''Free to Be... You and Me'' is a children's entertainment project, conceived, created and executive-produced by actress and author

Marlo Thomas Margaret Julia "Marlo" Thomas (born November 21, 1937) is an American actress, producer, author, and social activist. She is best known for starring on the sitcom ''That Girl'' (1966–1971) and her children's franchise '' Free to Be... You and ...

. Produced in collaboration with the

Ms. Foundation for Women The Ms. Foundation for Women is a non-profit organization for women in the United States, which had a deep commitment to diversity and was founded in 1972 by Gloria Steinem, Patricia Carbine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Marlo Thomas. The organizatio ...

, it was a

record album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records col ...

and illustrated book first released in November 1972 featuring songs and stories sung or told by celebrities of the day (credited as "Marlo Thomas and Friends") including

Alan Alda Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war co ...

Rosey Grier Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier (born July 14, 1932) is an American actor, singer, Protestant minister, and former professional football player. He was a notable college football player for Pennsylvania State University who earned a retrospective plac ...

Cicely Tyson Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson recei ...

Carol Channing Carol Elaine Channing (January 31, 1921 – January 15, 2019) was an American actress, singer, dancer and comedian who starred in Broadway and film musicals. Her characters usually had a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, ...

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

Roberta Flack Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937) is a retired American singer. She topped the Billboard Magazine, ''Billboard'' charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like M ...

Shirley Jones Shirley Mae Jones (born March 31, 1934) is an American actress and singer. In her six decades in show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of musical films, such as '' Oklahoma!'' (1955), ''Carousel'' (1956), and ''The M ...

Jack Cassidy John Joseph Edward Cassidy (March 5, 1927 – December 12, 1976), was an American actor, singer and theater director known for his work in the theater, television and films. He received multiple Tony Award nominations and a win, as well a ...

, and

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

. An

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

television special, also created by Thomas, using poetry, songs, and sketches, followed sixteen months later in March 1974. The basic concept was to encourage post-1960s gender neutrality, saluting values such as individuality, tolerance, and comfort with one's identity. A major thematic message is that anyone—whether a boy or a girl—can achieve anything. In 2021, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and selected for preservation in the

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...

Overview

The original idea to create the album began with

, who wanted to teach her then-young niece Dionne about life, in particular that it is acceptable to refute or reject the gender stereotypes expressed in children's books of the period. In an Emmy Legends interview Thomas explains:

I told my sister Terre "it would take Dionne 30 years to get over it
tories featuring traditional gender roles A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
the same as it took all of us. We need to find her some different books to read," and she said, "You go and find 'em." Well there weren't any. And not only weren't there any, I was in the bookstore one day looking around and found this one (picture book—''I'm Glad I'm a Boy! I'm Glad I'm a Girl!'' by Whitney Darrow Jr.) that showed a pilot on one page and a stewardess on a facing page (with a caption) that said "Boys are pilots, girls are stewardesses." Well I nearly had a heart attack right there in the bookstore. So I said "I'll make a record for Dionne. I'll ask everybody to donate their talents and it'll be fun."

Produced by

Carole Hart Carole Ruth Hart (April 30, 1943 – January 5, 2018) was an American writer and television producer who was involved in the inception of ''Sesame Street'' and other projects on broadcast television targeted at children. Biography Born Carole Rut ...

, with music produced by Stephen J. Lawrence and Bruce Hart, with stories and poems directed by

, the title has never been out of print. Proceeds went to the

. The album was originally released on

Bell Records Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 in New York City by Arthur Shimkin, the owner of the children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benny ...

in 1972 and, since 1975, has been available on

Arista Records Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertainmen ...

cassettes and CDs. Well-known songs include "It's All Right to Cry," sung by football hero

; the title track by

the New Seekers The New Seekers are a British pop group, formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music would have ...

; "Helping," a

Shel Silverstein Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, poet, cartoonist, singer / songwriter, musician, and playwright. Born and raised in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended universit ...

poem performed by

Tom Smothers Thomas Bolyn Smothers III (born February 2, 1937) is an American comedian, composer and musician, best known as half of the musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick. Early life Smothers was born in 1937 at ...

; "Sisters and Brothers" by the

Voices of East Harlem The Voices of East Harlem was an African-American vocal ensemble of up to 20 singers, aged between 12 and 21. Founded as a community initiative in 1969, the group performed with top soul music, soul and R&B musicians and recorded four albums in th ...

