Ann Miller

Are those the real voices? They sound like imitations.

Since they're both dead let's go with imitations

No one thought as much of Ann Miller as Ann Miller. She loved to name drop those who praised her every chance she got

She could name drop me, then. She was a beauty and also a great tap performer. i think she still holds the record for most taps per minute of any human ever.

I bet Ann was a lot of fun to be with, but in her later years she sure became an old scold over the younger generation. Showing up at cocktail parties in blue jeans! Sleeping around! No class, no mystique!

^ Kind of right, though.

"i think she still holds the record for most taps per minute of any human ever. "

Yes and she told that story in every single interview. I liked the big Texas gal, but she ran short on stories

I love how Ann would never criticize people for bad behavior, but just 'feel sorry for them'. I also remember that Ann used to claim that she had to add ten years to her age when she got to Hollywood so she could work. Apparently she was 7 years old in Stage Door.

I never cottoned to her.

Ann Miller showing up in a David Lynch film is one of the true highlights of cinema in the new millennium for me.

I don't think she was very kind to Rhonda Burchmore.

She had talent. REAL talent. I knew that when I kicked her outta my show.

There used to be a Merv Griffin episode - Salute to the Ladies of Broadway - on YouTube. The guests were Ethel Merman, Dolores Gray, Karen Morrow, and Miss Ann Miller. Ann was rather annoying with her interjections. She and Dolores were friends but I think Gray had to stifle the urge to tell Miller to shut up at one point.

[quote]I also remember that Ann used to claim that she had to add ten years to her age when she got to Hollywood so she could work. Apparently she was 7 years old in Stage Door.

I see no problem with that.

Ann does look like a gangly teen in Stage Door.

The Punchy Players have done Ann Miller proud!

I love Ann Miller. There are some great interviews with her on YouTube and I am always impressed with how grounded and realistic she was about the business, esp since she is all done up, made up.

An actress who worked with her in Mame was interviewed for a gossipy theatre book (Sing Out Louise?) and made Annie sound not so charming.

I worked with her on that, R9. It was early in my career, and I worked for Lynch for free. It was totally worth it, and I loved her and Naomi Watts.

My mother always called her “that black haired bitch”.

I was in grad school with a woman who worked as her dresser at a theater in Texas. She had no good words for Ann, but, then, the dresser was a hypocritical fundie bitch, so who knows?

She had...*It*

She did a marvelous TV commercial for the Great American Soup. She was wonderful!

I dated a guy who was her dresser on "Sugar Babies" on Broadway and on tour, so they were together for years.

He had four full-length fur coats in his closet. When I asked how he got them on his dresser's salary, he told me that Ann had given them to him as gifts and that "Ann just likes to shop". He said she was a lovely person.

R1 =

He’s got more makeup on than Ann Millah!

Ann Miller always used to namedrop starring alongside Judy Garland in Easter Parade. You could tell that movie was special for her because it catapulted her to stardom.

Ann Miller was a second banana in the movies.

Here's the first of eight videos of an interview with Ann in 1996. That old broad saw it all, that's for sure.

[quote]Ann Miller was a second banana in the movies.

So, r27?

R27 She stole the entire movie of Kiss Me Kate from Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson.

Can a second banana be shot to stardom?

I love that commercial, R22!

I got her autograph many many years ago after a show and she was gracious.

Mickey Rooney said she was wonderful

I read her interesting memoir years ago and she claims to have had vivid dreams in which she lived in Ancient Egypt in another life time and was none other than the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut. According to her she was a real sex fiend in that lifetime and had tons of men.

Years ago on Dick Cavett's show, Eve Arden told the story of when they were making Stage Door and got word that Jean Harlow had died. She described everyone gathering around and sharing memories of Harlow, and Ann Miller standing nearby, snapping her chewing gum, saying "Poor Jean Harlow, poor Jean Harlow!"

No, Ann was tapping to "Poor Jean Harlow, Poor Jean Harlow, Poor Jean Harlow."

She claimed to have never gone through menopause, highly unusual.

Maybe she just meant she never had symptoms like hot flashes, lots of women don’t.

But R27, Ann Miller was the STAH of MGM's ON THE TOWN, along with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra!

I was surprised how good Ann is on the cast recording of the Papermill FOLLIES.

I can actually buy her as anywhere from 14-18 in Stage Door. She looked much less adult than the rest of the cast.

