"How ironic! Once again, just as I had done forty years before, I had to go to Europe to make myself famous in America."

As the Jewish-American presence in the entertainment industry expanded, Picon became seen as an "ethnic actress." Hoping to expand her reputation on the non-Yiddish stage, she performed in a successful London production of Majority of One. Upon her return to the United States she was cast as an Italian mother opposite Frank Sinatra in Neil Simon's screen adaption of Come Blow Your Horn. Receiving an academy award nomination for her performance in her first Hollywood film, Picon then went on to star in her first Broadway hit: Milk and Honey. At 64 years old, she also published an autobiographical tribute to her mother and grandmother, So Laugh A Little!