Little House on the Prairie’s Karen Grassle, who played ‘Ma’ recalls co-star Michael Landon boasting about how bee pollen increased his LIBIDO during affair with 18-YEAR-OLD – after accusing late actor of sexist bullying on-set, new book reveals
- Grassle, 79, who played ‘Ma’ Caroline Ingalls on the show, which began airing in 1974, shares stories of her time on set in her upcoming memoir
- She said Landon, who created and starred in the show as Pa, would ‘arrive jubilant’ on set ‘crowing about the benefits of bee pollen for the aging male’
- While still married to his second wife, Landon began an affair with Cindy Clerico, a teen more than 20 years his junior on set
- Grassle said it was awkward because ‘everyone saw’ them together on set and many knew his wife
- After his then-wife, Marjorie Lynn Noe, discovered the affair, they divorced and Landon married Clerico and got her a new job as an on-set makeup artist
- Grassle also said Landon made crude remarks on set, using nasty language like ‘c**t’ and making ‘disgusting jokes about how a woman smelled after sex’
Little House on the Prairie’s ‘Pa’ Ingalls had a surprisingly dirty mouth, according to his on-screen wife.
In her upcoming memoir, Karen Grassle — who played ‘Ma’ Caroline Ingalls on the hit show — writes that her co-star Michael Landon was uncomfortably candid about his sex drive on set.
The 79-year-old reveals that Landon, who died in 1991, boasted about his ‘revived libido’ after he began taking a bee pollen supplement.
‘Mike began to arrive jubilant at the makeup table, crowing about the benefits of bee pollen for the aging male,’ she says, adding that the R-rated chatter was unwelcome because ‘I didn’t want to think about his penis.’
R-rated: Karen Grassle – who played ‘Ma’ Caroline Ingalls – writes that her co-star Michael Landon was uncomfortably candid about his sex drive on the Little House on the Prairie set
Not a fan: The 79-year-old reveals that Landon, who died in 1991, boasted about his ‘revived libido’ after he began taking a bee pollen supplement
The behind-the-scene tidbits are revealed in her book, ‘Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House’s Ma’
The behind-the-scene tidbits are revealed in Grassle’s book, ‘Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House’s Ma,’ according to the New York Post.
Grassle is most known for her role as Caroline Ingalls on the NBC drama, which ran on NBC from 1974 to 1982.
The show was based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s autobiographical book series by the same name and tells the story of family life on a farm near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s through 1890s.
Though the series dealt with some very serious subjects including alcoholism, poverty, racism, addiction, cancer, and even rape, it’s considered wholesome family viewing — which makes some of Grassle’s revelations about what went on behind the scenes quite shocking.
Landon — who starred as Caroline’s husband, Charles Ingalls, and also directed and produced much of the show — created the series after starring in Bonanza.
Writing in her memoir, Grassle recalls how Landon made crude remarks on set, using nasty language like ‘c**t’ and making ‘disgusting jokes about how a woman smelled after sex.’
His boasting about his own libido also fell in line with his behavior: In the mid-70s, he began having an affair with then-18-year-old Cindy Clerico, who served as a stand-in for Melissa Francis’s character Cassandra Cooper Ingalls.
Clerico, who was more than two decades younger than Landon, reportedly lent him a book and the two began flirting
‘Then they began to walk further away from the action, engrossed in conversation and each other,’ Grassle recalls. ‘It was awkward as hell for us in the company. Everyone saw. Everyone looked away.’
It was particularly awkward because Landon was already married to Marjorie Lynn Noe, whom he’d wed more than a decade before in 1963.
Grassle says: ‘I knew his wife. I had been in their home. She had been kind to me, And I thought about her children — there were three of them still at home … and younger than Cindy.’
Eventually, Landon’s affair would make headlines. Later, star Melissa Gilbert would write in her memoir, Prairie Tale, that her mother broke the news of the separation to her by saying that ‘Auntie Lynn had thrown a bottle of vodka at Mike’s head.’
