Name	Carol Channing
Caption	Carol Channing (in October 2009)
Birth name	Carol Elaine Channing
Birth date	January 31, 1921
Birth place	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Occupation	Actress/Singer/Comedienne
Years active	1941–present
Spouse	Theodore Naidish (div.)Alexander Carson (1953–1956); 1 sonCharles Lowe (1956–1999)Harry Kullijian (2003-present)
Website	Official website

Carol Elaine Channing (born January 31, 1921) is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards (including one for lifetime achievement), a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Channing is best remembered for originating, on Broadway, the musical-comedy roles of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and matchmaking widow Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly!

Childhood and education

Channing was born in Seattle, Washington, the only child of George and Adelaide (née Glaser) Channing. Her father was a city editor at the Seattle Star; his newspaper career took the family to San Francisco when Carol was only two weeks old. Her father later became a successful Christian Science practitioner, editor, and teacher. Carol attended Aptos Middle School and Lowell High School in San Francisco. At Lowell, Channing was a member of its famed Lowell Forensic Society, the nation's oldest high-school debate team.

According to Channing's memoirs, when she left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont, her mother informed her that her father, a journalist who Carol had believed was born in Rhode Island, had in fact been born in Augusta, Georgia, to a German-American father and an African-American mother. According to Channing's account, her mother reportedly didn't want [Channing] to be surprised "if she had a black baby". Channing kept this a secret to avoid any problems on Broadway and in Hollywood, ultimately revealing it only in her autobiography, Just Lucky I Guess, published in 2002 when she was 81 years old. Channing's autobiography, containing a photograph of her mother, does not have any photos of her father or son. Her book also states that her father's birth certificate was destroyed in a fire. (The November 4, 2002 issue of Jet magazine reported, based on her autobiography, that Carol Channing's father was African-American.)

Career

, 1956]]

Channing was introduced to the stage while working for her mother. In a 2005 interview with the Austin Chronicle, Channing recounted this experience:

"My mother said, 'Carol, would you like to help me distribute Christian Science Monitors backstage at the live theatres in San Francisco?' And I said, 'All right, I'll help you.' I don't know how old I was. I must have been little. We went through the stage door alley (for the Curran Theatre), and I couldn't get the stage door open. My mother came and opened it very well. Anyway, my mother went to put the Monitors where they were supposed to go for the actors and the crew and the musicians, and she left me alone. And I stood there and realized – I'll never forget it because it came over me so strongly – that this is a temple. This is a cathedral. It's a mosque. It's a mother church. This is for people who have gotten a glimpse of creation and all they do is recreate it. I stood there and wanted to kiss the floorboards."

Channing's first job on stage in New York was in Marc Blitzstein's No For an Answer, which was given two special Sunday performances starting January 5, 1941 at the Mecca Temple (later New York's City Center). She was 19 years old. Channing then moved to Broadway for Let's Face It!, in which she was an understudy for Eve Arden. Decades later, Arden would play "Dolly" in a road company after Channing finally relinquished the role. Five years later, Channing had a featured role in a revue, Lend an Ear. She was spotted by author Anita Loos and cast in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as Lorelei Lee, the role that brought her to prominence. (Her signature song from the production was Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.) In 1961, Channing became one of a very few Tony Award nominees to gain a nomination for work in a revue (rather than a traditional book musical), when she was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical, for the short-lived revue Show Girl.

Channing came to national prominence as the star of Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly! She never missed a performance during her run, attributing her good health to her Christian Science faith. Her performance won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, in a year when her chief competition was Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl. She was deeply disappointed when Streisand, who many believed to be far too young for the role, was signed to play Dolly Levi in the film, which also starred Walter Matthau and Michael Crawford.

Channing reprised the role of Lorelei Lee in the musical Lorelei. She also appeared in two New York revivals of Hello, Dolly!, and toured with it extensively throughout the United States. She also appeared in a number of movies, The First Traveling Sales Lady (1956) with Ginger Rogers, the cult film Skidoo and Thoroughly Modern Millie, opposite Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore. For Millie she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

In 1966, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. During her film career she also made some guest appearances on television sitcoms and talk shows, including CBS's "What's My Line?," on which she appeared in eleven episodes from 1962 to 1966. Channing also did a fair amount of voice over work in cartoons, most notably as Grandmama Addams in an animated version of The Addams Family which ran from 1992 to 1995.

Channing was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995, and an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Stanislaus in 2004. That same year, she received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre. She and husband Harry Kullijian are active in promoting arts education in California schools with the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation. The couple resides in Modesto, California.

Family life

She has been married four times. Her first husband, Theodore Naidish, was a writer. Her second husband, Alexander Carson, played center for the Ottawa Rough Riders Canadian football team. They had one son, Channing, who took his stepfather's surname and is now a Pulitzer-prize-nominated cartoonist publishing under the name Chan Lowe. In 1956, she married her manager and publicist, Charles Lowe. They remained married for 42 years, but she abruptly filed for divorce in 1998. He died before the divorce was finalized. After Lowe's death and until shortly before her fourth marriage, the actress's companion was Roger Denny, an interior decorator.

On May 10, 2003, she married Harry Kullijian, her fourth husband and junior high school sweetheart, who reunited with her after she mentioned him fondly in her memoir. The two performed at their old junior high school, which had become Aptos Middle School, in a benefit for the school.

At Lowell High School, they renamed the school's auditorium "The Carol Channing Theatre" in her honor. The city of San Francisco, California, proclaimed February 25, 2002, to be Carol Channing Day, for her advocacy of gay rights and her appearance as the celebrity host of the Gay Pride Day festivities in Hollywood.

Cancer survivor

Channing is an ovarian cancer survivor.

Theater credits

No For an Answer (January 5 and January 11, 1941)

Let's Face It! (October 29, 1941 – March 20, 1943) (understudy for Eve Arden)

Proof Through the Night (December 25, 1942 – January 2, 1943)

Lend an Ear (December 16, 1948 – January 21, 1950)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (December 8, 1949 – September 15, 1951)

Wonderful Town (February 25, 1953 – July 3, 1954) (replacement for Rosalind Russell)

The Vamp (November 10 - December 31, 1955) (Best Actress in a Musical nominee)

Show Girl (January 12 - April 8, 1961) (Best Actress in a Musical nominee)

Hello, Dolly! (January 16, 1964 – December 27, 1970) (left show in 1967)

Four on a Garden (January 30 - March 20, 1971)

Lorelei (January 27 - November 3, 1974) (Best Actress in a Musical nominee)

Julie's Friends at the Palace (May 19, 1974) (benefit performance)

Hello, Dolly! (March 15 - July 19, 1978) (revival)

Legends (January 7, 1986 – January 18, 1987) (national tour)

Hello, Dolly! (October 19, 1995 – January 28, 1996) (revival; farewell tour)

Filmography

at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort.]]

Paid in Full (1950)

The First Traveling Saleslady (1956)

The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford (NBC, December 4, 1958)

All About People (1967) (short subject) (narrator)

Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)

Skidoo (1968)

Shinbone Alley (1971) (voice)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) (Cameo)

The Love Boat (1981)

Parade of Stars (1983)

Magnum, P.I. (1983)

Alice in Wonderland (1985)

Sesame Street (1988)

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (1989) (voice)

Where's Waldo? (1991) (voice)

The Addams Family (1992) (voice)

2 Stupid Dogs (1993) (voice)

Happily Ever After (1993) (voice)

The Nanny (1993)

Thumbelina (1994) (voice)

Burke's Law (1994)

The Magic School Bus (1994 - Episode "In the Haunted House") (voice)

Space Ghost Coast to Coast: 'Girlie Show' (1995)

Homo Heights (1998)

The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars (1998) (voice) (direct-to-video)

(2003) (documentary)

Family Guy: 'Patriot Games' (2006)

References in modern culture

Various Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast members have impersonated Channing - Usually Crow T. Robot.

Chappelle's Show (2003) Season 1; Episode 5; In this Chappelle's Show skit "Ask a Black Dude" Paul Mooney remarks, "The black man in America is the most copied man on this planet, bar none. Everybody wanna be a nigga, but nobody wanna be a nigga, how about that question? Carol Channing just admitted she was a nigga, the rest of 'em need to break down and admit it too!!!"

Ryan Stiles often impersonated her on the American version of the improv comedy show Whose Line is it Anyway?, as did guest star Robin Williams on one episode. Greg Proops and Colin Mochrie also impersonated her on one occasion.

The red satin, sequin-bedecked costume, designed by Freddy Wittop, that Channing wore during Hello, Dolly! was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by Channing and theatrical producer Manny Kladitis, following the thirtieth anniversary tour of the show. It is currently on display at the National Museum of American History.

In the American sitcom Family Guy, Channing voices herself in a gag in which she takes a pounding from Mike Tyson at a celebrity boxing match, but holds on long enough to be declared the winner, thus costing Brian $50 which he bet against her.

In season one of the sitcom The Nanny originally aired November 10, 1993, Channing made a cameo appearance auditioning for producer Maxwell Sheffield. As part of the show's running joke of Maxwell not recognizing potential hit shows or stars, Channing walks onstage and barely sounds a note when a distracted Maxwell shouts, "Next!", without looking up from his paperwork. The stunned Channing meets Fran as she exits the stage and remarks, "Break a leg honey, HIS!"

