later date.
Tony Wesley
> The Channel 7 family has lost one of its most popular and beloved
> personalities. For 21 years, Rita Bell hosted Prize Movie on weekday
> mornings.
Thanks for posting that. Rita was a piece of Detroit during my youth,
as much as Bill Kennedy or Soupy Sales.
Rita, we'll miss you.