Cheater: While still married to his second wife, Landon began an affair with Cindy Clerico, a teen more than 20 years his junior on set (pictured 1992)
Unfaithful: Grassle said it was awkward because ‘everyone saw’ them together on set and many knew his wife, Marjorie Lynn Noe Landon (left in 1978)
Other woman: Landon married his mistress in 1983 and got her a new job on set as a makeup artist
Clerico got a new job on set as a makeup artist, and she and Landon tied the knot in 1983.
In 1985, Landon defended the relationship to People magazine, insisting it didn’t come down to wanted to have sex with another woman.
‘You don’t dissolve a relationship to go to bed with someone 20 years younger. You have to have major differences and a deep-rooted need to stop a relationship after as many years as I was married,’ he said.
‘I would have done anything to make that relationship continue, but I could not. It’s not just difficult for the wife. It is painful for the husband too. But it is far better than letting it stay the way it was.’
Regardless, much of the Little House on the Prairie cast was put off by his affair, and would refer to Clerico as ‘that makeup artist’ on set.
Gilbert famously fell out with him, and Katherine MacGregor — who played store owner Harriet Olsen, found it another reason to dislike him, the first being her low pay.
The relationship between Landon and MacGregor became so strained that she even refused to take part in Little House: The Last Farewell, the 1984 TV movie that came after the show wrapped.
Katherine MacGregor, who played store owner Harriet Olsen, also had a rocky relationship with Landon. It became so strained that she even refused to take part in Little House: The Last Farewell, the 1984 TV movie that came after the show wrapped
Grassle told the New York Post that she ‘didn’t want to have anything to do with him and the reunion.’
Grassle shares other revelations in her memoir, including that Landon could be quite cruel to her.
Though she describes him as an ‘amazing, multi-talented person,’ she also says he ‘was very highly strung, but he was carrying the weight of the show on his shoulders.’
But she doesn’t seem to think that was any excuse for some of his behavior.
The relationship appears to have grown rocky after Grassle, who was paid $2,000 to $4,000 week at the height of her fame, asked for a raise for the second season.
Landon said no, reportedly insisting she should be making as much as the child actors — and insisting she wasn’t as popular as she believed she was.
‘I felt insulted as his co-star on a hit series,’ she said. ‘I didn’t want to gouge anybody, but I expected a fair wage.’
After that, she said, he began cutting her scenes and leaving her out of storylines altogether.
Vindictive? Grassle also said Landon wouldn’t pay her more than the child actors, and after he refused her a raise, she claims he cut her scenes and wrote her out of storylines
Not nice: He could also be cruel, mocking her body and facial expressions to crew members -but Grassle didn’t feel she could call him out
He could also be cruel, mocking her body and facial expressions to crew members — but Grassle didn’t feel she could call him out.
‘It was almost like I was frozen,’ she said. ‘But, as a woman in the 1970s film industry, I was so accustomed to these putdowns, it never occurred to me to sharply rebuke him. I kept up the professionalism. I’d be the good girl, play the part and hope.’
Many of Landon’s co-stars and colleagues have had kind words about him over the years, but Grassle is not the first to make critical remarks.
Melissa Sue Anderson, who played Mary Ingalls, had her own comments in her book, ‘The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House.’
‘Mike was a great father from everything that I saw,’ she wrote. ‘But at work, he was controlling, and he could be mean at times. He would single out certain people and tease them publicly and relentlessly.
‘He could also be vindictive. I remember him telling me the main reason he decided to blow up the town of Walnut Grove at the end of Little House was so that no one else would ever be able to use our sets.’
And most recently, Alison Arngrim — who played Nellie Oleson — told DailyMail.com that Landon was ‘more mad, bad, and dangerous to know’ than the wholesome family man he played on screen.
Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie Oleson (right) in the hit 1970s show, described Landon as ‘manic’ and claimed he ‘drank, smoked’ and told ‘terrible jokes’ on set of the NBC series
‘I got along with him very well, but I have always said he was an extraordinarily eccentric, marvelous, and crazy person,’ she said.