During the 1997 movie Beverly Hills Ninja, Chris Farley's character Haru is impersonating a boisterous counterfeiting ink specialist to infiltrate the warehouse of his enemy. He reaches forward (blindfolded) and begins feeling the driver's face while saying, "Who's drivin' this buggy anywho... Carol Channing?!"

In Robin Williams' 2001 special Robin Williams: Live on Broadway, he impersonated Carol Channing as singing the song "One of Us" by Joan Osborne.

On the RuPaul's Drag Race episode on February 22, 2010, contestant Pandora Boxx portrayed Carol Channing in a Match Game-like game show segment where contestants portrayed celebrities.

References

Further reading

Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts by Carol Channing (Simon & Schuster, 2002)

Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing by James Kirkwood, Jr., about production of the play "Legends" (Dutton, 1989)

External links

Carol Channing official website

Carol Channing - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org

TonyAwards.com Interview with Carol Channing

Photo of Carol Channing in 1965 with her son, Chan

Category:1921 births Category:Living people Category:African American actors Category:American Christian Scientists Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:American voice actors Category:American actors of German descent Category:American Theatre Hall of Fame inductees Category:Bennington College alumni Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Cancer survivors Category:RCA Victor artists Category:People from Seattle, Washington Category:People from San Francisco, California Category:Tony Award winners Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors

Name	Teresa Graves
Birthdate	January 10, 1948
Birth place	Houston, Texas, U.S.
Deathdate	October 10, 2002
Deathplace	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Othername	Theresa Graves
Spouse	William D. Reddick (1977–divorced)
Yearsactive	1967–1983

Teresa Graves (January 10, 1948 – October 10, 2002) was an American actress and singer. As the star of Get Christie Love!, Graves is credited as being the first African American woman to star in her own hour long drama television series.

Early life and career

Born in Houston, Texas, Graves began her career singing with The Doodletown Pipers. She soon turned to acting and became a regular in the two variety flops Our Place (1967) and Turn-On (1969). She then became a regular on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In during its third season. Graves appeared in a number of films before her pivotal role in the 1974 television movie Get Christie Love!. She reprised the role of police investigator "Christie Love" in a short-lived TV series of the same name which featured Charles Cioffi and Jack Kelly as Lieutenants Reardon and Ryan, respectively, Love's supervisors. Jet magazine described Graves as "television's most delightful detective, the epitome of a tough lady cop with more feminine features than Venus".

Graves was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1974, and almost immediately began using her celebrity to bring international awareness to the persecution of Witnesses in Malawi under then-leader Hastings Kamuzu Banda's "one-party rule". In 1983, she retired from show business to devote her time to the religion. For the rest of her life, Graves resided in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California and took care of her mother. She was 54 years old.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1969 | Turn-On | Regular Performer | 1 episode |- |- | 1969–1970 | Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In | Regular performer | 5 episodes |- | 1971 | The Funny Side | Minority Wife | Unknown episodes |- | 1972 | Keeping Up with the Joneses | | Television movie |- | 1972 | The New Dick Van Dyke Show | Nurse Allen | 1 episode |- | 1973 | The Rookies | Susan Davis | 1 episode |- | 1973 | That Man Bolt | Samantha Nightingale | |- | 1974 | Vampira | Countess Vampira | Alternative titles: Old DraculaOld Drac |- | 1974 | Black Eye | Cynthia | |- | 1974 | Get Christie Love! | Christie Love | Television movie |- | 1974 | Get Christie Love! | Christie Love | 21 episodes |}

Awards and nominations

{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;" |- bgcolor="#B0C4DE" align="center" ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Year ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Award ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Result ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Category ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Film or series |- |1975 |Golden Globe Award |Nominated |Best TV Actress - Drama |Get Christie Love! |-style="background-color: #EAEAEA;" |1977 |TP de Oro |Won |Best Foreign Actress (Mejor Actriz Extranjera) |Get Christie Love! |}

References

External links

Category:1948 births Category:2002 deaths Category:Accidental deaths in California Category:Actors from Texas Category:African American actors Category:African American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American Jehovah's Witnesses Category:American television actors Category:Deaths by smoke inhalation Category:People from Houston, Texas

Name	Sophie Tucker
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Sonia Kalish
Born	January 13, 1886
Died	February 09, 1966
Origin	Tulchyn, Ukraine in reference to Tucker's notorious girth (Tucker never recorded the song). McCartney also used the same quip, this time for an American audience, to introduce The Beatles' performance of 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' as the finale of their set for The Ed Sullivan Show at The Deauville Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida on 16 February 1964. As there was a lot less audience reaction to the line in Miami Beach, John Lennon provided the laughs.
Name	Tucker, Sophie
Date of birth	1884-01-13
Date of death	1966-02-09

Category:American people of Russian descent Category:1886 births Category:1966 deaths Category:American blues singers Category:American buskers Category:American female singers Category:American Jews Category:American singers Category:Blackface minstrel performers Category:Jewish comedians Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Women comedians Category:Cancer deaths in New York

Caption	Stiles in November 2008
Birth name	Ryan Lee Stiles
Birth date	April 22, 1959
Birth place	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, director, voice actor
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Patricia McDonald (1988–present)

Ryan Lee Stiles (born April 22, 1959) is an American/Canadian actor, comedian, director, and voice actor whose work is often associated with improvisational comedy. He is best known for his improv and co-production work on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the role of Lewis Kiniski on The Drew Carey Show. He currently plays Herb Melnick on the CBS comedy Two and a Half Men.

Early life and career

Stiles was born in Seattle, Washington, the youngest of five children. His father, Sonny, was a fishing plant supervisor. His mother's name is Irene. When he was ten, his Canadian-born parents moved the family to Richmond, British Columbia. At the age of seventeen, he dropped out of his high school, Richmond Secondary, to pursue a career in comedy. He worked in his father's fish-processing plant to earn a living while doing stand-up at Punchlines Comedy Club in Vancouver, British Columbia and performing improv with Vancouver TheatreSports League. In 1986, Stiles successfully auditioned for a berth at Toronto's renowned Second City comedy ensemble.

Television work

By 1989, Stiles had gained the attention of the producers of the British improvisational comedy show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Stiles was a regular on the show until 1998, and the show's short production season allowed him to make numerous television and motion picture appearances in the United States.

In 1995, Stiles was asked by American comic Drew Carey to be a regular on his comedy The Drew Carey Show. Stiles played Drew's smart but underachieving best friend, Lewis Kiniski. Stiles' first line in the pilot episode of the show, "And that's why the French don't wash," is a line he had previously used in an episode of the British version of Whose Line?.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

In 1998 Carey successfully lobbied ABC to get an American version of Whose Line? produced. Following the final season of the British version in 1998, the American version premiered, with both Stiles and Carey credited as executive producers. Stiles and Colin Mochrie were the only two performers to appear in every episode of the US version, though Wayne Brady also became a regular near the beginning of the second season. The series was produced until 2006.

Stiles was the most prolific performer on the original UK version of Whose Line?, appearing in 76 of the series 136 episodes (including compilations). He first appeared in the fifth episode of the second season, which aired in late 1988. He appeared in one other episode of that season, before returning for four episodes of the third season. His prominence increased with each season, including appearances in every episode of Season 4 which was filmed in New York; ultimately appearing in every episode from the seventh season onwards.

Stiles was known for several recurring impressions he performed on the shows, performed both at his own decision and as an assignment in games. These included Carol Channing, Elvis Presley, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Steve Irwin and Christopher Lloyd's character in Taxi, Jim Ignatowski. He made clear his dislike of the musical segments of the show at every opportunity whenever he was chosen to perform in them, mostly because of his inability to form lyrics quickly. In particular, he disliked the games Hoedown and Irish Drinking Song, often reacting negatively (or sarcastically positively) to its being announced. Other than in early UK playings, Stiles was always the last performer to sing in Hoedown and other similar musical games, allowing him more time to devise lyrics, and giving him the final punch-lines, as well as injecting (usually not-so subtle) jabs at the Hoedown itself, or of the host for having him perform in it.

Stiles had first met Colin Mochrie years before while performing stand-up. They first performed together in Vancouver TheaterSports then in Second City, Toronto.There were a number of games which exclusively paired Mochrie and Stiles at every playing. Though other performers did so, he was the most common performer to make bald jokes at Mochrie's expense. In return, Mochrie often made jokes about Stiles's height, nose, attractiveness, and tendency to wear exotic, flamboyant shoes, which were designed by George Esquivel. However, he would sometimes stand up to or make jokes at the other performers (including Drew Carey) who made fun of Mochrie's baldness or Mochrie in general, notably during Scenes From A Hat.

Stiles took part in the regular practice of mocking host Clive Anderson on the UK series, though he did so with less frequency than others. On the American version, however, he was among the most frequent mockers of Carey, especially during the Hoedowns.

