HOLLYWOOD—Alison Arngrim is always prepared for big crowds with bold questions. “The people kept arriving until we ran out of chairs,” declared Connie Kalter of Alison Arngrim’s book signing appearance at Vromans on July 2, adding, “After hearing Ms. Arngrim, I know why. She offers so much more than a book signing. It was a performance!”

Rose Marie, Tippi Hedren, Romi Dames, Cathy Silver and E.G. Daily

The engagement marked the third for Ms. Arngrim, in one week in the Los Angeles area. Like Vromans, both Barnes & Noble at The Grove and Larry Edmunds on Hollywood Boulevard, discovered that the audiences had no shortage of questions for the former childhood star, who created the iconic character of Nellie Oleson on “Little House on the Prairie.” Among the friends and colleagues that showed for Alison’s LA launch were Gloria Allred, E.G. Daily, Romi Dames, Tippi Hedren, Kate Linder, Rose Marie, Cathy Silvers and her Little House co-star, Rachel Greenbush (Baby Carrie) - all joined her later at TART on Fairfax Avenue to celebrate.

Alison and Gloria Allred

As in her one woman show, Alison holds nothing back, while answering questions from the audience about her troubled and abusive youth, starring as America’s most hated TV character, how the death of fellow cast member and TV husband, Steve Tracy, led to her AIDS activism and later how she became an influential voice in politics as the spokeswoman for PROTECT.org. She mentioned to one fan that playing Nellie Oleson probably saved her life. It gave her a way to vent and unlike all of her poor contemporaries who played sweet and innocent, she wasn’t tethered to the same restrictions, giving her a freedom to be mean, something that has come in handy when speaking up to politicians on behalf of thousands of children with no voice.

Alison and Kate Linder

Alison Arngrim gives audiences a reality check on “the facts of life” like no one else has ever done before, but sure as hell should have in “Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch.” And you thought she was out spoken on that damn “Little House on the Prairie?” Vanity Fair declared her “TV history’s #1 one bitch” and now after her successful run in New York and Los Angeles, she’s taking her new memoirs and show on the road returning by popular demand. Additional scheduled appearances for the book, “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch,” and her one woman show by the same name are planned for San Francisco, Boston, St Louis, Chicago, and even Walnut Grove, before taking it back to Paris, where Ms. Arngrim enjoys a heightened cult status … as Alison claims, “The French don’t think Nellie is mean, they think she’s French.”

Photographs by Bill Dow Photography