; and "When We Grow Up" performed by

on the album and by

and a teenage

on the special. Other sketches, some of them animated in the television special, include "Atalanta," co-narrated by Thomas and Alda, a retelling of the ancient Greek legend of

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

; "Boy Meets Girl" with Thomas and

Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began h ...

providing the voices for puppets, designed, performed and manipulated by

Wayland Flowers Wayland Parrott Flowers Jr. (November 26, 1939 – October 11, 1988) was an American actor, comedian and puppeteer. Flowers was best known for the comedy act he created with his puppet Madame. His performances as "Wayland Flowers and Madam ...

, resembling human babies, who use cultural gender stereotypes to try to discover which is a boy and which a girl; "

William's Doll ''William's Doll'' is a 1972 picture book by Charlotte Zolotow, one of the first children's texts to address nontraditional gender stereotypes. The story follows William, a young boy who wishes for a doll to care for. His father is unhappy with t ...

", based on

Charlotte Zolotow Charlotte Zolotow (born Charlotte Gertrude Shapiro; June 26, 1915 – November 19, 2013) was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of many books for children. She wrote about 70 picture book texts. The writers she edited include Paul Fl ...

's picture book about a boy whose family resists his requests for a doll until his grandmother explains that William wishes to practice being a good father; and "Dudley Pippin" with

Robert Morse Robert Alan Morse (May 18, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American actor, who starred in ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', both the 1961 original Broadway production, for which he won a Tony Award, and its 1967 film adaptati ...

and

Billy De Wolfe William Andrew Jones (February 18, 1907 – March 5, 1974), better known as Billy De Wolfe, was an American character actor. He was active in films from the mid-1940s until his death in 1974. Early life and early stage career Born William Andr ...

, based on stories by Phil Ressner. A number of pieces from the record did not make the special, most for lack of time, although "Housework" was left off due to the somewhat condescending tone it lent to its description of domestic workers. Thomas says in the Emmy Legends 40th anniversary interview:

In among all the praise we got for the project as a whole, we kept getting all these letters and phone calls talking about the track sounding as if it wasn't normal to be fond of cooking and cleaning and caretaking etc. So we left that off the special for that reason.

The children pictured on the original LP jacket were schoolmates of Abigail, Robin, and David Pogrebin, children of

Letty Cottin Pogrebin Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born June 9, 1939) is an American author, journalist, lecturer, and social activist. She is a founding editor of ''Ms.'' magazine, the author of twelve books, and was an editorial consultant for the TV special '' Free to B ...

, then editor of ''

Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...

'' Most of the children attended Corlears School. "

and Friends" followed ''Free to Be... You and Me'' with a 1988 sequel, '' Free to Be... a Family'', the first primetime variety show created and produced in both the United States and the Soviet Union.

Reception

Reviewing the LP in '' Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981),

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

wrote: "I've been giving this high-minded

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

kiddie record to various young Americans on the theory that it is not necessary, or easy, to like the

New York Dolls New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although the band never achieved much commercial succe ...

at age five. I figured it would be good for them, like baths. Surprise number one is that they all love it, to a person. Surprise number two is that I myself would much rather listen to Carol Channing on housework than to

Robert Klein Robert Klein (born February 8, 1942) is an American stand-up comedian, singer, and actor. He is known for his appearances on stage and screen. He has released four standup comedy specials: ''A Child of the 50s'' (1973), ''Mind Over Matter'' (197 ...

on dope." According to Thomas, " Larry Uttal at

told me, this kind of record might sell 15,000 copies tops. Well it went

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

right away, went Platinum within two years and went Diamond in under ten years. EVERYBODY was amazed it had touched such a nerve. It's still in the top 100 albums of all time over 40 years later." ''Free to Be'' faced backlash from some conservative religious leaders, including

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

author and psychologist

James Dobson James Clayton Dobson Jr. (born April 21, 1936) is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder of Focus on the Family (FOTF), which he led from 1977 until 2010. In the 1980s he was ranked as one of the most influentia ...

.Rotskoff, Lori; Lovett, Laura (2012). ''When We Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children's Classic and the Difference It Made''. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. . Kyle Smith from the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' claimed the project emasculated men. ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'' issued a rebuttal. In her 2010 memoir, ''Growing Up Laughing'', Thomas reflected on the astonishing impact the Free to Be projects had on the culture.