Stiles was almost always in a button-up shirt; typically a dress shirt, and was one of the few performers (along with Greg Proops) to commonly wear a necktie. One of Stiles's notable trademarks on the US series were his dress shoes, many of which were an unusual color, most notably his blue shoes, or had a flashy pattern of several colors. This was due to the fact that he often had to get shoes custom-made due to his height and shoe size. Stiles' shoes and the size of his nose were sometimes mocked by Carey and the other performers. In addition, a running gag on both versions of the show had the producers trying (and invariably failing) to stump Stiles, by giving him increasingly bizarre mannerisms or characters in the games that require him to act them out. When reading them just prior to the scene, he and Carey would often laugh at what was written on the cards.

Stiles received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program in 2002 for his work on the show.

Though he never appeared in the series, Stiles (along with Kaitlyn Olson) performed in the taping of the unaired pilot episode of Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, which involved improv games similar to Whose Line? games played in front of a massive green screen. Animation was later added to the improv footage.

Personal life

In 1981, Stiles met Patricia McDonald at Punchlines where she was waitressing. They lived together for seven years before marrying in 1988. They have three children: Sam, Mackenzie, and Claire. When not working in Hollywood, he lives at his home on Lake Samish, outside Bellingham, Washington, where he has opened the Upfront Theatre, a small theatre dedicated to live improv comedy.

Stiles once lived in a house previously owned by Liberace in Sherman Oaks, California, but he sold it.

Other appearances

Stiles appeared in the 1991 film Hot Shots as Mailman Farnham, and also starred in the 1993 sequel Hot Shots! Part Deux, as marine Rabinowitz.

Since 2004, Stiles has been seen as the recurring character Dr. Herb Melnick in several episodes of the comedy Two and a Half Men which stars his Hot Shots co-stars Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer. Stiles also made short guest appearances on Murphy Brown, Mad About You, Mad TV, and Dharma & Greg. In July 2008, he was a guest star on Reno 911! as Sergeant Clift, an acting coach.

During the 1994 Major League Baseball strike Stiles appeared in several commercials for Nike, hanging out in an empty ballpark doing things such as playing the organ and attempting to do the wave alone. The commercials ended with the tag line: "Play ball. Please."

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Film |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1985 | Rainbow War | | |- | 1991 | Hot Shots! | 'Mailman' Farnham | |- | 1993 | Hot Shots! Part Deux | Rabinowitz | |- | 1997 | Courting Courtney | Chad Gross | |- | 2003 | Nobody Knows Anything | Harold | uncredited |- | 2006 | | Clyde | |- | 2009 | Astro Boy | Mr. Mustachio | voice |}

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Television |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1990–2006 | Whose Line Is It Anyway | Himself |appeared in every episode from 1995 onwards, including every episode of the US version |- | 1995–2004 | | Lewis Kiniski |Main role |- | 2004–present | Two and a Half Men | Dr. Herb Melnick | guest role in one Season 2 episode,recurring from Season 4 onwards |}

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Commercials |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1994 || Nike || Organ Player || commercials pleading for the end of the 94/95 MLB strike |- | 1998 || KFC || "Famous Actor" || commercial for New Hot 'N' Spicy Chicken |- | 2001 || Kinko's || "Kenny" || various |- | 2004 || Progressive Automotive Insurance || Himself ||various |- | 2005 || Pizza Hut || unknown || various |- | 2007 || Playskool || unknown || various |}

References

External links

Ryan Stiles Net Fansite

Ryan Stiles biography

Category:1959 births Category:American comedians Category:Canadian expatriate actors in the United States Category:American people of Canadian descent Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Living people Category:People from Bellingham, Washington

Name	Richard Bernard Skelton
Caption	Red Skelton, 1944
Birth name	Richard Bernard Skelton
Birth date	July 18, 1913
Birth place	Vincennes, Indiana, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Comedian/Painter/Clown
Years active	1937–1981
Death date	September 17, 1997
Death place	Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Other names	The Sentimental Clown
Spouse	Edna Marie Stilwell (1931-1943) Georgia Davis (1945-1971) Lothian Toland (1973-1997)
Emmyawards	Writing in a Comedy Series1961 The Red Skelton Show
Awards	Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Boulevard

Red Skelton (July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997) was an American comedian who was best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing another career as a painter.

Biography

Early years

Born in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard Skelton was the son of Joseph E. Skelton (1878–1913), who died in 1913 shortly before the birth of his son, and Ida (née Fields) Skelton (1884–1967). In Skelton's lifetime there was some dispute about the year of his birth. Biographer Arthur Marx reported (from second hand information) that Skelton may have been born as early as 1906, and the year 1910 was sometimes cited as the year of his birth. In a People Magazine article in 1979, Skelton admitted that he fudged about his age, and was quoted as saying he was "in his seventies."

Skelton got one of his earliest tastes of show business with the circus as a teenager where he invented the now very popular catch phrase, "Milk, milk, lemonade... Around the corner fudge is made." Which made him vastly popular with the younger generation. Before that, he caught the show business bug at 10 years of age from entertainer Ed Wynn, who spotted him selling newspapers in front of the Pantheon Theatre, in Vincennes. After buying every newspaper Skelton had, Wynn took him backstage and introduced him to members of the show with which he was traveling. By age 15, Skelton had hit the road full-time as an entertainer, working everywhere from medicine shows and vaudeville to burlesque, showboats, minstrel shows and circuses. While performing in Kansas City, in 1930, Skelton met and married his first wife, Edna Stillwell. The couple divorced 13 years later, but Stillwell remained one of his chief writers.

Film

Skelton caught his big break into two media at once: radio and film. In 1938 he made his film debut for RKO Radio Pictures in the supporting role of a camp counselor in Having Wonderful Time. Two short subjects followed for Vitaphone, in 1939: Seeing Red and The Bashful Buckaroo.

Skelton was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to lend comic relief to its Dr. Kildare medical dramas, but soon he was starring in comedy features (as inept radio detective "The Fox") and in Technicolor musicals. When Skelton signed his long-term contract with MGM in 1940, he insisted on a clause that permitted him to work in radio (which he had already done) and on television (which was in its infancy). Studio chief Louis B. Mayer agreed to the terms, only to regret it later when television became a threat to motion pictures.

Radio

After appearances on The Rudy Vallee Show in 1937, Skelton became a regular in 1939's Avalon Time on NBC, sponsored by Avalon Cigarettes. On October 7, 1941, Skelton premiered his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, developing a number of recurring characters including punch-drunk boxer "Cauliflower McPugg," inebriated "Willy Lump-Lump" and "'Mean Widdle Kid' Junior," whose favorite phrase ("I dood it!") soon became part of the American lexicon. That, along with "He bwoke my widdle arm!" (or other body part) and "He don't know me vewy well, do he?" all found their way into various Warner Bros. cartoons.

Skelton himself was referenced in a Popeye cartoon in which the title character enters a haunted house and encounters a "red skeleton." The Three Stooges also referenced Skelton in Creeps (1956): Shemp: "Who are you?" Talking Skeleton: "Me? I’m Red." Shemp: "Oh, Red Skeleton."

Other characters included "Con Man San Fernando Red," cross-eyed seagulls "Gertrude and Heathcliffe" and the singing cabdriver "Clem Kadiddlehopper," who was a country bumpkin with a big heart. Clem had a knack for upstaging city slickers, even if he couldn't manipulate his cynical father: "When the stork brought you, Clem, I shoulda shot him on sight!" Skelton would later consider court action against the apparent usurpation of this character by Bill Scott for the voice of Bullwinkle.

The comedian helped sell World War II war bonds on the top-rated show, which featured Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in the supporting cast, plus the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra and announcer Truman Bradley. Harriet Nelson was the show's vocalist.

It was during this period that Red divorced his first wife, Edna, and married his second wife Georgia. According to the director George Sydney, he met Georgia while visiting the set of The Harvey Girls (1945) where Georgia, also nicknamed Red, played one of the "bad" girls working at the Alhambra bar. Red and Georgia's only son, Richard, was born in 1945. Georgia continued in her role as Red's manager until the 1960s.

Skelton was drafted in March 1944, so his popular series was discontinued on June 6. Shipped overseas to serve with an Army entertainment unit as a private, Skelton led an exceptionally hectic military life. In addition to his own duties and responsibilities, he was often summoned to entertain officers late at night. The perpetual motion and lack of rest resulted in a nervous breakdown in Italy. He spent three months in a hospital and was discharged in September 1945. He once joked about his military career, "I was the only celebrity who went in and came out a private."

On December 4, 1945, The Raleigh Cigarette Program resumed with Skelton introducing some new characters, including, "Bolivar Shagnasty" and "J. Newton Numbskull." The name "Bolivar Shagnasty" was later appropriated (in the year 2001) by reconteur [Donald A. Romano] of Newburgh and Albany, NY, for use on a series of Newburgh-based chatboards. Lurene Tuttle and Verna Felton appeared as Junior's mother and grandmother. David Forrester and David Rose led the orchestra, featuring vocalist Anita Ellis. The announcers were Pat McGeehan and Rod O'Connor. The series ended May 20, 1949. That fall, he moved to CBS, where the show ran until May 1953.