Someone in the comments of the Stage Door clip claims to have researched Ann (and even interviewed her) over a period of twenty years. He puts her at age 16 while filming the movie.

R28 - thanks for sharing that interview series. I watched that during the height of 2020 and it was a real treat. She led a fascinating, if challenging, life. This longer form, latter day interview is also worth your time.

Who did her nose? Barbara Eden’s surgeon?

R14 Ann Miller is great in that clip. And Adolphe Menjou is a hot daddy!

Ann had some leading roles in Columbia B movies. She could have graduated to A movies at Columbia but decided to marry instead. Bad move as her husband beat her up and made her miscarry her only child.

The strange thing is that Ann Miller's original nose was fine

R46 When she did Easter Parade, wasn't she wearing some brace from when her husband pushed her down the stairs?

[quote] He puts her at age 16 while filming the movie.

So she was the Traci Lords of her day?

No glamour, no mystique!

"Shakin' The Blues Away"

I love Janis Paige's pimp ensemble at r50.

Her husband would beat her. When she was pregnant he didn't want a child and threw her down the stairs; she miscarried.

Thanks for the clip, R50. I loved the look on Debbie Reynolds' face when Ann started her rant. You could tell she was thinking, "Oh, shit, here comes five minutes on the death of glamour."

"Let's hear it for Ann. Yaaaaay."

Could Gene Kelly sound less sincere?

Ann is "Still Here"

R48 - she had to take off the brace for her dancing scenes.

We walked up the aisle with Ms Miller a thousand years ago (actually 40 years ago: she was seated in front of us) at the tryouts for Dreamgirls and had a glass of champagne with her at the lobby bar during the intermission. She was opening across the street the next night on the national tour of Sugar Babies.

She was lovely company. And said her feet hurt.

In an interview she said that when Vincente Minnelli was directing a rehearsal they had to close the windows on the sound stage or otherwise he’d float away…

That video of Ann performing "I'm Still Here" isn't remotely as good as her studio recording. She's just doing her Ann Miller shit in that video.

that dame had beautiful gams

she's too darn hot!

...with Jack Costanzo on bongos

She was blunter about Judy earlier on in her autobiography. She became more gushing and admiring later on when she would always be asked about her in interviews. She realized it was her meal ticket .

[quote]We walked up the aisle with Ms Miller a thousand years ago

And how was the honeymoon?

Ann's somewhat blunter assessment of Judy pretty much matches Angela Lansbury's take on Judy.

Quotes?

Her film career really was unusual in that she knocked around smaller studios like RKO and Columbia for over 10 years as a star of B pictures, occasionally as a supporting player in an A picture like Stage Door and You Can't Take It With You, and then had the great luck to replace Cyd Charisse in Easter Parade at MGM in 1948 at the last minute, thus beginning the most successful and profitable phase of her career. Still mostly a supporting player, but almost always in MGM's highest profile musicals until they were phased out around 1957.

I can't think of an another actress of Hollywood's Golden Age that was given that sort of second chance and really succeeded as they hadn't before.

But I'm sure some Smart Aleck hear will correct me.

You should have seen the “styling” for her “down stairs” hair. It was truly frightening, yet awe inspiring all at the same time. Truly a work of art.

Ann always denied she had a romantic relationship with Louis B Mayer or that he helped her get the part in Easter Parade.

What did Ann and Cyd really think of each other?

they danced together in The Kissing Bandit.

Silly fun

Ann said those dresses were heavy and Ricardo Montalban injured himself having to lift them.

holy shit!

Those dresses may have weighed a ton but the witty design of them makes them well-worth it. And Ricardo is so HOT and funny!

I guess it's not surprising that MGM could accommodate and utilize both Ann MIller and Cyd Charisse during their years together at the studio.

Ann's comedic talents and charisma were not to be denied. Besides their different dancing styles, I don't think Cyd Charisse could have ever carried off Lois/Bianca in Kiss Me Kate or Claire in On the Town. But then Ann would not have been effective in Cyd's best roles, though Ann would have been fun singing and dancing with those boxers in "Baby, You Knock Me Out!" in It's Always Fair Weather. But I'm guessing Gene Kelly would never have allowed Ann to be partnered with him because of her height.

R28 I love that interview. "I am going to cough, is that alright?" What a gal. I saw On the Town when I was a kid and I thought she was by-far the most beautiful of the three ladies. Her TV version of Dames at Sea that she did was Ann-Margret in the 70s is on YouTube and she is FANTASTIC. Had a hell of a belt, who knew? At the end of a number she lets her long hair come dramatically/comically tumbling down in a spiral. I gasped.

