"Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams" book, Chapter Four

"In 1967, a brunette actress with a wide toothy grin was pounding the pavements of Hollywood hoping to find fame and fortune."  Yes, it's back to Penny.  And she was "plain looking," so she decided to become a comedienne.  Her brother Garry, who she didn't know that well because of the age difference, arranged a small dramatic part for her.  She was "terrible."

So she became a stunt woman.  She "achieved notoriety of a sort in grade-Z movies like Free Grass and The Pink Garter Gang.  These were really bimbo roles!"



She lost some speaking roles because she looked "too Jewish."

And then came Myrna Turner on The Odd Couple, thanks to Garry of course.  She was up for the part of Gloria on All in the Family, the only one to audition who looked more like Edith's daughter than Archie's.  They said she was too old to play Rob Reiner's wife.  (She was about five years older than Rob.)  She was disappointed but decided it was for the best, since "If we had been in the same show all these years, by now we would've killed each other!"

With all her insecurities, she thought she had the role of Myrna just because she was Garry's sister, although he reassured her.  After she quit The Odd Couple, she was "the sharp-tongued sister-in-law on The Paul Sand Show."  (Ironically, Sand would play one of Laverne's Californian boyfriends years later.)  She did a bunch of guest shots on other sitcoms.

And then came the favor to Garry on Happy Days.  I don't know if Berman is going by an earlier draft of the script or what, but she says that Laverne and Shirley "become embroiled in a clawing and kicking fight with two motorcycle molls at Arnold's Drive-In."  (Sounds like a scene from one of Penny's grade-Z flicks.)

She had her choice of the roles but figured she'd "look like Ron Howard's mother" (an age difference of a dozen years).  The rapid success of the characters definitely surprised her, but she remained insecure (of course).  The chapter ends with the wisecrack, "...Maybe it's an advantage that Garry and I sound alike.  He can read my part anytime!"