‘People think of him as this wholesome farmer but he was more mad, bad and dangerous to know. He drank, smoked and did tell terrible jokes.
‘He drove a Ferrari so he was hardly Charles Ingalls. He was married three times. But he was also hilariously funny and enormously talented.’
She recalled how Landon gave the impression that he rarely slept and was fueled by a ‘manic creative energy.’
‘He was very, very driven. And that kind of driven, manic creative energy to that level 24/7, I imagine can drive a lot of people absolutely crazy,’ she said.
The actress, who played the show’s bad girl, likened the atmosphere on set as similar to the 1950s Madison Avenue drama Mad Men, describing it as an ‘old boys’ club.’
She revealed that stars often had fallouts on the show, but put their differences aside in ‘the demilitarized zone’ of the makeup department before the cameras rolled.
Arngrim described Grassle’s memoir as ‘fair,’ and said Grassle admits her own alcoholism and emotional issues prevented her and Landon from resolving their problems before he died in 1991.
Grassle and Landon’s feud stopped short of being fiery enough to make ‘Ma’ quit or get fired, the actress told DailyMail.com.
She also claimed that Grassle only had her job on the show because Landon stood up for her during casting sessions at the network.
Arngrim said she never had clashes with Landon herself, instead enjoying his ‘wild’ behavior when she was a teenager filming the beloved NBC series.
‘I was a teenager and thought it was a riot,’ she said. ‘He was not everyone’s cup of tea, that is absolutely true.’
Arngrim said she knew her friend’s book would ‘not sugarcoat anything’ and claimed it presented the real version of life for most women working in 1970s Hollywood.
‘The reality is it was the 1970s. It was like Mad Men, she said. ‘It was another era and an old boy’s club. Michael did swear.
‘[Grassle] was quite religious growing up, whereas the conversation at the dining table was like outtakes from Deadwood.’
‘She is very fair. When you read the book, she talks about her own alcoholism issues and everything she went through,’ she went on.
‘She says at one point had she gotten sober earlier and dealt with her issues, she probably would have sat down with him and work it all out But his and her issues collided and it was two kinds of sandpaper. She is real straight out about it.’
‘The reality is it was the 1970s. It was like Mad Men, she said. ‘It was another era and an old boy’s club. Michael did swear,’ Arngrim said
Arngrim, who wrote her own best selling book, Confessions of A Prairie B****: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated, said that the cast always pushed aside tensions the minute cameras rolled.
‘That is the crazy thing. We were like a family in that even when we didn’t get along, we still hung out with each other.
‘People would visit from other sets and they’d say ‘your idea of a fight is you don’t eat lunch with them. You realize that on other sets people have restraining orders? You people are so goody-goody on this set.’
‘Even when you had a personal issue with someone, I used the make-up area as the demilitarization zone. You would say ‘I guess I am going to leave it here and go make a TV show.’ And we got on with it.
‘On another kind of show, that did not have the atmosphere we did, she would have not have stayed. She would have quit or been fired or quit or something. But she was there the whole nine years.’
Asked if the cast feud would have taken place amid today’s Me Too and Time’s Up movements, she said: ‘Today’s shows pay an awful lot more money. She might have got a lot more money and stayed.
‘I was a teenager and thought it was a riot,’ Arngrim said. ‘He was not everyone’s cup of tea, that is absolutely true’
‘Things are different now. Now the behavior expected on a set is much more polite and a level professional. Things that people said to each other in the 1970s you do not do that now.
‘People smoked and drank openly on the set. And this was Little House On the Prairie, you can imagine what it was like on other shows.
‘It was very difficult for women. It was a different era and very much a male atmosphere.
Arngrim insists Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated Landon was pivotal to Grassle’s career.
‘She would not have been on the show if not for him. If it was up to the network and suits, it would be completely different. He fought to have her on the show,
‘She says her own emotional problems and alcoholism completely contributed to the relationship to what it was.’
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