Ask American Profile 1/21/2007

Q Whatever happened to the teacher from Mill Valley, Calif., who made a hit record in the 1970s with her elementary-school class? I think her name was Rita Abrams.
—Carolyn Scneider, Laurel, Mont.

Back in 1970, Abrams, a third-grade teacher at Strawberry Point Elementary School in California’s Marin County, recorded an album with her class, and the result was the surprise smash single “Mill Valley.” She went on to make several other children’s recordings, win two Emmys and numerous other awards for her music, compose greeting cards and write plays. She still lives in Mill Valley, despite the last line in her song that says “there may come a time I’ll have to leave.” Abrams smiles and says, “But I never did.”

Q There once was a TV show or movie about a salvage yard owner who built a rocket ship. I think it starred Andy Griffith and was set in the 1970s. Can you help me with the name of the show?
—Jim Key, Conway, Ark.

Salvage 1 was a 1979 TV movie that kicked off a comedy-adventure series about a junkyard owner, played by Andy Griffith, who built a spaceship and went to the moon to bring back debris left behind by Apollo lunar excursions. Subsequent missions found the Salvage 1 crew back on Earth, rounding up rare island monkeys, destroying a killer iceberg, exploring a haunted mansion and snatching a downed U.S. bomber from an army of Japanese bandits who never found out World War II was over. The series wasn’t a hit and lasted only a few episodes before the network pulled the plug.

Q Does Wes Studi have any plans to star in another movie, and is he really an American Indian?
—P. Anderson, Mariposa, Calif.

Yes, Studi is a Cherokee Indian who grew up in northeastern Oklahoma and didn’t begin his acting career until he was 40 years old. One of his first movies was Dances With Wolves, in which he played a memorably malevolent Pawnee leader. He lives in Santa Fe, N.M., and you can see him soon in the upcoming CBS mini-series Comanche Moon, a prequel to the made-for-TV Western classic Lonesome Dove.

Q What can you tell me about Tanya Memme of Sell This House? How did she get her job?
—Shirley Shoukletovich, Benton, Ky.

Prior to the A&E TV series Sell This House (and also Move This House), Memme hosted the weekly Los Angeles show Eye on L.A. and then Robotica on The Learning Channel. A former Miss World Canada, she’s also had guest-star roles on JAG, The Practice and CSI Miami, co-starred on The Young and the Restless and appeared in several independent movies. Memme, 35, is an outdoor enthusiast who once rode in a 420-mile bike trek from Montreal, Quebec, to Portland, Maine, to raise money for AIDS research. She recently purchased her first home and says she enjoys being her “funny, goofy” self on Sell This House.

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