Beloved syndicated columnist celebrated by Chagrin Falls native playwrights Allison and Margaret Engel

Published: Jul. 27, 2023

By: John Benson, The News-Herald

Playwrights Allison and Margaret Engel have a special relationship with Erma Bombeck.

Growing up in Chagrin Falls, the twin sisters viewed the nationally syndicated columnist and beloved humorist — known as “America’s Favorite Housewife,” “The Socrates of the Ironing Board” and an “Accidental Feminist” — as another member of the family.

“One of our early memories was our mom at the dining room table holding The Cleveland Plain Dealer,” said Allison, calling from Pasadena, California. “She was laughing so hard that the newspaper was shaking. We’re going, ‘Mom, what’s so funny?’

“The only two words she could manage to get out were ‘Erma Bombeck.’ Shortly after that, we’d come home from school and fling the paper down on the ground so we could both read her column at the same time.”

Margaret added that growing up they would constantly quote Bombeck.

“One of her best ones is, ‘Guilt — the gift that keeps on giving,’” she said.

“Erma had so many wonderful takes on life and what happens in the house behind closed doors. How a family operates was really something that nobody was doing firsthand reports on.”

The 1969 Chagrin High School graduates, whose father owned an advertising agency on Euclid Avenue and mother worked as the Wickliffe school librarian, were approached by Bombeck’s longtime publicist who caught wind of their female journalist play “Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins.”

“He thought Erma should get similar treatment,” Margaret said. “He called me and started to explain who Erma was. I said, ‘You don’t have to explain. I know precisely.’”

After making its debut in 2015, “Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End” finally will see a Northeast Ohio production when the Cleveland Play House presents it July 29 through Aug. 20 at the Outcalt Theatre at Playhouse Square.

“We’re so pleased because Cleveland is our hometown,” Margaret said. “I worked for The Lorain (Morning) Journal. That was my first newspaper out of college.

“We have such strong feelings about Cleveland.”

Starring film, television and stage actress Pam Sherman (“Homicide: Life on the Streets,” “Shear Madness”), the play draws its title from Bombeck’s popular nationally syndicated column “At Wit’s End,” which was published in 900 newspapers nationwide.

A voice for the ordinary homemaker in the second half of the 20th century, Bombeck commented on everything and nothing — telling tough truths, finding humor and celebrating life.

The setting of the story takes place from the 1960s to the 1990s in Bombeck’s Dayton home.

While many from older generations will remember Bombeck, a fear shared by the Engels going into the project was whether younger folks would connect with the play.

“It’s interesting: When we went back and started reading her columns, we were afraid they’d be very dated or set in the ’70s,” Allison said. “They weren’t.

“Her things have been really timeless and stood up. She found a way to be funny and engaging and bring people in no matter what the topic. She could really handle anything. That’s why people respond to her now.”