[quote] I saw On the Town when I was a kid and I thought she was by-far the most beautiful of the three ladies.

THREE ladies?

The camera didn't love Ann's features. She had too much expanse of cheek.

Who is the woman pictured with Dolores Gray?

It looks like Gene Tierney.

I hope Dolores didn't give her the measles.

I don't think it's Gene. Maybe it's one of the featured players from "The Women."

She was everything freakish and bizarre that the Mulholland Dr role called for

[quote]I don't think it's Gene. Maybe it's one of the featured players from "The Women."

Some of the cast from "The Opposite Sex" which was the musical version of "The Women." L to R. Agens Moorehead. June Allison. Joan Collins, Dolores Grey and Ann. Not sure of the other two ladies.

But who is the hot guy in the middle of the photo?

She was a great dancer

Ann knew Cyd Charisse as a child in Texas. Cyd was one year older than Ann.

Cyd's parents ran a dancing school in Texas, didn't they? And wasn't Cyd's real Tula Finklea?

What a NAME! What a dame

She belongs in the Hall of Fame!

Ann Miller was not a broad in any sense of the word. She was a very damaged Catholic, very dysfunctional off-screen. She despised anything current and said so, she longed for a past that no longer existed, and said so. Funny thing is that HER past was nothing to be proud of or be happy about.

I saw her in a production of 'Extremities' at a theatre near Rancho Mirage and she was terrific. I've only ever seen that production of the show and apparantly the main character isn't a tap dancer in the original text, so that must have been added for Ann.

That was only the beginnging of Mille's Rancho Virage success. Ann's subsequent tapping atop The Burning Bed was a true coup de theatre!

They worked her tap-dancing into many of the performances she did, r94. She was the first tap-dancing Winnie in any production of "Happy Days" when she did it in Newport News, but even Samuel Beckett himself admitted after seeing it that Ann somehow made it work.

I would have loved to have seen them tapping together, Beckett and miller together again!

yaaaaaay

She had a smile that would go a mile

She added much-needed razzle-dazzle to [italic]’Night, Mother.[/italic]

She added that je-en-sais-quoi to “mulholland Drive”

[quote]She despised anything current and said so, she longed for a past that no longer existed, and said so.

Sounds like most of us here.

Heather with her piercings!

R16, I feel SORRY for her

June Allyson let out a STRING of cuss wards!

I recall seeing Ann portraying Mary Tyrone in a production of Long Days Journey into Night near Vallejo in the late '70s and I remember thinking at one point when Mary went on a tirade about Sally Field as Norma Rae not having any 'glamour' or 'mystique' that it wasn't a part of O'Neill's original text (I hadn't read the play or seen any other productions at that point, but Sally Field seemed like a pretty anachronous reference).

Shakin the blues awaaaaa

Did any DLers have tickets to "Sugar Babies" the night she drop-kicked Mickey Rooney into the mezzanine?

She was wasted in that non-sexual (thank GOD!) role in "Dawson's 50-Load Weekend."

Her tapping Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker was a tour de force that had Brooks Atkinson on the edge of his seat.

Ann sounds good in that DAMES AT SEA clip, thanks for posting. I was in DAMES AT SEA when I was 13. I played Lucky.

She dodged a bullet by not taking the role offered her in “who gives a flying fuck”. Debbie Reynolds never lived it down

I was a very young gayling when I first saw Ann in Kiss Me Kate and I was, and remain, transfixed by her Too Darn Hot tap dance. It really is magnificent.

You know, there was a man that lived here once that had a prize-fighting kangaroo. Well! You just wouldn't believe what that kangaroo did to this courtyard!

They offered her the role of Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump, but she couldn't tap as fast with her shoes on her hands, so she turned them down.

I wonder why the Janis Paige thread was deleted last night? What could possibly have been written by Jan that would offend Muriel?

Muriel set up the system by which threads can be nuked. Sometimes it's just a deranged poster using the FF button.

R102: It was a past that never really existed. Nostalgia is usually all about a corruption of the past.

R50: Miller must have spent hours in makeup. Reynolds and Paige looked somewhat natural by comparison, although where did Paige get that hat?

the bargain rack

r116 The Janis Paige thread is still up.

