December 2008
Actress Angela Lansbury in High
Gear for Cure ALS Campaign
By Gary Wosk, Staff Writer Actress Angela Lansbury is as busy as ever increasing the public’s awareness about the need to support The ALS Association’s global, cutting-edge research program.
Famous for her work on Broadway, films and television, the inimitable Lansbury last spring launched the Cure ALS Campaign for The Association. The campaign features a series of highly dramatic radio and television PSAs to build support for research into new treatments and a cure for Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Lansbury decided to join The Association in the fight against ALS in honor of her sister Isolde Denham who battled the disease in the 1980s while Lansbury starred in the CBS hit series “Murder She Wrote.”
Her most recent interviews as an advocate for The Association include ABC News Now Network’s “What’s the Buzz” in October and Parade magazine, tentatively scheduled to hit the newsstands on December 21.
In November, Lansbury’s TV public service announcement (PSA) aired on the CNN Airport Network and on stations across the nation. Her radio PSA also is receiving considerable air time.
The audience for Lansbury’s powerful message has even included film-goers, primarily in the eastern United States, as a result of the efforts of Clarke Mazza, the president and CEO of Pot O'Gold Productions, Inc. and the Florida Chapter of The Association. By the end of last summer, the PSA had been shown 175,000 times in independent theaters.
The Cure ALS media campaign has been a major success from the instant Lansbury introduced it last April on NBC’s “Today,” then on “CBS’ Weekend Roundup with Dan Raviv” and in an Associated Press story.
The Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle Examiner and Orlando Sentinel were among the newspapers that published the AP story. It is estimated that the AP story may have been read by more than half of the world’s population.
The availability of Lansbury’s PSA on MySpace, Facebook and You Tube also has been a major contributing factor to success of The Association’s debut on these social networking Web sites.
And, don’t be surprised to see Lansbury in the waiting room of your doctor; she is featured in the September/October issue of WebMD the Magazine.
“Considering that the media has had only limited print space and airtime to devote to charitable causes because of the presidential campaign, the economy and world events, the coverage this campaign has received so far is quite impressive,” said Jeff Snyder, vice president of communications for The Association.”
Lansbury will return to Broadway in February when she plays psychic Madame Arcati in the revival of Noel Coward’s comedy “Blithe Spirit.”
