Cyd Charisse Continued

It has been quite disappointing to find out all of this stuff about her. Ann Miller too.

I'm...bitter.

O.K....speaking of dancers. I remember reading an interview with Miss Ann-Margret before she was to do her show at Radio City Music Hall. She was asked "Ann-Margret...why *now*?". She replied she wanted to do RCMH "while she could still kick". I turned to my dear friend Dan and said "Ann-Margret wasn't a kicker". He said "No...she was more a shimmier". I can't find an Ann-Margret number where it's about the kicks....

Okay, I missed the first thread. What was the "dirt" that came out on Cyd?

Fucked her way up? Right-wing McCarthyist? Hard-core Satanist?

She hated sissies. (This does not make her a DLer, though.)

And Ann Miller slapped her black maid? Lucky for her it wasn't Lucille Ball's or Kay Francis' maid; she'd have gotten her ass beat.

Wavishing Kay Fwancis...

Cyd was a self-absorbed bitch, although a very fine dancer. Ann was just a good time gal, who loved life, who spoke her mind, slept around a lot and really enjoyed being a Hollywood star. She played the role 24/7. On her it usually worked. Cyd, however, came across as cold and distant in-person and made very few friends in Hollywood.

R6, you do weawize how wude it is to widicule a pewson's wisp? Where did you weceive your education? Wale?

That's not a lisp, r8, *thith* ith a lithp.

Carmen was the reason the word costume was invented.

Who knew that Cyd Charisse would become a notorious DL woman we love to hate?

Ann Miller was one of the few female performers that Ethel Merman enjoyed socializing with.

Carmen out of costume

Ann loved spending time with Kathryn Grayson and Zsa Zsa Gabor. They all became fast friends while filming "Lovely to Look At" at MGM in 1952 and in the following years, right into the 90's, spent time together whenever possible.

Ann was also close friends with dancer Eleanor Powell, someone she had idolized in the 1930's and became good friends with starting i9n the 40's. When Eleanor was terminally ill in 1981/82, phone calls from Ann always cheered her up. "Ellie, it's Annie. How the hell ya doin?" was a typical greeting.

Horse pucky!

Cyd was insanely jealous of Kathryn Grayson's breasts.

Kathryn was very well-endowed and the studio often took great pains to play down her impressive bust when costuming her.

Kathryn starred in "Kiss Me Kate" which was originally released in 3D. With the fad fading, however, it was quickly sent into wider distribution in a regular format.

Kathryn loved to tell people that the real reason for MGM changing it from 3D was because, "Each time I'd turn around on the screen, I'd wipe out the first five rows of the audience."

Ctd confided to friends and associates that Kathryn was nothing but "a pair of big tits and a high, screechy noise that passed for a voice..."

Ava Gardner, in an interview with Rex Reed in the early 70's, talking about Kathryn having the biggest chest on the MGM lot.

Janis Paige was reduced to working as a lamp.

Kathryn was pretty and had a nice rack, but Ava Gardner was supernatural looking. Almost indecently beautiful.

Ava and Kathryn were both from North Carolina, and bonded easily. Ava often called Kathryn by her birth name, Zelma.

It doesn't look like they were trying to hide her chest in the early days...

[quote] Kathryn was very well-endowed and the studio often took great pains to play down her impressive bust when costuming her.

I enjoyed your post but you have that part backwards. The studio wanted her to show them off. Grayson was very modest and embarrassed by her belle poitrine. She always wanted to downplay them. She got into many fights with her costume designers that would require the director, a producer or a studio suit to step in and make a decision.

Oh, yeah. She screams modesty.

She had to be strong armed into this ensemble.

Jan had verve, r17!

[quote]Ann was also close friends with dancer Eleanor Powell, someone she had idolized in the 1930's and became good friends with starting i9n the 40's. When Eleanor was terminally ill in 1981/82, phone calls from Ann always cheered her up. "Ellie, it's Annie. How the hell ya doin?" was a typical greeting.

I'm surprised to hear they were so close, considering Ann was the self proclaimed "Tops in Taps," even though Powell was a much more prolific tapper.

Link to first thread...

Katie and Ava had North Carolina in common, both were born there. Though Grayson was from Winston-Salem, NC and some branch of the well-to-do Hedrick family, still a prominent family name in that city.