Miller did a dance on the grave of her rivals

R19 My dad must have said something nice about AM as my mother hated her too

The sound of her taps never match her feet in those MGM movies......and she keeps claiming she taps so many taps a minute......it's impossible to make 4 or 5 tap sounds in a second.....bitch is delusional.

But she was prettier than Betty Garrett or Vera-Ellen.....but who wasn't? Except Ethel.....

I disagree. Ann looked like a chipmunk. V-E was much lovelier.

Um, yes you can R124.

Tap dancing is not an art. It's a skill.

Except for the Nicholas Brothers.

I can't get enough of her and her wigs

Did anyone ever buy anything from her Ann Miller Frog collection? It was stuffed frogs wearing wigs styled like Ann's hair.

r129, I made a bundle on 'em, honey!

She was up for Maria in the film version of Sound of Music. Imagine her tapdancing around Salzburg, or tipping off the Nazis with her tap cleats when they were hiding in the crypt.

I think great tap dancing is an art, and Ann Miller was an artist!

I saw her twice onstage and she was fantastic both times, and she could really sing!

Ann Miller said she was up against several others for the part in Easter Parade, once Cyd Charisse was out. I wonder who they could have been? Given that this was more than just a dancing part someone needed to be an actor as well.

I'd rather watch the Punchy Players vision of 'Ann Miller' instead of the real Ann Miller.

They're so clever!

I always though Ann would have been great in Janis's role in Silk Stockings, not that Janis wasn't pretty terrific herself.

Ann said she was promised that part but then MGM changed their mind which made her want out of her contract.

The talent free PP are back.

she worked like a charm

Also love Janis Paige but it does seem odd that MGM brought her in for Silk Stockings when Ann was right there on the lot. There must be a story there.

As for Easter Parade, I'm sure when Cyd was cast, the musical requirements for Nadine were somewhat different than they would eventually be for Ann, and I think it's the kind of role that could be tailored very differently, in terms of musical numbers, for whoever was cast.

I love feeling the way she does

Ann was too tall for Fred, r139. She had to dance in flats when she danced with him.

Didn't I read that one of her wigs was made of thin black WIRE so it wouldn't wilt when she was dancing?

And it kept setting off the metal detectors at the airport in its case......

Even in flats, she was too tall for Fred...

I need a mystique injection, stat!

[R50] It looks like Ann Miller went right from Mike Douglas to the Piggly Wiggly. Same hair. Same boa. Just not in B&W. Debbie comes off as more realistic than Ann who was living in the past. Do you think Ann was pissed that she wasn’t chosen as one of the hosts of “That’s Entertainment” while Debbie was?

Debbie was a decade younger than Ann Miller. Same age as that fat drunk cow in a caftan - Liz Taylor who did her whisper coo through That's Entertainment.

Well, anyway, Ann was a wonderful host for That's Entertainment III, for which I have a particular fondness. I think, except for Gene and Debbie, all of the other original hosts of Part I were gone by then. Oops, I'll correct myself and say Liz and Liza were both still around, just not terribly coherent. Oh, and Mickey participated once again.

Ann, Cyd, June, Esther, still hunky Howard Keel, and especially Lena Horne, all added immeasurably to the narration of Part III. They really seemed to be speaking from their hearts. far more than Sinatra, Lawford and Crosby in the first one.

Thank *God* for film!

Well......Liza was right.

It has been said that Ann Miller was seriously considered for the role of the third angel in Charlie's Angels when Kate Jackson departed the show. But Jaclyn Smith protested that there could only be one dancing angel.

So, instead we got Shelley Hack.

Yes, yes she was, r149. I saw That's Entertainment! 21 times when it came out. That's why I remember exactly her delivery of that line...and the Peretti belt and necklace. You notice things seeing a movie that many times. Like how at 0:45 the second chorus girl on the left's strap breaks.

[quote] she seemed like a real broad

Can we retire this phrase already? Jesus.

Horse pucky!

[quote] Jesus.

Can we retire this blasphemy already?

According to Ann's memoir Arthur Freed had promised her the part in Silk Stockings. Then Freed changed his mind because of Cyd Charisse playing the leading female role. Cyd was a brunette and Arthur said he couldn't have two brunettes in the film, for some reason. Ann wanted to work with Cyd again so losing the role made her very unhappy. Janis Paige was cast and her hair was given a red shade of brown.

[quote]her hair was given a red shade of brown

You mean auburn?

I don't think anyone has mentioned that old canard that Ann fell once and broke her hair.

