Which actress's first TV role was Happy Hotpoint, an elf who appeared in commercials for Hotpoint appliances?

Long before Mary Tyler Moore turned the world on with her smile, she was Happy Hotpoint, the pixie-like dancing mascot of the Hotpoint appliance commercials. At just the age of 17, Moore filmed all of the commercials for Hotpoint over the course of five day period.

Mary received approximately $6,000 (US dollars) once she completed appearing in a total of 39 commercials. After she became pregnant with her first child, Hotpoint decided to end their working relationship when it was too difficult to conceal her pregnancy with the elf costume.

The above job helped to start Mary's acting career. Throughout her long and excellent professional career, she had great comic timing and was seen as an all American beauty. This made her a leading TV star and Emmy Award-winning actress before she took on smart, clever, and dramatic roles in films (“Thoroughly Modern Millie” - 1967, “Change of Habit” - 1969, and “Ordinary People” - 1980). Also, the life she portrayed in her 1970s sit-com about the life of a professional single woman made her a public icon. Her role in this instance led to it being called a "cultural and feminist milestone".

Mary Tyler Moore was "the liberated woman’s ideal”, TV Guide wrote in 1973.