Television

In 1951, NBC beckoned Skelton to bring his radio show to television. His characters worked even better on screen than on radio. TV also led to one of his best-remembered characters, "Freddie the Freeloader," a traditional tramp whose appearance suggested the elder brother of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown Emmett Kelly.

Announcer and voice actor Art Gilmore, who voiced numerous movie trailers in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, became the announcer on the show, with David Rose and his orchestra providing the music. A hit instrumental for Rose, called "Holiday for Strings", was used as Skelton's TV theme song.

During the 1951–52 season, Skelton broadcast live from a converted NBC radio studio. When he complained about the pressures of doing a live show, NBC agreed to film his shows in the 1952–53 season at Eagle Lion Studios, next to the Sam Goldwyn Studio, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. Later the show was moved to the new NBC television studios in Burbank.

Declining ratings prompted NBC (and sponsor Procter & Gamble) to cancel his show in the spring of 1953. Beginning with the 1953–54 season, Skelton switched to CBS, where he remained until 1970.

Biographer Arthur Marx documented Skelton's personal problems, including heavy drinking. An appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show began a turnaround for Skelton's television career. He curtailed his drinking and his ratings at CBS began to improve, especially after he began appearing on Tuesday nights for co-sponsors Johnson's Wax and Pet Milk Company.

Many of Skelton's television shows have survived due to kinescopes, films and videotapes and have been featured in recent years on PBS television stations. In addition, a number of excerpts from Skelton's programs have been released in VHS and DVD formats.

Skelton's comedic sketches became legendary. Sometimes during sketches, Skelton would break up or cause his guest stars to laugh, not only on the live telecasts but on taped programs as well. Actress Theona Bryant, a regular to the show remarked, "When you can recite Juliet's Romeo dialogue in southern belle drawl into the laughing face of Red Skeleton, you're ready to be a star." Skelton's weekly signoff—"Good night and may God bless"—became as familiar to television viewers as Edward R. Murrow's "Good night and good luck," or Walter Cronkite's "And that's the way it is."

In the early 1960s, Skelton became the first CBS host to tape his weekly programs in color. He bought an old movie studio on La Brea Avenue (once owned by Charlie Chaplin) and converted it for television productions, as well as forming his own company, Van Bernard Productions, which also was a partner in Irwin Allen's Lost In Space.

He tried to encourage CBS to do other shows in color at the facility, although most were taped in black-and-white at Television City near the Farmers Market in Los Angeles. However, CBS president William S. Paley had generally given up on color television after the network's unsuccessful efforts to receive Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval for CBS' "color wheel" system (developed by inventor Peter Goldmark) in the early 1950s.

Although CBS occasionally would use NBC facilities or its own small color studio for specials, the network avoided color programming—except for telecasts of The Wizard of Oz and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella—until the fall of 1965, when both NBC and ABC began televising most of their programs in RCA's compatible color process. By that time, Skelton had abandoned his own studio and moved to the network's Television City facilities, where he resumed programs until he left the network. In the fall of 1962, CBS expanded his program to a full hour, retitling it The Red Skelton Hour.

At the height of Skelton's popularity, his son was diagnosed with leukemia. In 1957, this was a virtual death sentence for any child. The illness and subsequent death of Richard Skelton at age 9 left his devastated father unable to perform for much of the 1957–58 television season. The show continued with guest hosts that included a young Johnny Carson, who had served as one of Skelton's writers a few years earlier. CBS management was exceptionally understanding of Red's situation, and no talk of cancellation was ever entertained by Paley. Skelton would seemingly turn on CBS and Paley after his show was cancelled by the network in 1970.

Skelton was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989, but as Kadiddlehopper showed, he was more than an interpretive clown. One of his best-known routines was "The Pledge of Allegiance," in which he explained the pledge word by word. That routine was released as a single by Columbia Records after Skelton performed it on his TV series in 1969. Another Skelton staple was a pantomime of the crowd at a small town parade as the American flag passes by. Skelton frequently employed the art of pantomime for his characters, using few props.

In Groucho and Me, Groucho Marx called Skelton "the most unacclaimed clown in show business", and "the logical successor to [Charlie] Chaplin", largely because of his ability to play a multitude of characters with minimal use of props. "With one prop, a soft battered hat," Groucho wrote, describing a performance he had witnessed, "he successfully converted himself into an idiot boy, a peevish old lady, a teetering-tottering drunk, an overstuffed clubwoman, a tramp, and any other character that seemed to suit his fancy. No grotesque make-up, no funny clothes, just Red." He added that Skelton also "plays a dramatic scene about as effectively as any of the dramatic actors."

One of the last known on-camera interviews with Skelton was conducted by Steven F. Zambo. A small portion of this interview can be seen in the 2005 PBS special, The Pioneers of Primetime.

Off the air

Skelton kept his high television ratings up to 1970, but he ran into two problems with CBS. Demographics showed he no longer appealed to younger viewers, and his contracted annual salary raises grew disproportionately thanks to inflation. Since CBS had earlier decided to keep another long-time favorite, Gunsmoke, whose appeal was strictly to older audiences, it's possible that without Skelton's inflationary contract raises he might have been kept on the air a few more years. However, between 1970 and 1971, CBS moved away from its traditional weekly variety shows hosted by veterans Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, and others whom network programmers thought were alienating younger audiences and resulting in lower ratings (see rural purge for more information on this topic). Remarkably, CBS continued with Carol Burnett's highly popular show until 1978 and aired variety programs hosted by younger entertainers such as Sonny and Cher. Years later, Burnett told reporters that network variety shows had become too expensive to bring back.

Skelton moved to NBC in 1970 for one season, in a half-hour Monday night version of his former show, then ended his long television career after being canceled by that network in 1971.

Skelton was said to be bitter about CBS's cancellation for many years to follow. Ignoring the demographics and salary issues, he bitterly accused CBS of caving in to the anti-establishment, anti-war faction at the height of the Vietnam War, saying his conservative politics and traditional values caused CBS to turn against him. Skelton invited prominent Republicans, including Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen to appear on his program.

When he was presented with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Governor's Award in 1986, Skelton received a standing ovation. "I want to thank you for sitting down," Skelton said when the ovation subsided. "I thought you were pulling a CBS and walking out on me."

Clown and circus art

Skelton returned to live performance after his television days ended, in nightclubs and casinos and resorts, as well as performing such venues as Carnegie Hall. Many of those shows yielded segments that were edited into part of the Funny Faces video series on HBO's Standing Room Only. He also spent more time on his lifetime love of painting, usually of clown images, and his works began to attract prices over US$80,000.

Red married for a third and last time in 1983 to the much younger Lothian Toland. She continues to maintain a website and business selling Skelton memorabilia and art prints.

In Death Valley Junction, California, Skelton found a kindred spirit when he saw the artwork and pantomime performances of Marta Becket. Today, circus performers painted by Marta Becket decorate the Red Skelton Room in the Amargosa Hotel, where Skelton stayed four times in Room 22. The room is dedicated to Skelton, as explained by John Mulvihill in his essay, "Lost Highway Hotel":

Marta Becket is the magic behind the Amargosa Hotel. For the past 32 years, it has provided both a home and a venue for her lifetime ambition: to perform her dance and pantomime works to paying audiences. Since 1968, she's been doing just that, twice a week, audiences or no. The hotel guest’s first encounter with Marta is through her paintings in the lobby and dining area. Once she and her husband had upgraded the structure of the hotel and theatre, she made them unique by painting their walls with shimmering frescoes (not real frescoes but the effect is the same) in a style uniquely hers. Some of the paintings are deceptively three-dimensional, like the guitar leaning against a wall that you don’t realize is a painting until you reach to pick it up. Some are evocative of carnival art from the early part of this century. All are vibrant, whimsical. If you’re lucky, your room will be graced with similar wall paintings. Room 22 is where Red Skelton used to stay. He visited once to catch Marta’s show and, like so many others, fell victim to the Amargosa’s enchantment and returned again and again. He asked Marta to illustrate his room with circus performers and though he died shortly thereafter, she did so anyway. Staying in this room, with acrobats scaling the walls and trapeze artists flying from the ceiling, is a singularly evocative experience, one I wouldn’t trade for a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Writing and music

Near the end of his life, Skelton said his daily routine included writing a short story a day. He collected the best stories in self-published chapbooks. He also composed music which he sold to background music services such as Muzak. Among his more notable compositions was his patriotic, "Red's White and Blue March."

Personal life

Skelton married Edna Marie Stillwell (b.1906 - d.1982), a joke writer, business manager, and former usher at Kansas City's old Pantage Theater, on June 1, 1931. Skelton was one month away from his 18th birthday, and Edna was 16 (or as old as 25 if the birth date given above is correct.). They divorced in 1943. Stillwell remained an advisor on his career after their marriage ended. It was his ex-wife/manager Edna who negotiated a seven-year Hollywood contract for him in 1951, the same year "The Red Skelton Show" premiered on NBC. (left) and Red Skelton (right), ca 1950. ]] On March 9, 1945 he married Georgia Maurine Davis in Beverly Hills, California. They had two children, Richard Jr., and Valentina Marie Skelton (b.1947). Richard Skelton Jr.'s death on May 10, 1958 from leukemia, just 10 days before his 10th birthday, devastated the Skelton household. Family friend Arthur Marx, Groucho's son, whose unauthorized biography of Skelton came out in 1979, wrote, "Red treated his son's room in their Palm Springs house like a little museum. ...He had it cordoned off with a velvet rope so nobody could go in there." Another family friend, actress Arlene Dahl, who co-starred with Skelton in three films, remarked, "The death of his child really did Red in. He idolized that boy."

