>>Narration: One of the most photographed women of the 1980s, she's articulate,
intelligent, and insists on being a mother first, an actress second, and for millions of
red-blooded American men she's a platinum-blonde sex symbol.
>>Loni Anderson: Sex symbol to me is just, I can't even fathom it, it's just uh
it's, it's larger than life. It's something I think I don't think of myself as, to be a symbol of sex?
I mean that's a big thing for somebody to put on you and I think to believe that about yourself
you wouldn't be a real person anymore, so I get up in the morning
and I say you look like 'yuk' you know, not like a sex symbol uh [laughs]
>>Narration: Married and divorced by 19, this former Sunday school teacher spent years
practicing her craft in Midwest dinner theaters as a brunette.
>>Anderson: I did a show called Paris is Out with Pat O'Brien and he said
why don't you go to Los Angeles? And I said oh too much competition
and he said uh well you know in LA there are a lot of pretty ladies and there are a lot of funny ladies
but maybe not so many pretty funny ladies, so you ought to give it a chance and I think
I mean I thought about that for the next six months and then I came out here.
>>Narration: The newly blonde Loni skyrocketed to fame in WKRP in Cincinnati.
>>Anderson: I'm an exotic brunette inside you know when I think about myself
I rarely think of myself as blonde uh
but when I see myself outside I look much softer,
uh more vulnerable to myself in the mirror than I did with my dark hair.
>>Narration: This summer she makes her feature film debut in the stock car comedy
Stroker Ace co-starring with Burt Reynolds.
[film clip sound] >>Well then, we'll be sharing a room right?
>>Oh no, we couldn't do that. >>Why not? >>Because we're not married.
>>[laughing] What a little kidder! >>Well, I couldn't share a room with a man I'm not married to.
>>Narration: For the past year and a half Burt and Loni have been one of Hollywood's hottest couples.
>>Burt Reynolds: She's uh better looking, if that's possible, in person than she is on film,
and she's pretty striking on film.
>>Anderson: People say the two sex symbols, all that kind of...
we understand the problems that goes along with not thinking of ourselves that way and having
other people think of us that way, so I can really communicate with him about that.
>>Narration: What is important to Loni Anderson more than the movies, television,
or magazine covers, is her 18 year old daughter, Deidra.
>>Anderson: I've always been proud of the kind of mother I am uh
Being a mother has been just my favorite thing to be. Uh actress comes second.
[film clip sound] >>There never was a Harlow picture!
Conway just lied to me all the way along! He did it to keep me in line!
>>It will be alright. >>It won't be alright!
It'll never be alright! Oh Mickey!
>>Anderson: Playing somebody who was really uh a legend and someone who was
really alive was a real challenge and Jayne Mansfield was the character that I played.
This is the original artwork from the TV Guide ad
and this is me as Jayne with a little padded rear and padded hips and a push-up merry widow
and she was really something else and every once in a while
I come up here and just go... but that's what she did [indistinct] [laughs]
>>Narration: As a child her late father introduced her to the Disney character Snow White.
The character has remained a favorite.
>>Anderson: She had hair as black as night and skin as white as snow
and lips as red as a rose and he said that's you, and so he called me Snow White
and it made me feel so wonderful. I started collecting Snow White memorabilia.
This is my latest uh piece of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that was a Mother's Day
gift from Burt Reynolds and it's all crystal and Snow White even has a little bird on her hand.
Ooh [laughs] I like fantasy.
I tell you what I'd like to do next. I would like to play someone really evil
with not one redeeming quality.