Betty Furness

Elizabeth Mary Furness was born on January 3, 1916, in Manhattan, the daughter of wealthy business executive George Choate Furness and his wife Florence. She attended the Brearley School and Bennett Junior College. Her earliest stage experience came during school holidays, when she performed the title role in Alice in Wonderland. Before pursuing acting professionally, Furness worked as a model and posed for commercial advertising. In 1932, a talent scout noticed her and she was signed to a film contract with RKO Studios. Her first film role, in Thirteen Women (1932), was cut before the picture's release, but she went on to appear in numerous RKO productions over the following years. Among her more prominent film credits were Magnificent Obsession (1935) and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers vehicle Swing Time (1936). By the close of the 1930s, she had accumulated more than forty film appearances.

As film roles became harder to secure during the 1940s, Furness turned to the stage. A native of New York, New York, she appeared on Broadway in 1941 in the comedy Mr. Big and in My Fair Ladies. The decade also brought her to early television, and by 1948 she was performing in the live broadcast series Studio One. When she filled in for an actor to deliver a Westinghouse product promotion during a commercial break, the company was sufficiently impressed to offer her a contract as their spokeswoman. Furness went on to perform three live Westinghouse commercials per episode of Studio One, earning $150 a week initially. Her contract eventually grew to an annual salary of $100,000, and her advertisements drove a significant increase in the company's appliance sales. She became particularly associated with a recurring spot in which she opened a refrigerator door and delivered the line, "You can be sure ... if it's Westinghouse." Furness maintained firm control over her own image throughout this period, purchasing her own clothing, declining to adopt a stage name, and refusing to wear an apron on camera despite Westinghouse's suggestions.

Her television work extended well beyond the Westinghouse commercials. From September 1950 to June 1951, she hosted ABC's Penthouse Party across 39 episodes. In 1951 she served as a regular panelist on the CBS panel program What's My Line? and appeared in a series of live mysteries on ABC under the title Your Kaiser Dealer Presents Kaiser-Frazer "Adventures In Mystery" Starring Betty Furness In "Byline," which ran in November and December of that year and later aired again in syndication in the fall of 1957. From January 1 through July 3, 1953, she hosted her own Friday morning CBS daytime series, Meet Betty Furness, a quarter-hour talk program sponsored by Westinghouse. A new Westinghouse president chose not to renew her contract at the end of 1960, and her final spots for the company aired during CBS News coverage of the 1960 Democratic and Republican conventions and the November election returns. Furness holds two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one at 1533 Vine Street for her contributions to motion pictures and one at 6675 Hollywood Blvd. for her contributions to television.

Following her departure from Westinghouse, Furness shifted her focus toward consumer advocacy and public affairs. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs, a position she held until the end of the Johnson administration in 1969. Governor Nelson Rockefeller appointed her in August 1970 as the first chairman and executive director of the New York State Consumer Protection Board, a role she held until July 1971. She served on the board of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, from 1969 until 1993, and in 1971 was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board. In 1973 she headed the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. Signed by WNBC in New York, she reported on consumer fraud and related issues, and in 1976 began a long association with NBC's Today show, initially filling in as anchor following Barbara Walters's departure and subsequently contributing regular reports. Her program Buyline: Betty Furness received the Peabody Award in 1977.

Furness married four times. Her first husband was composer-conductor Johnny Green, whom she married in 1937 and with whom she had one child; they divorced in 1943. She married radio announcer Hugh "Bud" Ernst Jr. in 1945, divorced, and married him again in 1946; he died in 1950. Her final marriage, in 1967, was to Leslie Midgley, who survived her. Actress Liza Snyder, known for the CBS series Yes, Dear and Man with a Plan, is her granddaughter. Furness was treated for stomach cancer in 1990 and reduced her Today show schedule to four days as her health declined. She died on April 2, 1994, at age 78, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.