NEED TO KNOW
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Erin Murphy recently recalled filming her first major commercial at just 11 months old alongside Ronald Reagan, who went on to become president in 1981
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The Bewitchedactress shared how her parents were encouraged to get her and her twin sister into show business after people constantly complimented their looks
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She also joked about being the only actress to perform “topless” with Reagan
Long before Erin Murphy charmed audiences as little Tabitha Stephens on Bewitched, she was already making her mark on television — and she had quite the costar for one of her earliest gigs.
During a recent interview with NPR’s Front Row Classics: A Hollywood Golden Age, the 62-year-old actress looked back on her beginnings in show business and recalled appearing in a commercial alongside a man who went on to become president of the United States.
“I started doing commercials when I was 11 months old,” Murphy revealed on the podcast. “My first major commercial was for Borateem Detergent with Ronald Reagan.”
According to Murphy, her parents weren’t necessarily looking to get their daughters into show business. However, she and her twin sister, Diane, were apparently hard to miss.
“Everywhere they would go, people would come up to them and there’d be like casting directors and agents and people say, ‘Oh my gosh, you have beautiful babies, they should be on TV,’ that kind of thing,” she recalled. “So it took a few approaches before they thought, you know, maybe we should look into this.”
Before long, Murphy landed the Borateem commercial, where she found herself sharing screen time with Reagan, who was still years away from his political career and presidency.
“He was the spokesperson for Borateem Detergent back before he was governor of California,” the Bewitched actress explained. “So I was in a diaper walk…I’m just toddling around in a diaper and Ronald Reagan is talking about how to keep your diapers clean, and ladies need to do their laundry and that kind of thing.”
Murphy previously shared the vintage 1960s commercial on Facebook. In the footage, Reagan stands surrounded by laundry products while Murphy appears in the background on a blanket as her on-screen mother hangs clothes on a line. “Some whiten, some brighten, some freshen, some soften,” Reagan says before introducing Borateem.
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Decades later, Murphy clearly still gets a laugh out of the unusual Hollywood pairing.
“I had the distinction of being the only actress in history to perform topless with Ronald Reagan,” she joked about the once-in-a-lifetime commercial experience, before noting one final detail for good measure. “Last time I was ever photographed topless, I should add.”
Read the original article on People