The show won an Emmy and a Peabody, the book became number one on the ''New York Times'' best-seller list and the record went gold. We were floored by the impact it all had. My little message for Dionne had gone straight to the hearts of moms and dads and aunties and uncles and, most of all, teachers, who embraced it as a way to teach the kids in their lives a new way of thinking about themselves.

Television special

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

, produced by

and Free to Be Productions, in association with Teru Murakami-

Fred Wolf Films Fred Wolf Films is an American animation studio founded in 1967 by Fred Wolf and Jimmy T. Murakami. It was founded as MW (Murakami-Wolf). It later became known as Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (MWS) when Charles Swenson became a full partner in 1978. ...

, Inc. and cosponsored by the Ms. Foundation, first aired March 11, 1974, on

. The broadcast earned an 18.6

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

/27 share and went on to win an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

. 16mm prints were also struck, and some schoolchildren from the 1970s and 1980s remember seeing the television special, or the filmstrip based on the special, at school during the era. The special appeared occasionally on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

throughout the 1980s, and was released on VHS and

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

videotapes through

Vestron Video Vestron Video was the main subsidiary of Vestron, Inc., a home video company based in Stamford, Connecticut, that was active from 1981 to 1993, and is considered to have been a pioneer in the home video market. The name is now used for a collect ...

subsidiary Children's Video Library in 1983. It also aired on cable channel

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cla ...

, but hasn't been seen since. A Region 1 DVD was released in November 2001, and in 2010, a newly remastered version was issued featuring a number of new extras, including a

deleted scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...

showcasing Dustin Hoffman.

Cast

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

Rita Coolidge Rita Coolidge (born May 1, 1945) is an American recording artist. During the 1970s and 1980s, her songs were on '' Billboard'' magazine's pop, country, adult contemporary, and jazz charts, and she won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician and t ...

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired American singer, songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are "Me and Bobby McGee", " For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Nig ...

The New Seekers The New Seekers are a British pop group, formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music would have ...

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick (; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on ''Billboards Hot 100 pop singles cha ...

Summary

#As a group of children frolic on a carousel, the titular song by the New Seekers plays in the background. #In a hospital, infant depictions of Thomas and Brooks debate their genders. #Flack and Jackson perform "When We Grow Up" while enacting children playing. #Baby Thomas and Brooks watch adults and discuss them. #Thomas and Belafonte take on various jobs performing "Parents Are People." #Thomas tells a story about a pretty girl who always goes first, until she gets eaten by tigers. #During a bath, Thomas and Brooks overhear a grown-up doing

baby talk Baby talk is a type of speech associated with an older person speaking to a child or infant. It is also called caretaker speech, infant-directed speech (IDS), child-directed speech (CDS), child-directed language (CDL), caregiver register, parent ...

. #Thomas, Morse, and De Wolfe talk about how Dudley Pippin got in trouble but ended up getting cheered up by the principal. #Grier performs "It's All Right to Cry" while many people crying is shown. #Thomas and Alda sing about a boy named William who wants a doll. #Thomas and Brooks sing a song about babies after they don't like the lullaby. #A retelling of

performed by Alda and Thomas. #Warwick sings "The Sun and the Moon" with many paintings of the sun and moon shown. #Hoffman reads compositions by

Jules Siegel Jules Siegel (October 21, 1935 – November 17, 2012) was a novelist, journalist, and graphic designer who is best known as one of the earliest writers to treat rock music as a serious art, although his writings about rock constituted only a sm ...

. #Smothers sings "Helping", a poem by

. #Thomas talks to children about having a sibling, then the Voices of East Harlem perform "Sisters and Brothers." #Tyson reads "Three Wishes" by

Lucille Clifton Lucille Clifton (June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was an American poet, writer, and educator from Buffalo, New York. From 1979 to 1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. Clifton was a finalist twice for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Li ...

, a folktale about a girl who gets three wishes after finding a penny with her birth year on New Year's Day. #Thomas, Kristofferson, and Coolidge sing "Circle of Friends" with their friends. #Baby Brooks and Thomas bid each other farewell as they are taken away to live their own lives. #The children on the horses return to the carousel.

Track listing (New York Cast album)

Some material here is left out of the TV special and vice versa while other material appears only in the accompanying hardcover book.

Act One

# "Free to Be... You and Me" – Music by Stephen J. Lawrence, lyrics by Bruce Hart, performed by

# "Boy Meets Girl" – Written by

Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, ...

and

Peter Stone Peter Stone may refer to: *Pete Stone, Australian footballer in the 1956 Summer Olympics * Peter G. Stone (born 1957), British archaeologist *Peter Stone (cricketer) (born 1938), New Zealand cricketer *Peter Stone (professor) (born 1971), professo ...