Richard Jr.'s death profoundly affected Red and Georgia. By 1966, Georgia Skelton wounded herself in an "accidental shooting." And in 1971, Red and Georgia divorced. By Fall 1973, Skelton, now 60, remarried to a secretary 25 years his junior, Lothian Toland (daughter of famed film cinematographer Gregg Toland). They were married on October 19, 1973 in San Francisco, California, and remained married until Red Skelton's death in 1997. On May 10, 1976, ex-wife Georgia committed suicide by gunshot, on the anniversary of her son's death. She was 55. Deeply affected by the loss of his ex-wife, Red abstained from performing for the next decade, finding solace in painting clowns.

Death

Red Skelton died near his Anza, California home, at Eisenhower Medical Center, in Rancho Mirage, California, of pneumonia, on September 17, 1997. He was 84. Skelton was interred in the Skelton Family tomb in The Great Mausoleum's Sanctuary of Benediction, private room, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California. He rests with his beloved son Richard Jr., who died in 1958. Skelton was survived by his widow Lothian Toland-Skelton, and his daughter Valentina Marie Skelton-Alonso (by his second wife Georgia), and granddaughter Sabrina Maureen Alonso.

Fraternity

Red Skelton was a Freemason, a member of Vincennes Lodge No. 1, in Indiana. He also was a member of both the Scottish and York Rite. He was the recipient of the Gold Medal of the General Grand Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, for Distinguished Service in the Arts and Sciences. On September 24, 1969, he received the honorary 33° in the Scottish Rite. Skelton was also a Shriner in Los Angeles, California. In 1961 Skelton was made an honorary brother of the Phi Alpha Tau Fraternity of Emerson College when he was awarded the Joseph E. Connor Award for excellence in the field of communications. He was also an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity.

Legacy

The Red Skelton Bridge spans the Wabash River and provides the highway link between Illinois and Indiana, on U.S. Route 50, near his hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. Immediately after the bridge-dedication ceremony came to a close, Red proclaimed in his normal comical style to the crowd, "Ok, now everybody, off of my bridge!"

At a cost of $16.8 million, Red Skelton Performing Arts Center was built on the Vincennes University campus. It was officially dedicated on Friday, February 24, 2006. The building includes an 850-seat theater, classrooms, rehearsal rooms and dressing rooms. The grand foyer is a gallery for Red Skelton paintings, statues and film posters. In addition to Vincennes University theatrical and musical productions, the theater hosts special events, convocations and conventions. Work is underway on the Red Skelton Gallery and Education Center to house the $3 million collection of Skelton memorabilia donated by Lothian Skelton. As of June 2009, part of the museum including a gift shop is open. In 2007, restoration was planned for the historic Vincennes Pantheon Theatre where Skelton performed during his youth.

In 2002, during the controversy over the phrase "under God," which had been added to U.S. Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, a recording of a monologue Skelton performed on his 1969 television show resurfaced. In the speech, he commented on the meaning of each phrase of the Pledge. At the end, he added: "Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that would be eliminated from schools too?" Given that advocates were arguing that the inclusion of "under God" in a pledge recited daily in U.S. public schools violated the First Amendment separation of church and state, Skelton suddenly regained popularity among religious conservatives who wanted the phrase to remain.

Filmography

Features:

Having Wonderful Time (1938)

Flight Command (1940)

The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1941)

Whistling in the Dark (1941)

Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (1941)

Lady Be Good (1941)

Ship Ahoy (1942)

Maisie Gets Her Man (1942)

Panama Hattie (1942)

Whistling in Dixie (1942)

DuBarry Was a Lady (1943)

Thousands Cheer (1943)

I Dood It (1943)

Whistling in Brooklyn (1943)

Bathing Beauty (1944)

Ziegfeld Follies (1946)

The Show-Off (1946)

Merton of the Movies (1947)

The Fuller Brush Man (1948)

A Southern Yankee (1948)

Neptune's Daughter (1949)

The Yellow Cab Man (1950)

Three Little Words (1950)

Duchess of Idaho (1950)

The Fuller Brush Girl (1950) cameo

Watch the Birdie (1950)

Excuse My Dust (1951)

Texas Carnival (1951)

Lovely to Look At (1952)

The Clown (1953)

Half a Hero (1953)

The Great Diamond Robbery (1954)

Susan Slept Here (1954) cameo

Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) cameo

Public Pigeon No. One (1957)

Ocean's Eleven (1960) cameo

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)

Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)

Short subjects:

The Broadway Buckaroo (1939)

Seeing Red (1939)

Radio Bugs (1944) (voice)

Weekend in Hollywood (1947)

The Luckiest Guy in the World (1947) (voice)

Some of the Best (1949)

References

External links

Red Skelton official site

Red Skelton biography at Clown Ministry

Red-Eo-Tape (Red Tape) Color Television

Category:1913 births Category:1940s American radio programs Category:1997 deaths Category:American clowns Category:American comedians Category:American composers Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Blackface minstrel performers Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:Burlesque performers Category:California Republicans Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Actors from Indiana Category:Indiana Republicans Category:Infectious disease deaths in California Category:People from Vincennes, Indiana Category:People from Palm Springs, California Category:Vaudeville performers

Name	Pandora Boxx
Caption	Pandora Boxx performing at Tilt in Rochester
Birthname	Michael Steck
Birthdate	May 02, 1972
Birthplace	Jamestown, New York
Occupation	Drag Queen, Reality Television Personality
Website	http://www.pandoraboxx.com

Pandora Boxx (born Michael Steck May 2, 1972) is an American drag queen and reality television personality Her stage name is a play on Pandora's box.

RuPaul's Drag Race

Pandora Boxx is most known as a popular contestant on Season 2 of Drag Race. She was eliminated in the eighth episode, "Golden Gals," which aired on March 29, 2010. After her elimination, Entertainment Weekly called her their pick for America's Next Drag Superstar.

Boxx also appeared on RuPaul's Drag U.

Other work

Besides appearing in season 2 of RuPaul's Drag Race, she wrote, directed, produced, and appeared in Mrs. Kasha Davis: The Life of an International Housewife Celebrity starring fellow drag performer from Rochester's Tilt nightclub, Mrs. Kasha Davis. It was described as "a new murder mystery/B-horror movie/comedy play." The Lipstick Massacre has played at Rochester's Multi-use Community Cultural Center, and will play at the Geva Theatre.

For her creative roles in her projects, she is usually credited with her legal name, Michael Steck.

Personal life

Boxx resides in Rochester, NY and hosts the Tilt-A-Whirl event every Thursday night at Tilt nightclub.

Steck became engaged on Christmas 2010.

References

External links

Pandora Boxx/Michael Steck

Pandora Boxx at Blogspot

The Lipstick Massacre

Category:Living people Category:American female impersonators Category:Participants in American reality television series Category:Drag queens Category:LGBT people from the United States Category:People from Rochester, New York Category:Gay actors Category:1972 births

Caption	from the trailer for Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938)
Birth name	Ethel Agnes Zimmermann
Birth date	January 16, 1908
Birth place	Astoria, Queens, New York, U.S.
Death date	February 15, 1984
Death place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress/Singer
Voice type	Mezzo-soprano
Years active	1930–1982
Spouse	William Smith (1940–1941) Robert Levitt (1941–1952)Robert Six (1953–1960) Ernest Borgnine (1964; 32 days)

Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "It's De-Lovely", "Friendship", "You're the Top", "Anything Goes", and "There's No Business Like Show Business", which later became her theme song.

Early life

Merman was born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann in her maternal grandmother's house located at 26-5 4th Street in Astoria, Queens, in New York City in 1908, though she would later emphatically declare that it was actually 1912. Her father, Edward Zimmermann (1879–1977), was an accountant with James H. Dunham & Company, a Manhattan wholesale dry-goods company, and her mother, Agnes (née Gardner; 1883–1974), was a school teacher. Zimmermann had been raised in the Dutch Reformed Church and his wife was Presbyterian, but shortly after they were wed they joined the Episcopalian congregation at Church of the Redeemer, where Merman was baptized. Her parents were strict about church attendance, and every Sunday she spent the day there, first at morning services, followed by Sunday school, an afternoon prayer meeting, and an evening study group for children.

Merman attended P.S. 4 and William Cullen Bryant High School (which later named its auditorium in her honor), where she pursued a commercial course that offered secretarial training. She was active in numerous extracurricular activities, including the school magazine, the speakers' club, and student council, and she frequented the local music store to peruse the weekly arrivals of new sheet music. On Friday nights the Zimmermann family would take the subway into Manhattan to see the vaudeville show at the Palace Theatre, where Merman discovered Blossom Seeley, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, and Nora Bayes. At home she would try to emulate their singing styles, but her own distinct voice was difficult to disguise.

