Mental Floss

15 Amazing Facts About Betty White

By Kristy Puchko

Betty White at a Los Angeles Zoo event in 2015.
Betty White at a Los Angeles Zoo event in 2015. / Vincent Sandoval/GettyImages
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2. Betty White was a Guinness World Record holder.

In the 2014 edition of the record-keeping tome, White was awarded the title of Longest TV Career for an Entertainer (Female) for her more than 70 years in show business. The year before, Guinness gave out Longest TV Career for an Entertainer (Male) to long-time British TV host Bruce Forsyth. As both began their careers in 1939, they’d be neck-and-neck for the title, were they not separated by gender.

3. Her first television appearance is lost to history.

Betty White and Eddie Albert on a 1952 broadcast of 'hollywood on television'
White, Eddie Albert, and another co-star during a 1952 broadcast of 'Hollywood on Television.' / Nigel Dobinson/GettyImages

Even White couldn’t remember the name of the show she made her screen debut on in 1939. But in an interview with Guinness World Records, she recounted the life-changing event, saying, “I danced on an experimental TV show, the first on the west coast, in downtown Los Angeles. I wore my high school graduation dress and our Beverly Hills High student body president, Harry Bennett, and I danced the ‘Merry Widow Waltz.’”

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