, performed by

and

# "When We Grow Up" – Music by Stephen J. Lawrence, lyrics by Shelly Miller, performed by

and

on the special and

on the Original Cast CD. # "Don't Dress Your Cat in an Apron" – Written by

Dan Greenburg Dan Greenburg (born June 19, 1936) is an American writer, humorist, and journalist. His 73 books have been published in 20 languages in 24 countries. His best-selling books for adults include the non-fiction books '' How to Be a Jewish Mother: ...

, performed by

Act Two

# "Parents Are People" – Music and Lyrics by

Carol Hall Carol Hall (April 3, 1936 – October 11, 2018) was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for composing the music and lyrics for the Broadway stage musical ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'' (1978, adapted as a film in 1982). ...

, performed by

and

# "Housework" – Written by

Sheldon Harnick Sheldon Mayer Harnick (born April 30, 1924) is an American lyricist and songwriter best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on musicals such as ''Fiorello!'' and ''Fiddler on the Roof''. Early life Sheldon Mayer Harnick was bo ...

, performed by

# "Helping" – Written by

, performed by

# "Ladies First" – Performed by

, based on the

poem of the same name. # "Dudley Pippin and the Principal" – Written by Phil Ressner, performed by

, Bobby Morse, and

Act Three

# "It's All Right to Cry" – Music and Lyrics by

, performed by

# "Sisters and Brothers" – Music by Stephen J. Lawrence, lyrics by Bruce Hart, performed by

The Voices of East Harlem The Voices of East Harlem was an African-American vocal ensemble of up to 20 singers, aged between 12 and 21. Founded as a community initiative in 1969, the group performed with top soul and R&B musicians and recorded four albums in the early and ...

# "William's Doll" – Music by

Mary Rodgers Mary Rodgers (January 11, 1931 – June 26, 2014) was an American composer, screenwriter, and author who wrote the novel '' Freaky Friday'', which served as the basis of a 1976 film starring Jodie Foster, for which she wrote the screenplay, as ...

, lyrics by

, performed by

and

(based on the children's book of the same name # "My Dog Is a Plumber" – Written by

, performed by Dick Cavett

Act Four

# "

" – Written by Betty Miles, performed by

and

# "Grandma" – Written by Carole Hart, performed by

Diana Sands Diana Patricia Sands (August 22, 1934September 21, 1973) was an American actress, perhaps most known for her portrayal of Beneatha Younger, the sister of Sidney Poitier's character, Walter, in the original stage and film versions of Lorraine Ha ...

# "Girl Land" – Music by

, lyrics by Bruce Hart, performed by

and

# "Dudley Pippin and His No-Friend" – Written by Phil Ressner, performed by Bobby Morse and

# "Glad to Have a Friend Like You" – Music and lyrics by

, performed by

Epilogue

# "Free to Be... You And Me" – Reprise

Bonus tracks

Different performances from those included in the film – and not included on the original LP or CD # "Let's Hear It for Babies" – Words and music by

Edward Kleban Edward "Ed" Kleban (April 30, 1939 – December 28, 1987) was an American musical theatre composer and lyricist. Kleban was born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1939 and graduated from New York's High School of Music & Art and Columbia Universi ...

– Performed by Marlo Thomas and Mel Brooks # “The Sun and the Moon” – Words by Elaine Laron, music by Stephen J. Lawrence – Performed by

# "Circle of Friends" – Music by Stephen J. Lawrence, lyrics by Bruce Hart – Performed by

and cast

40th anniversary

In March 2014,

The Paley Center for Media The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, dedicated to ...

hosted an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of ''Free to Be'', co-moderated by

and

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in ...

, which included many of the participants in the original project.

Book

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original project, a book called ''When We Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children's Classic and the Difference It Made'' was published.

References

External links

Free to Be Foundation

FTB Foundation
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

- videos available for viewing * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Free To Be... You And Me 1970s American television specials 1972 soundtrack albums Arista Records soundtracks Bell Records albums Book soundtracks Children's music albums Feminism and society Musical television specials Peabody Award-winning broadcasts Songs with feminist themes Television soundtracks United States National Recording Registry recordings

Overview

Reception

Television special

Cast

Summary

Track listing (New York Cast album)

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Epilogue

Bonus tracks

40th anniversary

Book

References

Further reading

External links