Ava otoh was from a sharecropping dirt poor tobacco farm family in Smithfield, NC about two hours east.

Annie and Cyd were friends from Texas, and of course they had dancing in common, but in a non-competitive way, with Ann's specialty being tap and hoofing and Cyd's being ballet.

Howard Keel says in his book he never knew Katie didn't like to be held close during their MGM days, when they co-starred and (according to him) had at least one romantic tryst. He only found out she didn't like it decades later on when they worked together in live appearances.

When Grayson died, some of her obits mentioned her being survived by her (female) "longtime companion and secretary of 31 years." Though Grayson was married twice and had children and grandchildren, is the word "companion" code for the unmistakable whiff of long-term late-in-life lesbianism? There was no funeral.

Ava's museum is in the town of Smithfield, a few miles from Grabtown ,the tiny community where she was actually born.

Interesting trivia: Charisse is one of the only major MGM musical leading ladies Keel never worked with during his time at the studio. They were in the casts of tribute live performances together later, but never in a film together at Metro.

Cyd was dreadful in Grand Hotel. Stiff. Couldn’t sing even the little bit that was required of the character. Lousy Russian accent. But she looked good. She was in the running to replace Chita in the original Chicago but passed.

I could see Cyd as Lalume in "Kismet."

Can you image her performance of Velma's vocals, r28?

Not since Nineveh would there have been such caterwauling, r29.

Cyd didn't sing so there would be no caterwauling. Perhaps Marni Nixon would have dubbed her.

Think again, bub.

Lalume is a soprano part. They only fitted it to Dolores Gray for the movie.

And for Miss Eden?

"She had to be strong armed into this ensemble."

Cheesecake poses were usually required by the studio for actresses, unless they were character actresses or "serious" Broadway types

[quote]Charisse is one of the only major MGM musical leading ladies Keel never worked with during his time at the studio.

Her pussy stank.

Howard Keel was so hot! I would have thought he could have transitioned into non-musical roles but perhaps he was simply too typed a s a Mero baritone.

I think he wrote about a long affair with Marilyn Monroe in his autobiography....anybody read it?

Howard Keel should have starred opposite Doris Day in the film of The Pajama Game. John Raitt, who created the role on Broadway was handsome enough for Broadway but not Cinemascope and Technicolor.

Howard Keel did lots of non-musical roles R38, including a few at MGM, but also after his studio tenure. Some westerns like The War Wagon, the sci-fi film Day of the Triffids, the Jesus movie The Big Fisherman. He was a good actor for the kind of roles he was asked to play, and was athletic enough to do action sequences. He was believable in gun battles and riding horses, etc.

On stage, he toured in Plaza Suite with Betty Garrett and didn't sing there, and of course was on the American tv series Dallas in a non-singing role.

Doris Day wanted Howard for "Pajama Game" but the studio had decided when they purchased the property that one of the stars had to be from the movies and the other star would be from the Broadway cast.

Sinatra was approached for the male lead in which case they'd have used Janis Paige from the Broadway production. When Sinatra declined they approached Doris and thus used John Raitt from the Broadway production.

Raitt, despite a beautiful voice and a long and successful stage career, was found to have little "star quality" on the big screen, as they watched the rushes. Doris suggested they consider Keel or Gordon MacRae. She really wanted to work with Keel again as they had great chemistry and a good friendship when filming "Calamity Jane".

At this performance the part of Gladys will be played by...

I've heard that story about the casting of Pajama Game but it sounds more like something Janis Paige would say to explain why she was the only actor from Broadway show that wasn't in the film. Why would the studio not want two well-known stars like Day and Sinatra or even Keel for their film? Why would there be any obligation to use Raitt really? Not trying to be argumentative, I just don't get it.

And I love Janis Paige but she would have looked huge next to Sinatra.

The legendary George Abbott was reportedly the driving force behind maintaining one of the Broadway cast in the lead. He did the same thing with "Damn Yankees" by retaining Gwen and casting Tab Hunter, who was at the peak of his popularity. Warner's hands were tied. I am sure from a box-office standpoint, the studio would have jumped at pairing Doris and Frank, again, or Howard, again.

Despite the fact that Doris became the breakaway star in her first film, "Romance on the High Seas", in which Janis was billed higher, and later played "her role" in the film version of "Pajama Game", Doris and Janis were very friendly.

