![Lily Tomlin](https://cdn.hourdetroit.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/10/Lily-Tomlin.jpg)
βΐα have so many great memories of Detroit!β Lily Tomlin bursts with the pride and passion of a Detroiter asked about her birthplace. It seems fitting, since all of Detroit β and the world, for that matter β holds so many great memories of her.
Where you connect with Tomlin, who returns to the city Oct. 30 for a βfun conversationβ with her longtime friend and Grace and Frankie co-star Jane Fonda at the Fox Theatre, depends largely upon your generation. With a comedic career spanning six decades, sheβs remembered in many ways β as telephone operator Ernestine and the precocious Edith Ann on Rowan and Martinβs Laugh-In; star of such landmark films as Nashville and 9 to 5; a Tony-winner for one-woman play The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the
Universe; the voice of Ms. Frizzle on the childrenβs series The Magic School Bus, and, more recently, as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award and as Frances βFrankieβ Mengela opposite Fonda in the hit Netflix comedy.
Still, mention the Motor City to Tomlin and talk of her achievements rapidly gives way to her adoration for the city. βWhenever I hear a Motown song, I get a lump in my throat,β says the Cass Tech alum, who was last here two years ago to receive the key to the city and a lifetime achievement award from Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan during Detroit HomecomingΜύ IV.
βΐα lived in an old apartment on Hazelwood and Byron, across from Cobb Field,β she remembers. βΐα took ballet and tap from Mrs. Fitzgerald from age 5 to 15. She was our recreation leader year-round. In the winter, we would meet in Hutchins School, which became my junior high school. We learned to embroider, and we put on shows. Thatβs how I learned to produce a show on my back porch. Other kids would never rehearse, or theyβd walk off during a show, so I ended up doing it myself. All summer we were on the playfield. I pitched on the Police Athletic League Team, and I was jacks champion one year!β
Tomlin and her brother Richard, who now lives in Nashville, were βfull of mischiefβ in those days, she recalls. βWhen he was 13, my brother sawed our motherβs couch into three pieces so we would have sectional furniture.Μύ βWhen we were at Crosman Elementary School weβd run home, drop the hose from our momβs vacuum cleaner out the second-floor window of our apartment, and wait for the tough kids to pass by. Theyβd never notice the hose hanging from above them, and weβd yell threats through it. βYouβre gonna get your ass beat,β and stuff like that. They would stop, look around, look up the alley ready to fight, while we would just roll on the floor in hilarity.β
Much hilarity is to be expected at Tomlinβs Fox appearance this month, moderated by notable local journalist Mitch Albom, which may help lift Fondaβs spirits after her brother Peterβs death in August.
βSheβs such a good person,β Tomlin, who turned 80 last month, says of her co-star. βWe really do love each other. We have so much fun together on the show that when we were approached about doing talks like this, we said, βLetβs do it!β
βB±π΄Ϊ΄Η°ω±π 9 to 5, she came to see my stage show in L.A., and thatβs how I ended up starring in that movie,β Tomlin continues. βAnd now, I swear Frankie is just as popular as Ernestine was when I started out. At our age, itβs really a blessing to have a hit series. I donβt think either of us ever wants to stop working.β
A Fun Conversation with Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin takes place Oct. 30. $84+. Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., 313-471-3200; Μύ
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