She had the legs

Ann Miller's hair was reversible though. Just turn it inside out and you get blonde!

She went blonde for one Columbia film but she said the bleaching damaged her hair.

Ann is one of those, 'I guess you had to be there' stars, I don't really get it. She's not physically unattractive but her personality combined with the cheeks and the teeth make her aggressively unappealing. The tap dancing is...fast...I guess, but she's always sort of hunched over and her long legs are never fully extended so it makes her dancing ugly looking, however much skill it might have actually taken. I couldn't ever imagine her with being the romantic partner of the lithe and fey Astaire as she seems like she would have eaten him alive.

She was a second stringer--she could tap fast, but was not a great dancer like Charisse; she was pleasant but was not a great actress. She belonged to a time that passed--she had a good run but nostalgia can only get you so far.

Ann was a dancer much like Eleanor Powell: she was not really meant to partner with anyone else. She was just supposed to tap away either alone on stage or while admiring handsome men watched her grinning their asses off.

Astaire needed partners like Rita Hayworth and Ginger Rogers: dancers who flowed with him, and let him lead.

(In some ways Gene Kelly was also better as a solo dancer than as a partner. he was also meant to be watched and admired by anyone on stage with him, not partnered.)

She's not hunched over here.

Singing "I Get a Kick Out of You" in front of The Merm herself.

More of the Punchy Players's Ann Miller and Judy (and Liza):

Ann was a much better actress than Cyd Charisse. Plus Ann was warm and likeable whereas Cyd was cold.

R163 is a good analysis.

She wasn't a Tiffany Taylor doll, r159.

I don't know that I'd call Ann all that likeable. She was a turn. Watch he do her tricks for a few minutes but don't stay in her company.

*Watch her

And the funniest of all, with Ann and Judy on "Hollywood Hoarders":

[quote]She went blonde for one Columbia film but she said the bleaching damaged her hair. '

You shoulda seen what it did to her pussy!

Look at her in Easter Parade. She is playing what could be a bitch part but she makes it funny and sympathetic.

R172, "Black Friday" almost gives "Hollywood Hoarders" a run for its money.

She couldn't have been happy getting cast in The Opposite Sex, only to watch June Allyson and Dolores Gray perform the musical numbers.

And speaking of Dolores, I wonder if Ann was upset that Dolores landed that fun role in There's Always Fair Weather, performing the fab Thanks A Lot But No Thanks. But then again, she would have been second brunette to Cyd in that one, too.

Dolores was pencilled in to star opposited Fred Astaire in a movie (and I don't mean the Kay Thompson part in "Funny Face"). I can only imagine it would have been an arrangement like Jayne Mansfield and Cary Grant in the movie they made together, i.e. they weren't love interests.

Miller was heavy, heavy into parapsychology and did a few Ouija board readings on Merv Griffin.

My favorite Ann Miller story, perhaps told in this thread is what happened in Sugar Babies. Ann would get onstage before the curtain went up to "read" the audience. If she felt it was a weak audience, she had a bit worked out with the Stage Manager. The lights would go down and the PA would announce "Ann Miller is not feeling well and will not perform tonight." The audience would groan and then, there would be sounds of a struggle for the mic and Ann would say "the heck I am. I'm going on". The audience went wild and it was a great show.

She feuded with Ann Jillian in that show. Jillian got her revenge in The Ann Jillian Story TV movie when neither Miller nor Mickey Rooney were mentioned being in the show.

[quote]She couldn't have been happy getting cast in The Opposite Sex, only to watch June Allyson and Dolores Gray perform the musical numbers.

Dolores didn't perform any musical numbers in the movie--there was just a recording of her singing the theme song over the opening credits. And all of June's vocals were dubbed.

June wasn't dubbed for this.

Dolores was actually pleased to play a "straight" part. Ann likely was too.

R181: what a letdown to see and then hear Allyson after the big visual and upbeat build up to the vocals.

Yes but it's sad that the best MGM could give her at the time was a catfight scene.

Allyson was awful. The girl next door you wished would move.

But Allyson was a bigger star at MGM than Ann Miller.

June just *oozed* sex in that Peter Pan collar and those...slacks.

I was oozing [italic]something![/italic] Why do you think I started shilling for 'Depends"?

Ann Miller was certainly the type of performer where you thought, "Well, there aren't more at home like her so I should enjoy it now!" and really that was enough.

