Rhea Feikin Biography
Rhea Feikin is an American retired television personality. She is best known as “the First Lady of MPT” because of her long relationship with Maryland Public Television. Feikin completed her over four decades of service to MPT and its viewers with a final pledge appearance on 1st March 2020. Feikin is the host of MPT’s “Artworks” as well as the “Chesapeake Collectibles” series and is the station’s principal pledge drive spokesperson.
“Rhea’s retirement brings to a close a remarkable career that spans over 4 decades, as well as that, won her fans and admirers across Maryland as well as beyond state borders,” said Larry D. Unger, MPT’s president and chief executive officer. “We will all certainly miss her at MPT, but she’s leaving behind an impressive legacy.”
Feikin started her television career in the early 1960s at WBAL, initially with an educational program called “Betty Better Speech” and then with a children’s program, “Miss Rhea and Sunshine.” On the latter show, she not only starred but served as a writer as well as a producer. Feikin went on to do daily weather reports on WBAL — memorably with her puppet sidekick, J.P. (manned by the late Cal Schumann) as well as hosting a game show for the Maryland Lottery.
Feikin freelanced for a while and served on the MPT show “Consumer Survival Kit” during the 1970s after leaving WBAL. Then worked as a host for such local public TV productions as “MPT on Location” (1991-1996), “ArtWorks This Week” (2002-2013) as well as “Impressions with Rhea Feikin” (2007-2014).
In a 2017 profile, Feikin told Jmore that she sometimes employs her own brand of Jewish guilt to coax dollars out of viewers. “I’ll say, ‘I have to tell you, the phones aren’t busy at all. And I know you’re watching the show.’ It always makes the phones ring,” she said. “I really believe all that stuff I say on the air.
I also truly believe in public television. It doesn’t care who you are. The variety and breadth of people who watch is so fulfilling. You don’t need cable. You just need a TV set. It’s the pathway to amazing programs.” Feikin was honored with MPT’s first star on its outdoor Walk of Fame at its Owings Mills location in the year 2010. The station’s renovated green room adjoining Studio A was named the Rhea Feikin Green Room 8 years later. Feikin was inducted into the Gold Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts as well as the Sciences’ National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter in recognition of her 5 decades of regional broadcasting service in the year 2014.
Feikin serves as an honorary chair of MPT’s current comprehensive fundraising campaign. She has worked on the boards of the Baltimore School for the Arts, the Gordon Center for Performing Arts, the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation as well as the Baltimore County Adult Education Committee. She was a founder of Baltimore’s Center Stage.
Feikin was the recipient of the Women in Film and Video’s Charm City Award as well as named one of “Maryland’s Top 100 Women” by The Daily Record among other honors and recognitions. Of her longevity as well as success on local TV, Feikin told Jmore, “It’s not brain surgery. But you’ve got to be able to be yourself because it’s an intimate medium. And you have to hope they like who you are.”
10 Quick Facts About Rhea Feikin
- Name: Rhea Feikin
- Age: 84 years old
- Birthday: To be updated
- Zodiac Sign: To be updated
- Height: Average
- Nationality: American
- Occupation: Television personality
- Marital Status: Married
- Salary: $38,783.00 to $52,407.00
- Net worth: To be updated
Rhea Feikin Age
Feikin is 84 years old as of 2020, she was born and raised in Baltimore. Rhea, date of birth, and birthday are publicly not available. We will update this section once this information is available.
Rhea Feikin Height
Feikin stands at an average height and has moderate weight. Rhea appears to be quite tall in stature if her photos, relative to her surroundings, are anything to go by. However, details regarding her actual height and other body measurements are currently not publicly available. We are keeping tabs and will update this information once it is out.
Rhea Feikin Education
Feikin joined the University of Maryland, where she starred in stage productions as well as toured with companies entertaining military troops. She received a speech pathology degree as well as became a speech therapist in Baltimore City schools. It was while teaching that she first entered broadcasting with an educational TV show, Betty Better Speech.
