Despite having gone off the air more than 30 years ago, The Golden Girls remains one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time. From its setting, to its dynamic and groundbreaking humor, the show has yet to fade from the public consciousness, though perhaps its biggest success factor lies within the ladies themselves. Three out of its four main cast members were already well established stars: Betty White had become one of television’s biggest stars back during its origins, while Beatrice Arthur had experienced an illustrious career on stage, in movies and, of course, in Maude. Rue McClanahan had built her career on sitcoms for years, previously working with both White and Arthur, but the show’s fourth member, Estelle Getty, would find her big break on the show, and with her came an important part of the beloved character she brought to life: Sophia Petrillo.
Getty had found success on Broadway, starring alongside Harvey Fierstein in Torch Song Trilogy, but The Golden Girls would be the show that launched her into international fame. A favorite of viewers, Sophia is one of the elements that makes the series as rewatchable as it is. Originally written as a reccurring role, Getty essentially built the character into the persona that audiences love today, a practice that began before she even attended the audition. In preparation for her reading, Getty went shopping in Los Angeles and found a prop that would not only become one of the character’s most iconic accessories, but was the key to unlocking Sophia’s personality and story.
Estelle Getty Found Sophia’s Purse While Thrift Shopping
According to Bridge to Better Living’s profile of the actress, Getty’s management team urged her to try Hollywood after Broadway, and when she booked the audition for the Golden Girls pilot, the actress decided to go shopping for props along Los Angeles’ Fairfax district, according to the New York Post. While in a thrift store, Getty spotted what would become one of the most iconic costume pieces of all time: Sophia’s purse. Per the Post, she purchased the bag for the audition.
When she finally got the role, the purse came with her on set. Getty, who was famously much younger than her character, wore heavy makeup to age her, and in the pilot episode, the look wasn’t quite like it would become as the series went on. The makeup is more intense and both the style and color of her wig are drastically different, but the one thing that didn’t change throughout the series was her purse.
The first episode isn’t an origin story for most of the girls, as it opens after Rose, Dorothy, and Blanche have been living together for some time—but it is an origin story for Sophia. The character turns up unexpectedly to reveal that the retirement home she was reluctantly living in has burned down. While played for laughs, the character has the bag as her only possession; she carries it around the entire episode, even when seen lounging in her robe. The trope would last the entire series and even played as a plot point occasionally in both The Golden Girls and its follow-up series, The Golden Palace—but there was more to Sophia’s seminal accessory than just being a quirky joke.
Estelle Getty Used Sophia’s Purse To Tell the Character’s Story
Each of the women had their own unique sense of style that reflected their character; whether it was Blanche’s sensuality or Dorothy’s offbeat looks that could easily translate to cosplay, each costume was carefully chosen to represent each of the ladies. No piece did that better than Sophia’s purse, and that’s exactly what Estelle Getty wanted.
An article from the Los Angeles Times recounts Getty’s thoughts, “Nobody puts down their life very easily.” To Estelle, the purse represented something, and she furthered that thought in an interview with Rosie O’Donnell, saying, “When people get old, and they’re displaced from their homes, and they have to go live some place else[…] what they have in their purse is the most important thing in their lives. And putting down the purse is like putting down your life.”
In the grand tradition of “show, don’t tell,” Getty told viewers all they needed to know about Sophia, simply by clutching that purse. The accessory makes episodes where it’s lost or replaced even more meaningful, and Getty’s foresight and thoughtfulness when it came to approaching her audition played a large role in the creation of her iconic character. Purchasing the prop purse from a Fairfax thrift shop may seem like a small act, but it helped personify who Sophia was and told a much more detailed story for the audience, even if they didn’t realize it.
The Golden Girls is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.
