Mary Tyler Moore - A Memory

Mary Tyler Moore has died.

My strongest memory of Mary Tyler Moore is not that of the perky young woman with the lopsided smile who charmed us as Laura Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and Mary Richards on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." No, the image of her that I have found most compelling since it aired in 1976 is from a TV special, "Mary's Incredible Dream," that is not even mentioned in the New York Times' obituary.

The special presented the narrative of a dream that I won't even try to describe. I'll just say that the final segment opens with Mary (not yet 40 at the time), as a much older woman who had endured much pain, singing with a mixture of boast and lament, "I'm Still Here," a song repurposed from Stephen Sondheims' musical, "Follies."

I don't know how well the power of this will come through if you haven't seen what comes before it. But the uploader (identified on YouTube simply as "Taylor"), also uploaded the earlier segments, so you can watch the whole thing if you like.

In any case, here it is.

("I'm Still Here" is followed by Ben Vereen singing/dancing "Ball of Confusion" and someone I don't know singing, "Sympathy For The Devil." As I recall, the program overall was as strange as its title suggests)

RIP, Mary.