The Seesaw Girl and Me
The Seesaw Girl and Me (New Path Press, 2004) is a memoir by actor Dick York. There is a foreword written by his wife Joan "Joey" York, the “seesaw girl” of the title.[1] York died in 1992, but before his death, at the age of 63, he had suffered from emphysema and a debilitating spinal condition,[2] and he would tape-record his late-night recollections of his life.[3]
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The memoir focuses on his childhood, courtship, and marriage, with little information about his acting co-stars.[1]
Content
York recalls his early life in Indiana, growing up during the Depression of the 1930s,[1] and fishing with his Grandma Snyder.[4]
He became a juvenile radio actor, and when he was fifteen he met his future wife when she was twelve-years-old.[1] In 1943 York took over the lead role on the radio series That Brewster Boy. After that he moved to New York, obtained Broadway roles, and began appearing on television.[5]
York married, and became the father of five children.[5] He and Joan "Joey" York remained a "loving and caring couple"[1] even after a back injury sustained while filming They Came to Cordura resulted in lifelong pain, which eventually caused him to be unable to continue working on Bewitched.[5]
The book is a printed copy of York's spoken memories.[1] One reviewer wrote "York crafts one-act plays within his memoir, veering between memory and fiction. The effect is a kind of verbally induced hallucination, albeit one that tragically reminds us how life can turn on a dime."[5]