Fathom Events Celebrates The Upcoming 100th Birthday Of The Legendary Betty White

Everyone’s favorite, the iconic Betty White, is hitting three-digits in January — age 100 on January 17, 2022, to be exact – and movie marketer Fathom Events will celebrate the occasion with the one-day showing of Betty White: 100 Years Young — A Birthday Celebration. Airing on her birthday, the feature will be shown in 900 cinemas across the country.

“Betty White is a beloved cultural icon. We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate this milestone birthday with her and fans around the county,” said Daren Miller, Fathom Events VP, Programming, Strategy & Business Affairs.

As the Guinness Book of World Records recipient for the Longest TV Career for a Female Entertainer, Betty White is immediately known, of course, for her three legendary TV sitcoms: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (as man hungry Sue Ann Nivens), The Golden Girls (ditsy Rose Nylund), and Hot In Cleveland (spicy Elka Ostrovsky). But there is so much more to the career of the beloved performer.

White began her television career shortly after graduating high school in 1939, when she and a classmate sang songs from The Merry Widow on an experimental television show. She segued to radio, eventually co-hosting live variety series Hollywood on Television in 1949, and she starred in her first regularly scheduled television sitcom, Life With Elizabeth, from 1952 to 1955.

In 1954, Betty hosted and produced her own daily talk/variety series, The Betty White Show, on NBC. Following the end of Life with Elizabeth, she appeared as Vicki Angel on the ABC sitcom Date With the Angels from 1957 to 1958. Then, in the 1960s, Betty turned her attention to network game shows, particularly Password with host Allen Ludden, who she married in 1963.

When the producers of The Mary Tyler Moore Show were looking for a “Betty White type” to play Sue Ann Nivens, “The Happy Homemaker,” the casting director decided to go for the real thing and that initial one episode guest shot turned into a four season (and two-time Emmy Award winning) role.

“One of my favorite memories with Allen was a Sunday morning when we were minding our own business and there was Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker knocking at our door,” she told me in an interview. “There were there with an offer to be on Mary’s show. We were ecstatic.”

Ultimately, Betty White has won five Emmy Awards (following 21 nominations), including Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for NBC’s Saturday Night Live in 2010. White’s hosting gig on the late night mainstay came about, in part, following a massive fan signing initiative on Facebook rallying for it.

Other TV series featuring Betty were The Carol Burnett Show spin-off Mama’s Family (recurring from 1983 to 1986 and opposite future The Golden Girls star Rue McClanahan); sitcoms Bob (1993); Maybe This Time (1995-96) and Ladies Man (1999-2001); drama Boston Legal (recurring from 2003 to 2006); daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful in 2009; and hidden camera prank series Betty White’s Off Their Rockers from 2012 to 2017.

Appearing on Fathom’s Betty White: 100 Years Young — A Birthday Celebration will be Carol Burnett, Tina Fey, Robert Redford, Lin Manuel- Miranda, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Leno, Carol Ryan Reynolds, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel, Valerie Bertinelli, James Corden, Wendy Malick, and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

“Who doesn’t love a party?!? This one is gonna be great,” White said in a statement.

Tickets go on sale on December 17.