After graduating from Bryant in 1924, Merman was hired as a stenographer by the Boyce-Ite Company. One day during her lunch break, she met Vic Kliesrath, who offered her a job at the Bragg-Kliesrath Corporation for a $5 increase above the weekly $23 salary she was earning, and Merman accepted the offer. She eventually was made personal secretary to company president Caleb Bragg, whose frequent lengthy absences from the office allowed her to catch up on the sleep she had lost the previous night when she was out late performing at private parties. During this period Merman also began appearing in nightclubs, and it was at this time she decided the name Ethel Zimmermann was too long for a theater marquee. She considered combining Ethel with Gardner or Hunter, her grandmother's maiden name, but finally abbreviated Zimmermann to Merman to appease her father.

Early career

During a two-week engagement at Little Russia, a club in midtown-Manhattan, Merman met agent Lou Irwin, who arranged for her to audition for Archie Mayo, a contract director at Warner Bros. He offered her an exclusive six-month contract, starting at $125 per week, and Merman quit her day job, only to find herself idle for weeks while waiting to be cast in a film. She finally urged Irwin to try to cancel her agreement with Mayo; instead, he negotiated her a better deal allowing her to perform in clubs while remaining on the Warners payroll. Merman was hired as a torch singer at Les Ambassadeurs, where the headliner was Jimmy Durante, and the two became lifelong friends. She caught the attention of columnists such as Walter Winchell and Mark Hellinger, who began giving her publicity. Soon after Merman underwent a tonsillectomy she feared might damage her voice, but after recovering she discovered it was more powerful than ever.

While performing on the prestigious Keith Circuit, Merman was signed to replace Ruth Etting in the Paramount film Follow the Leader, starring Ed Wynn and Ginger Rogers. Following a successful seven-week run at the Brooklyn Paramount, she was signed to perform at the Palace for $500 per week. During the run, theatre producer Vinton Freedley saw her perform and invited her to audition for the role of San Francisco café singer Kate Fothergill in the new George and Ira Gershwin musical Girl Crazy. Upon hearing her sing "I Got Rhythm", the Gershwins immediately cast her, and Merman began juggling daytime rehearsals with her matinee and evening performance schedule at the Palace.

Girl Crazy opened on October 14, 1930 at the Alvin Theatre, where it ran for 272 performances. The New York Times noted Merman sang "with dash, authority, good voice and just the right knowing style," while The New Yorker called her "imitative of no one." Merman was fairly blasé about her notices, prompting George Gershwin to ask her mother, "Have you ever seen a person so unconcerned as Ethel?", and he made her promise never to work with a singing teacher.

in the trailer for Alexander's Ragtime Band]]

During the run of Girl Crazy, Paramount signed Merman to appear in a series of ten short musical films, most of which allowed her to sing a rousing number as well as a ballad. She also performed at the Central Park Casino, the Paramount Theatre, and a return engagement at the Palace. As soon as Girl Crazy closed, she and her parents departed for a much-needed vacation in Lake George in Upstate New York, but after their first day there Merman was summoned to Atlantic City to help salvage the troubled latest edition of George White's Scandals. Because she was still under contract to Freedley, White was forced to pay the producer $10,000 for her services, in addition to her weekly $1,500 salary. Following the Atlantic City run, the show played in Newark and then Brooklyn before opening on Broadway, where it ran for 202 performances.

Merman's next show, Humpty Dumpty, began rehearsals in August 1932 and opened—and immediately closed—in Pittsburgh the following month. Producer Buddy DeSylva, who also had written the book and lyrics, was certain it could be reworked into a success and, with a revamped script and additional songs by Vincent Youmans, it opened with the new title Take a Chance on November 26 at the Apollo, where it ran for 243 performances. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times called it "fast, loud, and funny" and added Merman "has never loosed herself with quite so much abandon." Following the Broadway run, she agreed to join the show on the road, but shortly after the Chicago opening she claimed the chlorine in the city's water supply was irritating her throat, and Merman returned to Manhattan.

Anything Goes proved to be the first of five Cole Porter musicals in which Merman starred. In addition to the title song, the score included "I Get a Kick Out of You", "You're the Top", and "Blow Gabriel Blow". It opened on November 21, 1934 at the Alvin Theatre, and the New York Post called Merman "vivacious and ingratiating in her comedy moments, and the embodiment of poise and technical adroitness" when singing "as only she knows how to do." Although Merman always had remained with a show until the end of its run, she left Anything Goes after eight months to appear with Eddie Cantor in the film Strike Me Pink. She was replaced by Benay Venuta, with whom she enjoyed a long but frequently tempestuous friendship.

Merman initially was overlooked for the 1936 screen adaptation of Anything Goes when Bing Crosby insisted his wife Dixie Lee be cast as Reno Sweeney opposite his Billy Crocker, but when she unexpectedly dropped out of the project Merman was given the opportunity to reprise the role she had originated on stage. From the beginning, it was clear to Merman the film would not be the enjoyable experience she had hoped it would be. The focus was shifted to Crosby, leaving her very much in a supporting role. Many of Porter's ribald lyrics were altered to conform to the guidelines of the Motion Picture Production Code, and "Blow Gabriel Blow" was eliminated completely, replaced by a song Merman was forced to perform in a headdress made of peacock feathers while surrounded by dancers dressed as Chinese slave girls. The film was completed $201,000 over budget and seventeen days behind schedule, and Richard Watts, Jr. of the New York Herald Tribune described it as "dull and commonplace," with Merman doing "as well as possible" but unable to register "on the screen as magnificently as she does on the stage."

(1954)]]

Merman returned to Broadway for another Porter musical, but despite the presence of Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope in the cast, Red, Hot and Blue closed after less than six months. Back in Hollywood, Merman was featured in Happy Landing, a minor comedy with Cesar Romero, Don Ameche, and Sonja Henie; the box office hit Alexander's Ragtime Band, a pastiche of Irving Berlin songs interpolated into a plot that vaguely paralleled the composer's life; and Straight, Place or Show, a critical and commercial flop starring the Ritz Brothers. She returned to the stage in Stars in Your Eyes, which struggled to survive while the public flocked to the 1939 New York World's Fair instead and finally closed short of four months. Merman followed this with two more Porter musicals. DuBarry Was a Lady, with Bert Lahr and Betty Grable, ran for a year, and Panama Hattie, with Betty Hutton, June Allyson, and Arthur Treacher, fared even better, lasting slightly more than fourteen months. Shortly after the opening of the latter, Merman—still despondent about the end of her affair with Sherman Billingsley—married her first husband, Treacher's agent William Smith. She later said she knew on their wedding night she had made "a dreadful mistake," and two months later she filed for divorce on grounds of desertion. Shortly after she met and married Robert D. Levitt, promotion director for the New York Journal-American. The two eventually had two children and divorced in 1952 due to his excessive drinking and erratic behavior.

In 1943, Merman was a featured performer in the film Stage Door Canteen and opened in another Porter musical, Something for the Boys, produced by Michael Todd. Her next project was Sadie Thompson, a Vernon Duke/Howard Dietz musical adaptation of a W. Somerset Maugham short story, but Merman found she was unable to retain the lyrics and resigned twelve days after rehearsals began.

In August 1945, while in the hospital recovering from the Caesarean birth of her second child, Merman was visited by Dorothy Fields, who proposed she star as Annie Oakley in a musical she and her husband Herbert were writing with Jerome Kern. Merman accepted, but in November Kern suffered a heart attack while in New York City visiting Rodgers and Hammerstein (the producers of the show) and died a few days later. Producers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II invited Irving Berlin to replace him, and the result was Annie Get Your Gun, which opened on May 16, 1946 at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for nearly three years and 1,147 performances. During that time, Merman took only two vacations and missed only two performances due to illness. Merman lost the film version to Judy Garland, who eventually was replaced by Betty Hutton, but she did star in a Broadway revival two decades later.

Merman and Berlin reunited for Call Me Madam in 1950, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, and she went on to star in the 1953 screen adaptation as well, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance. The following year she appeared as the matriarch of the singing and dancing Donahue family in There's No Business Like Show Business, a film with a Berlin score.

Merman returned to Broadway at the behest of her third husband, Continental Airlines executive Robert Six, who was upset she had chosen to become a Colorado housewife following their wedding in 1953. He expected her public appearances to engender publicity for the airline, and her decision to forgo the limelight did not sit well with him. He urged her to accept the lead in Happy Hunting, with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (who had written Call Me Madam) and a score by the unknown team of Harold Karr and Matt Dubey. Merman acquiesced to her husband's demands, although she clashed with the composers from the start and soon was at odds with co-star Fernando Lamas and his wife Arlene Dahl, who frequently attended rehearsals. Based on the Merman name, the show opened in New York with an advance sale of $1.5 million and, despite the star's dissatisfaction with it, garnered respectable reviews. Although Brooks Atkinson thought the score was "hardly more than adequate", he called Merman "as brassy as ever, glowing like a neon light whenever she steps on the stage." Several months into the run, she insisted two of her least favorite numbers be replaced by songs written by her friend Roger Edens who, because of his exclusive contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, credited them to Kay Thompson. She lost the Tony Award to Judy Holliday in Bells Are Ringing, and the show closed after 412 performances, with Merman happy to see what she considered "a dreary obligation" finally come to an end.

