An early television critic was so harsh on young Betty White that she cried for three days

Damn child critics Life with Elizabeth with faint praise like “passable” and “good enough.” The term “harmless” was a selling point for local broadcasters who didn’t want to deal with letters and calls from easily outraged viewers. But “boring” didn’t exactly make the show good.

John Crosby, a critic of the New York Herald Tribunereluctantly paid attention as the show spread across the country. He didn’t particularly like Betty White. “Miss White plays the healthy side of the street as best she can. Although I am somewhat hesitant to speak out against health, I think there are limits and I think that Miss White goes beyond that – well, we won’t pursue that idea any further,” he wrote. “Miss White is dimpled, fully clothed and well padded. She lives with her mother, loves dogs, has the nickname Betz and does her own hair, which looks like – well, we won’t pursue that idea any further.”

Whatever “terribly healthy” American apple pie White was selling, Crosby didn’t buy it. “In fact,” he wrote, “I suspect that if I took a bite of Miss White, I would get enough vitamin B to last me through the winter.”

The criticism hit White where it hurt. “I didn’t just get a bad review,” she said. “He didn’t like what I wore, he didn’t like my smile, he didn’t like what I looked like, he certainly didn’t like what I did. And I cried for three days. I cut it out and saved it. I still have the damn thing.”

Crosby didn’t seem to have anything personally against White – his tastes just leaned in a different direction. “And now, if you will pardon me,” he wrote, “I set out to stare at Jane Russell and see if any of that holiness can be washed away.”