It’s getting more and more important to remember the actors that came before those we know and appreciate today since quite honestly without those actors it’s likely that the inspiration for the people we know about today wouldn’t have been the same. Polly Holliday is one such individual that helped to blaze the trail in her time since she’s been a rather prominent actress on the scene up until her retirement from show business just short of a decade ago. If you remember Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry then you recall when she was truly great and had a lot to offer the audience in terms of entertainment. These days a lot of people would have to look her up in order to simply understand who she is and what she did in her time.
Her catchphrase of “Kiss my grits!” is something that still lives among older fans today and has stuck in the memory of many people that still recall that time. But again, if you were born after the 70s and possibly after the 80s you might find that you need to research Polly just to understand why she was important to the industry. In her time she was great but in the same breath she was another of the many trying to make a reputation for herself and outdoing a lot of people that were eager to make their mark in show business. Those that manage to get noticed and gain the kind of attention that so many want are hard to find at times since they’re not always as obvious in their methods and don’t tend to stand out until they find a niche that they can fill or develop their own brand of entertainment that people tend to follow. Polly managed to distinguish herself as one of those individuals and ran with it for all she could.
The show Alice only lasted four years but it was enough to cement the characters into the minds of many audience members since at the time the TV shows were still coming fast and furious but not at such a breakneck speed that we have now. Keep in mind there was no such thing as a podcast back then, or streaming, or DVD’s for that matter. Shows that came and went were a dime a dozen like always, but shows that actually impressed people and stuck around for more than a season have been long-remembered by many people that fell in love with them for one reason or another. Polly was a part of one of those shows and has been, in a way, immortalized for it since the very name, Flo, can be found in a lot of places in current pop culture. She did try for a spinoff from Alice that was titled Flo, but it didn’t go quite as far as the original show, which is pretty typical of anything that pulls off the main source.
Playing as Flo wasn’t her only claim to fame however as she would go on to star in other roles that are just as notable. Over the years she’s guest-starred on several shows and has popped up in a few movies, notably this one, Gremlins. Remember Mrs. Deagle? She was the meanest lady in town and made a point of it to everyone she met since she was haughty, nasty, and didn’t care that it was Christmas. She was going to be nasty to everyone whether they deserved it or not, and throwing a family out of a home they were renting wasn’t beneath her either if you recall. Of course Mrs. Deagle did manage to get her just desserts in a very tragic but somehow hilarious fashion since her the chair lift she used to move between the first and second floor of her home was sabotaged by the Gremlins and somehow given a turbo charge that sent her rocketing along the track towards the second floor and then shooting straight out a window as the chair jumped the track. Yes it’s very impossible, but it was funny in a very dark and morbid way to see a woman that was such a witch to everyone get taken out in such a manner.
That however proves just how good Polly was since she was able to make the audience love or hate her in equal measures. This is the mark of a great actor in any respect since a person that can work your emotions and either get you on their side or turn you against them is someone that knows the human psyche well enough on an instinctual or educated level that they can understand how to tweak it just enough that people will feel the emotions that are desired throughout a film. She’s been retired since 2010, but Polly is still remembered fondly.
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