Later career

What many consider Merman's greatest triumph as a stage performer opened on May 21, 1959 at The Broadway Theatre. was based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee and starred Merman as her domineering stage mother Rose Hovick. Although Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book, was deeply unhappy with her interpretation of the role, she was lauded by the critics. In the New York Post, Richard Watts called her "a brilliant actress," and Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times said "she gives an indomitable performance, both as actress and singer." Despite the acclaim, Merman lost the Tony Award to her close friend Mary Martin in The Sound of Music and jokingly quipped, "How are you going to buck a nun?" Shortly after she divorced Six when his affair with television actress Audrey Meadows became public, and she found solace in her work.

Throughout the 702-performance run of Gypsy, Mervyn LeRoy saw it numerous times, and he repeatedly assured Merman he planned to cast her in the film adaptation he was preparing. Shortly prior to the show's closing, however, it was announced Rosalind Russell had been signed to star instead. Russell's husband, theatre producer Frederick Brisson, had sold the screen rights to the Leonard Spigelgass play A Majority of One to Warner Bros. with the stipulation his wife star in both films. Because Russell was still a major box office draw, with the success of Auntie Mame a few years earlier, and Merman having never had established herself as a popular screen presence, the studio agreed to Brisson's terms. Merman was devastated at this turn of events and called the loss of the role "the greatest professional disappointment of her life."

in the trailer for Alexander's Ragtime Band]]Following the Broadway closing of Gypsy on March 25, 1961, Merman half-heartedly embarked on the national tour. In San Francisco, she severely injured her back but continued to play to packed houses. During the Los Angeles run, LeRoy visited her backstage and claimed Russell was so ill "I think you're going to end up getting this part." Believing the film version of Gypsy was within her grasp, she generously gave him the many house seats he requested for friends and industry colleagues, only to discover she had been duped.

Over the next several years, Merman was featured in two films, the wildly successful It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and the flop The Art of Love, and made dozens of television appearances, guesting on variety series hosted by Perry Como, Red Skelton, Dean Martin, Ed Sullivan, and Carol Burnett, on talk shows with Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, and Merv Griffin, and in episodes of That Girl, The Lucy Show, Batman, and Tarzan, among others. Producer David Merrick encouraged Jerry Herman to compose Hello, Dolly! specifically for Merman's vocal range, but when he offered her the role she declined it. She finally joined the cast on March 28, 1970, six years after the production opened. On her opening night, her performance continually was brought to a halt by prolonged standing ovations, and the critics unanimously heralded her return to the New York stage. Walter Kerr described her voice "exactly as trumpet-clean, exactly as pennywhistle-piercing, exactly as Wurlitzer-wonderful as it always was." The seventh actress to portray the scheming matchmaker, she remained with the musical for 210 performances until it closed on December 27. She received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance for what proved to be her last appearance on Broadway.

For the remainder of her career, Merman worked as frequently as offers were made. In 1979, she recorded The Ethel Merman Disco Album, with many of her signature show-stoppers set to a disco beat. Her last screen role was a self-parody in the 1980 comedy film Airplane!, in which she portrayed Lieutenant Hurwitz, a shell shocked soldier who thinks he is Ethel Merman. She appeared in multiple episodes of The Love Boat, guested on a CBS tribute to George Gershwin, did a summer comedy/concert tour with Carroll O'Connor, played a two-week engagement at the London Palladium, performed with Mary Martin in a concert benefitting the theatre and museum collection of the Museum of the City of New York, and frequently appeared as a soloist with symphony orchestras. She also volunteered at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, working in the gift shop or visiting patients. She began to become forgetful, on occasion had difficulty with her speech, and at times her behavior was erratic, causing concern among her friends. On April 7, 1983, she was preparing to leave for Los Angeles to appear on the 55th Academy Awards telecast when she collapsed in her apartment. She was diagnosed with glioblastoma and underwent brain surgery to have the malignant tumor removed. Early on the morning of February 15, 1984, she died in her sleep. Her private funeral service was held in a chapel at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, where she frequently had worshiped. On October 10, 1984, an auction of her personal effects, including furniture, artwork, and theatre memorabilia, earned in excess of $120,000 at Christie's East.

Performance style

Merman was known for her powerful, belting mezzo-soprano voice, precise enunciation and pitch. Because stage singers performed without microphones when Merman began singing professionally, she had a great advantage, despite the fact that she never took any singing lessons. In fact, Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin advised her never to take a singing lesson after she opened in his Girl Crazy. Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics for Merman's , remembered that she could become "mechanical" after a while. "She performed the dickens out of the show when the critics were there," he said. He added, "or if she thought there was a celebrity in the audience. So we used to spread a rumor that Frank Sinatra was out front. That whoever, Judy Garland was out front. I'll tell you one thing [Merman] did do, she steadily upstaged everybody. Every night, she would be about one more foot upstage, so finally they were all playing with their backs to the audience. I don't think it was conscious. But she sure knew her way around a stage, and it was all instinctive."

Personal life

photo by Walter Albertin]] Merman was married and divorced four times: #William Smith, theatrical agent (1940–1941) #Robert Levitt, a newspaper executive (1941–1952) #Robert Six, President, Continental Airlines (1953–1960) #Ernest Borgnine, the actor, in 1964. They announced the impending nuptials at P.J. Clarke's, in New York, but Merman filed for divorce after just 32 days.

With Levitt, Merman had two children: Ethel (born July 20, 1942). and Robert Jr. (born August 11, 1945), they divorced in 1952. Ethel Levitt died in 1967 of a drug overdose that was ruled accidental.

Merman co-wrote two memoirs, Who Could Ask for Anything More in 1955 and Merman in 1978. In a radio interview, Merman commented on her many marriages, saying that "We all make mistakes, that's why they put rubbers on pencils, and that's what I did. I made a few loo-loos!" In the latter book, the chapter entitled "My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine" consists of one blank page.

Merman was notorious for her love of vulgar jokes. She delighted in telling dirty jokes and vulgar stories at public parties, and once shouted a dirty joke across the room at José Ferrer during a formal reception. She also enjoyed sending out greeting cards with obscene jokes in them. She was known for swearing during rehearsals and meetings. Reportedly, the first time she heard the title of the song "Everything's Coming Up Roses", she quipped "Everything's coming up Rose's what?"

Merman in popular culture

The character "Helen Lawson" in Jacqueline Susann's novel Valley of the Dolls is based on Ethel Merman

The British Psychobilly band The Meteors recorded an instrumental called "Return Of The Ethel Merman" for their 1986 album Sewertime Blues.

In the play "Red Herring" by Michael Hollinger, one of the lead characters comments on his marriage to a 'different' Ethel Merman than the one who sang "There's No Business Like Show Business."

Merman is mentioned a lot in the musical series Forbidden Broadway making fun of the wireless microphones and soft singing used in The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical).

In the 1987 film Good Morning, Vietnam, USAF radio disc jockey Adrian Cronauer (played by Robin Williams) alluded to Merman's distinctive, brassy style and powerful voice during one of his improvised comic news bulletins. "Ethel Merman has been used to jam Russian radar systems. {belting in imitation of Merman} 'I've got a feeling that love is here to stay!' When asked for a reply, the Russians said 'Vat de hell vas dat?'"

Robin Williams imitates Merman again in the song "Prince Ali" from the Disney animated feature Aladdin.

In a 1990 Seinfeld episode "The Robbery", Elaine complains about her actress roommate by telling Jerry she is "living with Ethel Merman without the talent."

In the early 1990s the television programme Sesame Street created a parody character called "Miss Ethel Mermaid" (voiced and puppeteered by Louise Gold) she sang "I Get A Kick Out Of U" (a parody of Merman singing "I Get A Kick Out Of You").

In the 2005 film The Producers, the actor playing the part of Adolf Hitler, Roger de Bris, sings the lyric "I'm the German Ethel Merman, don'tcha know."

In the song "Change the World" by Nellie McKay, off her debut album "Get Away from Me", she sings "Please Ethel Merman help me out this jam".

Merman's final on-screen appearance is in the 1980 film Airplane!, in which she has a cameo as shell-shocked soldier "Lt. Hurwitz", who believes he is Ethel Merman. She briefly sings her classic "Everything's Coming Up Roses".

Ethel Merman is mentioned in the 1983 film Terms of Endearment, and even appears on the soundtrack.

In a year 2000 Episode of Saturday Night Live, a segment called "The Ladies Man" featuring Dwayne Johnson and Tim Meadows where Meadows was Leon Phelps described Johnson's cross-dressing undercover police lady character that when he first saw him she was dressed up like a young Ethel Merman. "It was wall to wall: big sexy ladies" Meadows character Leon described. "Tell them who you were" said Leon and Johnson responded back "I was Ethel Merman". "A Young Ethel Merman, she was sexy!"