When Betty Grable turned down the femme fatale role in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies", it was offered to Janis and she nearly stole the film from Doris and David Niven.

On Janis' first day on the shoot, Doris sent her a stunning floral arrangement and a handwritten note reminding her how much she'd learned from her and Jack Carson when shooting "Romance" in 1947. In the years after "Daisies" (1960), they occasionally chatted, had lunch or wrote.

Did George Abbott own the film rights to Pajama Game and Damn Yankees?

Yes, George Abbott, wrote the book for the play and produced and directed the play and movie. For the movie he was co-director with Stanley Donen.

Ditto for "Damn Yankees"

Jan seemed to be the type to roll with the punches...

Harve Presnell was the poor man's Howard Keel.

[quote]I think he wrote about a long affair with Marilyn Monroe in his autobiography....anybody read it?

Keel first met Monroe when she was still unmarried Norma Jeane Baker when his family lived in the same Sawtelle neighborhood as NJ's foster aunt, Ana Lower.

Janis Paige is still with us and wrote what is supposed to be a very good and dishy autobiography just last year. I've been tempted to buy it. Has anyone here read it?

I thought Harve was far sexier, r49.

Yes, R51 I read it. It's called Reading Between the Lines, and it should be a much better book than it is (self-published, overpriced, in need of a good editor, and seemingly she wrote it with no ghost). Nor is it very dishy, plus she turns out to be ultra-conservative in the end. Not sure if that was always the case, but seems to be so now.

Very odd book in that she talks/writes a lot, but never seems to get past generalities most of the time. You sort of wish her biggest fan was sitting there with scrapbooks to get her to dig a little deeper if she's going to use that many words.

I'd say get it from the library but I doubt it's something your library would get.

I appreciate your comments, r51, though I'm disappointed to hear them. Oh well......

Howard Keel was discovered by Rodgers and Hammerstein. They didn't have anything under development suitable for him at the time but they put him in the chorus of Oklahoma! and assigned him understudy duties for both the current Curly in Oklahoma! and John Raitt as Billy in Carousel. One famous Saturday both the Curly and Raitt were out and he ended up going on in the afternoon in Oklahoma! and in the evening in Carousel. It got him a lot of press in New York.

A year or two later R&H assigned him to play Curly in the original London production of Oklahoma! and he received rave reviews. While in England he was cast in a black and white crime drama, shooting the film during the day and performing Curly at night. The film came to the attention of MGM and when the suits at MGM found out he could sing, they brought him to Hollywood to screen test for Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun. He was cast and the die was cast.

I think the reason Howard Keel and Cyd Charisse never starred together was because Cyd’s time as a Metro leading lady was very short

^ Forgot to add that although R&H didn't write AGYG, they produced it on Broadway and sold the film rights to MGM. It's entirely possible that they initially recommended Keel to MGM for the film.

Dolores Gray said that she turned down "The Pajama Game," fearing another flop. It seems a little strange that producers would have been keen to pair Gray and Raitt so soon after the brief run of "Carnival In Flanders" but Dolores won the Tony so she clearly had powerful people in her corner.

Though I was too young to see Janis Paige and John Raitt in Pajama Game on Broadway, I think there's a great sexual chemistry that comes across on the original cast recording.

R3, if no one answered, it was apparently this thread.

Nothing about Ann Miller's maid in it, though.

I finally got through the first Cyd Charisse thread, and if the guy who posted the letter he received from Veronica Lake is still reading, thanks for posting it! What a treasure!

And as hard to take as Veronica Lake! Woof, woof, woof, woof!

Whoever did India's make up took inspiration from Joan's "Two Faced Woman" look...

R38 Keel starred on Dallas for 10 years. His was a long career.

Larry Hagman starred on DALLAS. Keel was featured.

Poor India Adams looks like Tan Mom at R63.

Keel was a major star. Hagman was Mary Martin's son.

Keel was an MGM contract star. He had a nice stint on DALLAS but he wasn't a major focus of the show. He never had a comparable run after his MGM days.

Cyd's living room.

The room is as cold and impersonal as Cyd!

but colorful!

R58 Dolores Gray eventually did "Pajama Game" at St. Louis Muny, opposite Stephen Douglass, who thus got to do both Adler-Ross shows.