Boston Globe, MA
Feb 20 2005
A fresh new TV face at 70
By Donna Goodison
Years ago, Lorraine Seymourian was at one of the Armenian picnics
frequented by her family on Sunday afternoons, and her parents
couldn’t find her.
“There I was in the middle of a whole crowd of people, with dollar
bills all over me, because if they liked you, they put dollar bills
on you,” said Seymourian, who was about 5 at the time. “I was dancing
around, having a wonderful time and just doing my own little thing.”
Seymourian still has that flair for the theatrical today, at age 70.
“I’m always on stage in public life, no matter what I do,” said
Seymourian, stylishly dressed last week in flowing black pants slit
to the knee, a long black coat with fur collar and cuffs, and a
matching fur hat. “People never forget me, never.”
With a radio program already to her credit, the Newton resident last
month introduced her latest project — a television show. Taped
before a live audience, “Lorraine Entertains” airs at 7:30 a.m.
Fridays on Boston’s WBPX-TV (Channel 68), part of the PAX network.
The show doesn’t adhere to the typical sit-down talk show format,
according to its host.
“I don’t want that, and it’s not me,” said Seymourian, who prefers an
action-filled half-hour.
Tomorrow, she’ll tape a show at the West Suburban YMCA in Newton.
Mystery writers Kate Flora of Concord, Hallie Ephron of Milton, and
Jan Brogan of Westwood will read an original story they just created.
The mystery has a basic premise, protagonist, and suspects, but the
audience will have input on the direction it takes and guess the
murderer.
Other upcoming shows will feature the Massachusetts Film Bureau’s
Academy Awards Gala, and Armenian dancing and music at the Armenian
Library and Museum of America in Watertown.
Seymourian works 12- to 15-hour days and handles all aspects of her
shows — from signing advertisers to finding guests, locations, and
audiences.
“If they see me in person, I get the sponsor,” Seymourian said.
“Meeting them in person gives them the confidence in me of who I am.”
Indeed, Seymourian comes off as a dynamo whose vigor belies her age.
“I don’t believe in this age business,” she said. “I may not look it,
but I feel like I’m 35 years old.”
She still likes to flirt and date, she says, and ends many of her
thoughts with bursts of giggles. She’s not afraid to be outlandish or
open, even about her recent facelift.
“The camera can be very cruel,” she said. “With radio, you can get
away with it, but not video. I said, ‘Lorraine, you can’t be on the
air. You look horrible.’ ”
Seymourian got her start with Channel 68 a little more than a year
ago, when she started taping humorous celebrity vignettes for
one-minute spots that aired 10 times a week.
Many of those celebrities also were guests on her “Rendezvous With
Lorraine” radio show, which is broadcast online at
from 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesdays. To make an
impression on the radio station’s owners, Seymourian arranged an
interview with Regis Philbin as her first guest three years ago.
“I called up, and I asked,” Seymourian said. “It was as simple as
that.”
Other celebrity guests have included Glenda Hatchett of the “Judge
Hatchett” television show, Mike Wallace, Harrison Ford, Sarah
Ferguson, and Cosmopolitan magazine founder Helen Gurley Brown, whom
she coaxed to perform an impromptu tap dance in her Gucci dress.
“I want to discover what nobody else knows about them,” Seymourian
said of her guests. “I want to know what makes them human. I’m not
out to get them.”
Hitting “below the belt” doesn’t fit the beliefs ingrained in
Seymourian since childhood, she says.
“I have my own rules: Be honest and never tell a lie,” she said.
“Honor my father and mother’s name. That’s very, very crucial to me.
That’s maybe why I didn’t become an actress. Professionally, I don’t
like to play the game.”
Seymourian grew up in Newton and headed to New York City to pursue an
acting career after studying drama at Emerson College.
“My father never liked the theater, and he didn’t want me to go to
New York, but he couldn’t stop me,” she said.
Seymourian studied in New York under renowned acting coach Stella
Adler, who recommended her for a spot in the midnight theater classes
taught by director Harold Clurman.
“People came from Broadway shows with their makeup on to take the
classes,” she said. “It was very exciting. I was the only novice
there.”
She appeared as the lead in an off-Broadway production of “Stage
Door” and made a national television appearance as a secretary in a
skit on the “The Bert Parks Show.”
Seymourian remained in New York only for a few years, though, before
returning home to work as a secretary for her father, founder of
Seymour’s Ice Cream company in Dorchester.
“I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere, and Daddy said, ‘Come and work for
me,’ ” Seymourian said. “I worked for him and wrote plays from 7 to 9
every night, because I couldn’t get theater out of my mind.”
Seymourian finally had a children’s play produced at the Charles
Playhouse in Boston, a musical adaptation of “The Wind in the
Willows,” for which she wrote the book and lyrics. In 1974, she
served as assistant choreographer and producer of the Boston Ballet’s
world premiere of “Tubby the Tuba” by choreographer Ron Cunningham.
She never married, although it’s something Seymourian says she might
consider in the next 10 years, noting that men like assertive women
with creative ideas who “go for it.” Meantime, she’ll do just that
and work on bringing her television and radio shows to the next
level.
“Someday, I’d like to be syndicated around the country with my
shows,” she said. “I love it and I’m good at it.”
To appear in the studio audience of Seymourian’s television show
tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. at the West Surburban YMCA, contact Caryn
Surkes at 617-244-6050, ext. 3014. The event is free and open to the
public.