Popular blogger, Ree Drummond of award-winning blog, The Pioneer Woman, frequently mentions Merman in her posts, and says she "channels Lucille Ball, Vivien Leigh, and Ethel Merman".

Audio samples of Ethel Merman

Courtesy of NPR Windows Media Player Required

Ethel Merman with Jimmy Durante "You Say the Nicest Things"

Ethel Merman Sings: "The World is Your Balloon"

Ethel Merman Sings: "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend"

Theatre performances

(1938)]]

Girl Crazy (1930)

George White's Scandals of 1931 (1931)

Take a Chance (1932)

Anything Goes (1934)

Red, Hot and Blue (1936)

Stars in Your Eyes (1939)

DuBarry Was a Lady (1939)

Panama Hattie (1940)

Something for the Boys (1943)

Sadie Thompson (1944) (left during rehearsals; replaced by June Havoc)

Annie Get Your Gun (1946)

Call Me Madam (1950)

Happy Hunting (1956)

(1959)

Annie Get Your Gun (1966) (revival)

Call Me Madam (1968) (revival) (summer stock)

Hello, Dolly! (1970) (replacement)

Mary Martin & Ethel Merman: Together On Broadway (1977) (benefit concert)

Filmography

(1943)]]

Follow the Leader (1930)

Let Me Call You Sweetheart (1932)

We're Not Dressing (1934)

Kid Millions (1934)

The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935)

Strike Me Pink (1936)

Anything Goes (1936)

Happy Landing (1938)

Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938)

Straight, Place or Show (1938)

Stage Door Canteen (1943)

Call Me Madam (1953)

There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

The Art of Love (1965)

Journey Back to Oz (1974) (voice)

Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)

Airplane! (1980)

Television

(1938)]]

The Ford 50th Anniversary Show (1953)

Panama Hattie (1954)

Merman On Broadway (1961)

The Lucy Show, two-parter, as herself (1963)

The Judy Garland Show, two episodes (1963)

Maggie Brown (1963) (unsold pilot)

An Evening with Ethel Merman (1965)

Annie Get Your Gun (1967)

Tarzan and the Mountains of the Moon (1967)

Batman, "The Sport of Penguins", two-parter as Lola Lasagne (1967)

That Girl, two episodes, as herself (1967–1968)

'S Wonderful, 'S Marvelous, 'S Gershwin (1972)

Ed Sullivan's Broadway (1973)

The Muppet Show (1976)

Match Game PM (1976), (1978)

You're Gonna Love It Here (1977) (unsold pilot)

A Salute to American Imagination (1978)

A Special Sesame Street Christmas (1978)

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979) (voice)

The Love Boat, five episodes, (1979–1982)

Night of 100 Stars (1982)

References

External links

[ Ethel Merman] at Allmusic

They Say She Was Wonderful: Ethel Merman at 100, The House Next Door By N.P. Thompson

Obituary, The New York Times, February 16, 1984, "Ethel Merman, Queen of Musicals, Dies at 76"

NPR's Susan Stamberg's Report on the Memory of Ethel Merman

Category:American Episcopalians Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American mezzo-sopranos Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Deaths from brain cancer Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Astoria, Queens Category:Tony Award winners Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:1908 births Category:1984 deaths

Name	Dolly Rebecca Parton
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Dolly Rebecca Parton
Born	January 19, 1946
Birth place	Sevierville, Tennessee
Genre	Country, country pop, bluegrass
Voice type	Soprano) is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best-known for her work in country music.
- style	"text-align:center;"
- style	"text-align:center;"
|- style	"text-align:center;"
- style	"text-align:center;"

Further reading

. . .

External links

dollypartonmusic.net, (official music website)

dollyparton.com, (official website - not fully launched as of December 23, 2009 and requires Adobe Flash)

(UK Website run by Uberfan Joe Skelly)

"Dolly Parton", inductee page at countrymusichalloffame.com Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's official website

"Dolly Parton" biography at legacyrecordings.com, Legacy Recordings's official website

"Dolly Parton – Interview", posted November 18, 2008, at countrymusicpride.com

"A Conversation with Singer and Actress Dolly Parton", a June 5, 2009, video interview (requires Adobe Flash) from the Charlie Rose (talk show), a PBS television program, at charlierose.com, Rose's official website

Dolly Parton video interview from the talk show 'Parkinson' at BBC

Category:American buskers Category:American entertainment industry businesspeople Category:American country singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American female singers Category:American female guitarists Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American memoirists Category:Appalachian culture Category:American Pentecostals Category:American philanthropists Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grand Ole Opry members Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:People from Sevier County, Tennessee Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:1946 births Category:American television personalities Category:American sopranos Category:Living people Category:American musical theatre composers Category:American musical theatre lyricists

Birth name	Johnnie Lucille Collier
Caption	in Small Town Girl (1953)
Birth date	April 12, 1923
Birth place	Houston, Texas, U.S.
Death date	January 22, 2004
Death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Spouse	Reese Milner (1946-1947)Bill Moss (1958-1961)Arthur Cameron (1961-1962)
Years active	1934 - 2001}}

Johnnie Lucille Collier, better known as Ann Miller (April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American singer, dancer and actress.

Early life

Miller was born in Chireno, Texas to Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and John Alfred Collier, a criminal lawyer who represented the Barrow Gang, Machine Gun Kelly, and Baby Face Nelson, among others. Miller's maternal grandmother was Cherokee.

Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing. Studio publicists concocted press releases claiming she could tap 500 times per minute, but in truth, the sound of ultra-fast "500" taps was looped in later. Because the stage floors were slick and slippery, she actually danced in shoes with rubber soles. Later she would loop the sound of the taps while watching the film and actually dancing on a "tap board" to match her steps in the film.

In 1970, satirist Stan Freberg, father of the funny commercial, used Miller and her tap-dancing skills in a television commercial for "Great American Soups." Miller initially plays a housewife asked by her "husband" (Dave Willock) what she's prepared for dinner. She throws off her house frock to reveal a sequined dance outfit, and the kitchen set splits open to reveal a huge Hollywood stage, showcasing a giant can of soup, atop which Miller sings and dances, accompanied by a double chorus line. At the end of the commercial, she returns to the kitchen set, where the husband character exclaims, "Why do you have to make such a big 'production' out of everything?" According to Freberg, the commercial cost so much to produce that little money was left in the advertising budget to purchase airtime for it. The commercial can be seen on the video accompanying Freberg's boxed set release, "The Tip of the Freberg".

She was known, especially later in her career, for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamor: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a slash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. Her film career effectively ended in 1956 as the studio system lost steam to television, but she remained active in the theatre and on television. She starred on Broadway in the musical "Mame" in 1969, in which she wowed the audience in a tap number created just for her. In 1979 she astounded audiences in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, which toured the United States extensively after its Broadway run. In 1983 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.

She appeared in a special 1982 episode of The Love Boat, joined by fellow showbiz legends Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Della Reese, Van Johnson, and Cab Calloway in a storyline that cast them as older relatives of the show's regular characters. In 2001 she took her last role, playing Coco in auteur director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive. Her last stage performance was a 1998 production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in which she played the hardboiled survivor Carlotta Campion and received rave reviews for her rendition of the song, "I'm Still Here".

(left) and Vera-Ellen (right) in On the Town (1949)]]

Miller also performed a guest appearance on Home Improvement as a dance instructor to Tim and Jill. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ann Miller has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Blvd.

Miller was parodied on Saturday Night Live by Molly Shannon.

She died, aged 80, from cancer, which had metastasized to her lungs, and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Filmography

Features

1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944

Anne of Green Gables The Good Fairy The Devil on Horseback New Faces of 1937 The Life of the PartyStage Door Radio City RevelsHaving Wonderful Time You Can't Take It with You Room ServiceTarnished Angel Too Many Girls Hit Parade of 1941Melody Ranch Time Out for RhythmGo West, Young Lady True to the ArmyPriorities on Parade Reveille with BeverlyWhat's Buzzin', Cousin? Hey, RookieJam SessionCarolina Blues

1945 1946 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1976 1994 2001 2003 2004

Eadie Was a LadyEve Knew Her Apples '' The Thrill of Brazil Easter Parade The Kissing Bandit On the Town Watch the Birdie Texas Carnival Two Tickets to Broadway Lovely to Look At Small Town Girl Kiss Me Kate (1953) Deep in My Heart Hit the Deck The Opposite SexThe Great American Pastime Won Ton Ton A Century of Cinema ♦That's Entertainment! III Mulholland Drive ♦ Goodnight, We Love You ♦

:♦ Documentary

Short subjects

1941

Meet the Stars #8:  Stars Past and Present Screen Snapshots  Series 21, No. 1

1949

Some of the Best ''Mighty Manhattan,  New York's Wonder City'

References

Further reading

Miller, Ann, Miller's High Life. Doubleday, 1972. ISBN #0-385-03440-7.

Oderman, Stuart, Talking to the Piano Player 2. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN #1-59393-320-7.

External links

Profile @ Turner Classic Movies

BBC obituary

Photographs and literature

Great American Soup Commercial at YouTube

Category:1923 births Category:2004 deaths Category:American dancers Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American stage actors Category:American tap dancers Category:People from Harris County, Texas Category:People from Houston, Texas Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery