161: Alison Arngrim is Nellie Oleson and So Much More

ON THE KNOWS with Randall Kenneth Jones, the NEW Jones.Show Podcast

New York Times Best Selling author of “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated,” Alison Arngrim is best known to viewers world-wide for her portrayal of the incredibly nasty “Nellie Oleson” on the much loved, long running hit television series "Little House on the Prairie," and continues to amuse audiences through her many film, television and stage appearances.

Her one woman show “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch”, which started at Club Fez in New York in 2002, has now become a world-wide phenomenon, having been performed to packed houses in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and in France, where Alison performs entirely in French to standing room only crowds in her all French version titled: “Confessions d’une Garce de La Prairie”.

In 1986 when her friend and "Little House husband" co-star, Steve Tracy, passed away due to complications of HIV/AIDS, Alison began volunteering at AIDS Project Los Angeles. Her duties ranged from working on the Southern California AIDS Hotline and the APLA food bank, to chairing the steering committee of the volunteer speakers bureau and developing “Safer Sex” workshops. She has provided AIDS education to doctors, nurses, prison inmates, service clubs, churches, department stores and schools, written AIDS education articles for the magazines "Frontiers" and "Designers West” and spent seven years hosting the APLA educational cable television show, "AIDS Vision." In 1992, Joel Wachs presented Alison with a resolution by the Los Angeles City Council commending her on her work on behalf of people living with HIV and AIDS. From 1989 through 1993 she served as Program Manager at Tuesday's Child, an organization assisting children and families affected by HIV and AIDS. From 1989 through 2003 she served as both hostess and producer for the comedy stage at the AIDS Project Los Angeles Annual Summer Party, where she helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for people living with HIV.

She currently serves as California Chair, National Spokesperson and Founding Board Member on the National Advisory Board of The National Association to Protect Children (www.PROTECT.org), fighting to give children a legal and political voice in the war against child abuse. As an activist for the improvement of child protection laws, she has spoken before the California Senate and worked on legislative and political campaigns in several states, including Virginia and New York, in addition to PROTECT’s work on federal legislation in Washington, D.C.

She has appeared on numerous television news programs discussing the legal and political issues surrounding child abuse and molestation. She came forward to tell the world about the sexual abuse she suffered in her own life, during her 2004 interview on Larry King Live. She continues to be interviewed on this and other topics on Nancy Grace, CNN’s Showbiz Tonight, The Insider, Court TV, and Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor.

She takes pride in the fact that so many people enjoyed hating her as a girl and is more than happy to give them the opportunity to do so in the future. "My fans have proudly taken on the name "Bonnetheads" to designate their love of all things Prairie and many have posted pictures themselves wearing bonnets while they read along at home," remarks Alison.

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ALISON ARNGRIM Online:

Web: http://bonnetheads.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAlisonArngrimShow Twitter: https://twitter.com/Arngrim Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonarngrim

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