Rhea Feikin Family, Parents and Family
Feikin was born and raised by her parents in an apartment behind her parents’ grocery store in Hampden. Our efforts to find out more about her family came to no avail as no such information is publicly available. Thus, the identity of Feikin’s parents is still unclear. It is also not known if she has any siblings. Nevertheless, this section will be updated as soon as it is available.
Rhea Feikin Husband: Is she married?
Feikin was married to Colgate Salsbury. Colgate Salsbury was an American actor, known for Serial Mom (1994), Macbeth (1968), and The Winter’s Tale (1967). Salsbury was born on 18 July 1935. He died on 16 June 1999 in Baltimore, Maryland, the USA at an age of 63 years old.
She has two children from her marriage to her first husband Mark Feiken(attorney). Their son, Daniel, is an epidemiologist, and their daughter, Jennifer, is an attorney as well as a consultant, formerly an executive with Google, Twentieth Century Fox, AOL Time Warner, and McKinsey & Company.
Rhea Feikin Salary
MPT’s “Artworks” host salaries range from an average of $38,783.00 to $52,407.00 a year. However, these figures may vary substantially according to the level of seniority of the employee in question. At the moment, we do not have the exact salary and net worth of Feikin, but we’ll keep tabs and update once it is available.
Rhea Feikin Net Worth
Feikin net worth is publicly not available. Her primary source of income is her career as a television personality. Through her various sources of income, we believe that Feikin has been able to accumulate a good net worth but prefers to keep it private. We will update this section once this information is available.
Rhea Feikin Measurements and Facts
Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Rhea Feikin.
Rhea Feikin Wiki
- Full Names: Rhea Feikin
- Popular As: First Lady of MPT
- Gender: Female
- Occupation / Profession: Television personality
- Nationality: American
- Race / Ethnicity: White
- Religion: Jewish
- Sexual Orientation: Straight
Rhea Feikin Birthday
- Age / How Old?: 84 years old as of 2020
- Zodiac Sign: To be Updated
- Date of Birth: To be updated
- Place of Birth: United States
- Birthday: To be updated
Rhea Feikin Body Measurements
- Body Measurements: To be updated
- Height / How Tall?: Average
- Weight: Moderate
- Eye Color: To be updated
- Hair Color: To be updated
- Shoe Size: To be updated
- Dress Size: To be updated
- Breast Size: To be updated
- Waist Size: To be updated
- Hip Size: To be updated
Rhea Feikin Family and Relationship
- Father (Dad): To be updated
- Mother: To be updated
- Siblings (Brothers and Sisters): To be updated
- Marital Status: Married
- Husband/Spouse: Married to Colgate Salsbury(died),
- Dating / Boyfriend: To be updated
- Children: Sons ( Daniel) Daughter(s) (Jennifer)
Rhea Feikin Networth and Salary
- Net Worth: Under Review
- Salary: $38,783.00 to $52,407.00
- Source of Income: Television personality
Rhea Feikin House and Cars
- Place of living: Stevenson/Pikesville area of Baltimore County, USA
- Cars: Car Brand to be Updated
Rhea Feikin Puppet
She and Schumann reunited for the nightly puppet weather forecast “Rhea and JP.”
“(Gulf Oil) asked all the stations to send in a video,” Feikin said. “Brent Gunts was the general manager. … He said, ‘I don’t think people really care about highs and lows and barometric pressure; just do something that’s kind of fun and amusing.’ … We made up this thing with this crazy looking puppet and sent it off. Lo and behold, Gulf Oil chose us.”
Upon joining MPT, she hosted “Consumer Survival Kit,” as well as “Artworks This Week,” “MPT on Location,” “Chesapeake Collectibles” and “Impressions with Rhea Feikin.”
“I just loved doing all those things because I got to go to lots of different places,” Feikin said. “We did one on oriental rugs [at] a place in New York called Marjan International on Fifth Avenue. It was a huge rug store, family-owned. … They were Persian and the whole family stood and watched as we taped the segments. … We sat on these rolled-up rugs.”
Rhea Feikin Hairspray
She even appeared in his films, playing a geometry teacher in “Hairspray” (1988).
“It’s a very pleasant experience being in one of his movies,” Feikin said. “I had never been to a ‘movie’ movie before. I still get residuals. Every year, I get about $2.50 from SAG.”
Next, U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski reminisces with her about growing up in Baltimore, where Feikin lived in an apartment behind her parents’ grocery store in Hampden.
“I would see the senator at various functions,” Feikin said. “I went to a big party with my late husband, Colgate, and he was not a very outgoing person. … I looked on the dance floor and there he is with the senator just jitterbugging and carrying on. I thought, ‘I can’t believe this is happening!’ I did remind the senator about that and she remembered it, too.”
Rhea Feikin Mpt and Retirement
Rhea Feikin, ‘First Lady’ of Maryland Public Television, honored with a prime-time special on 18 May 2020
The “First Lady” of Maryland Public Television announced her retirement in March.
On May 18, 2020, Rhea Feikin will receive the tribute “Rhea: A Life in Television” at 8 p.m. on MPT. “It was kind of a funny idea,” Feikin told WTOP. “It was Eric Neumann’s idea. He thought that for so many years I’ve been interviewing people, but it was time to turn the tables and have people interview me. … He picked [five] terrific people and I think it’s gonna be fun.”
First, filmmaker John Waters chats with Feikin about her early days at WBAL-TV.
“I have known John since before he was famous,” Feikin said. “John loves to be called eccentric and weird … but basically John is just a wonderful friend and a very kind person. One of the reasons he gets away with what he does is because it’s never mean-spirited.”
Baltimore Center Stage Executive Director Michael Ross discusses her love of theatre.
“I was a founder of Center Stage,” Feikin said. “I got to be in the first play. … The first play was ‘La Ronde.’ … I was in the first scene. I was a young maid who has a dalliance with the young man. … Many years later … I married that young man who was in ‘La Ronde.’”
After that, MPT President and CEO Larry Unger goes behind-the-scenes of her shows.
“I worked for a lot of different presidents,” Feikin said. “He was definitely my favorite and the one who I think really changed the atmosphere at Maryland Public Television. It became much more open. He was always available and listened to everybody.”
Finally, she chats with longtime co-host Donald Thoms about their favorite pledge show guests, including bestselling author Nora Roberts, who grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland.
“I was fascinated by her,” Feikin said. “Her publicist made it very clear that there were certain things we couldn’t ask her. … She walked in and had this kind of gravelly voice. … She was straightforward and really interesting. We just hit it off. As the interview went on, she got more and more engrossed in it and the do’s and don’t’s just disappeared.”
She also enjoyed interviewing David Foster, who wrote Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” Earth, Wind & Fire’s “After The Love Has Gone” and Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.”
“He was great,” Feikin said. “He told stories, he had jeans that were cut out in the knees and he just was fabulous and funny. After several of the breaks, we were sitting in the green room and I said, ‘Are you really this nice? Or do you just know how to act nice?’ He just smiled and said, ‘A little bit of both.’ I loved that answer because it was the truth.”
Still, her all-time favorite was interviewing Jeremy Irons at Shakespeare Theatre.
“It was extremely exciting,” Feikin said. “We got there early. … In walks Jeremy Irons [with] bags under his eyes, kind of fabulous looking, this unsmiling person. … He looked at all the makeup on the makeup table, then he looked at me in the monitor, and he looked back and he said to me, ‘Do you think I need makeup?’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t think you do.’”
What was supposed to be a 10-minute chat turned into a 40-minute conversation.
“The first thing he said when he sat down was, ‘You’re an actress, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘No, I’m really not,’ and he just said, ‘Oh, yes, you are. Now let’s begin.’ I was unnerved from the beginning,’” Feikin said. “Every time the person would make a signal that he was to stop, he just ignored it. … He talked in complete sentences with never an ‘err’ or ‘uhh.’”
If anyone appreciates eloquent speech it’s Feikin, who studied speech pathology at the University of Maryland before becoming a speech therapist in Baltimore City schools. This inspired her very first gig at WBAL-TV with the education program “Betty Better Speech.”
“The FCC would from time to time ask stations to devote a certain amount of time for public service programming,” Feikin said. “They said, ‘Who wants to do this?’ … ‘Yeah, I’ll do it!’ That’s how it happened. When it was over, I was called into Brent Gunts’ office and he said, ‘Would you like to do a kids show?’ I didn’t walk, I ran to do it! And that was it.”
She stayed at WBAL-TV to create “Miss Rhea and Sunshine” with Cal Schumann.
“That was so much fun to do,” Feikin said. “He was absolutely a crazy, wonderful person, but totally unreliable because he drank a lot. We would get together once a week and write the shows for the week because he was the puppeteer. … We didn’t script any of it. We just scripted the idea but not the actual words, so you had to be on your toes.”
Suddenly, she put her foot in her mouth and couldn’t believe her next question.
“I just turned to this guy and said, ‘Are you Jewish?’” Feikin said. “There was just complete silence. The family was silent. All the people from MPT didn’t move. There was this moment. I was terrified. Finally, he just turned to me and said, ‘Yes, I am. Are you?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and everybody started to laugh. … They gave me a nice little prayer rock as a gift.”
In 2010, she became the first personality recognized on MPT’s Walk of Fame, a fitting accolade for five decades in television that came to an end when she retired March 1.
“I finally realized that the time has come,” Feikin said. “I will be celebrating in July my 85th birthday and I thought, ‘I better leave before they want me to leave.’ … The station was just wonderful. .. I appreciate the many emails and letters. It was a happy retirement.”
Does she have any big plans for retirement?
“I’m gonna walk, I’m gonna do my yoga and I’m gonna do very little else,” Feikin said. “I’m going to watch a lot of television. I love all the movies and things on Netflix and Amazon.”
She can start by watching “Rhea: A Life in Television” on MPT — albeit quarantined.
“I’ll be watching alone,” Feikin said. “I’m still unable to have people in my apartment.”
Frequently Asked Questions About Rhea Feikin
Who is Rhea Feikin?
Rhea Feikin is a famous television personality. She is best known as “the First Lady of MPT” because of her long relationship with Maryland Public Television. Feikin completed her over four decades of service to MPT and its viewers with a final pledge appearance on 1 March 2020.
How old is Rhea Feikin?
Feikin was born in Baltimore, she has not shared her date of birth with the public, as it is not documented anywhere as of 2020.
How tall is Rhea Feikin?
Feikin stands at an average height, she has not shared her height with the public. His/her height will be listed once we have it from a credible source.
Is Rhea Feikin married?
Yes, she is married to Colgate Salsbury. The couple resides together in the Stevenson/Pikesville area of Baltimore County. She ended her association with WBAL in the mid-1970s.
How much is Rhea Feikin worth?
Rhea Feikin has not yet revealed her net worth. We will update this section when we get and verify information about the wealth and properties under her name.
How much does Rhea Feikin make?
Per our average wage estimates for a journalist in the United States, Feikin receives an annual salary ranging between $ 24,292 and $ 72,507 that translates to an hourly average wage of between $ 10.15 and $ 31.32.
Where does Rhea Feikin live?
Feikin is a resident of the Stevenson/Pikesville area of Baltimore County, USA, we shall upload pictures of her house as soon as we have them.
Is Rhea Feikin dead or alive?
Feikin is alive and in good health. There have been no reports of her being sick or having any health-related issues.
Where is Rhea Feikin Now?
Rhea Feikin who is a Long-time Maryland TV personality retired in early 2020. On 16 October 2019 Owings Mills, MD- Maryland Public Television (MPT) today reported that Rhea Feikin, a fixture on television in Maryland since the 1960s as well as a mainstay on MPT over the past 40-plus years, will retire at the end of February 2020.
Rhea Feikin Social Media Contacts
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