She always just BROUGHT it. I respect that. She was pretty sensational in "Sugar Babies" and was full on 110% even three years into the run. She seemed like she was having more fun than anyone in the audience. Now that's talent!

I think she said she deserved some kind of a medal for working with Mickey Rooney for ten years.

What a dame, what a sweet patootie, what a tomato, see?

Ya get me?

She was the acme of poise, and she had a giant head.

That film at the original post is made from footgae of Ann on the Merv griffin Show in the mid-1970s with some other Hollywood stars like Debbie Reynolds--it was then that Ann made her much-quoted comment that stars today had 'no glamour, no mystique." What of course made that comment so ridiculous was that bizarre bouffant hairstyle which was at least eleven years out of date.

Why did the women who held onto the bouffant hairdo love it so much that they held onto it after it had clearly fallen out of style? It was not easy to maintain, and it looked so ridiculous--like a gigantic weather balloon had settled on their head, or one of those gigantic outer-space stewardess hats from 2001: A Space Odyssey. yet they held onto that hairstyle for decades after it was in fashion. Margaret thatcher wore it for the rest of her life, as did Donald Trump's mother, who wore it something like three or four decades after it had fallen out of style.

My guess is that it made women feel like they were wearing a helmet--like they were somehow protected.

I would have purchased these Ann Miller Wigs from her stint in Mame.

Better Link

This clip shows why Sugar Babies ran forever and why Ann, even in her late 50s and 60s, was a star.

Ann Miller was the penultimate trouper. Here she is at age SIXTY-FOUR rehearsing, recording and performing 'Shakin' the Blues Away' -- a number she'd done 39 years earlier.

Rhonda says that Ann was initially frosty but that she thawed. She tells a sweet New Years Eve story feauting Ann. From 8:15 onwards:

Oh, and listen out for the oxygen tanks part from r198.

My 7 year old sister and I ran into her at Bullocks Wilshire in Century City years ago. My sister was taking tap dance lessons and approached her. She told Ms. Miller they she was studying dance and tap. Ann replied with a big smile.. “Keep Tapping, Honey”.

R193, the reason Miller was always so overly made up at all times was because of the bad nose job she had in the mid-1940's. As a result, she ended up with a prosthetic nose like Michael Jackson's, and had to pour on the greasepaint to hide that fact. Farley Granger talked about it in his autobiography, how if they got laughing too hard, Miller would worry that her nose would go flying.

Here's an interview from 1971 when she was doing dinner theater. Even without looking closely, at 30 seconds in, you can see how translucent the end of her nose is. Of course she was unaware of this, or would've covered it with makeup.

R198, yeah...what she says rings true. Especially about Mickey Rooney being so bitter...

Rhonda also seems to say that Mickey had a big dick. Bless her heart for thinking he was going to write her a song to put in the show.

Ann had more rhinoplasty after the vid at r201.

A nose transplant perhaps R204? :)

R198, that really was a great Ann Miller story. The whole reminiscence of working w/both of them was fantastic -- thanks!

She was ugly and she definitely sucked some cock to get stardom.

Actually, she's got the same mini-schnoz at 14:27 into R198's video from 10 years later.

The stories at R198 are great fun and well presented. I haven't a clue who that woman is but she is more fun than Meg Tilly sipping tea.

Rhonda has written a memoir. I presume she's recounting a few tidbits from it.

I agree R208. She's got a video where she talks about the attempts to revive "Easter Parade" w/Tommy Tune...with equal amounts of wit and charm.

R124 "it's impossible to make 4 or 5 tap sounds in a second.....bitch is delusional."

Not at all. She shows how to tap 8 times a second at 1:14 into this clip.

R196 - the clip also shows how insufferable Mickey Rooney was.

Gwen Verdon got her start in Hollywood by dubbing taps, including Kiss Me Kate and Lana Turner's Merry Widow. She's also a Maxim's Can Can girl in the latter.

Ann Miller's nose confuses me. When she was young in films like Stage Door, her nose was small, pert and cute. Why would she have had any work done on it?

R186: Allyson being a "bigger star" is meaningless. What does that even mean---she played sappy roles and wound up selling adult diapers. Qt least Miller found a way to take her one note talent into new decades---her dancing on a can of soup was more entertaining than Alyson's heartfelt commentarie on incontinence.

[quote]Rhonda also seems to say that Mickey had a big dick.

She meant his balls were hanging out.

[quote]Ann Miller was the penultimate trouper.

She was the next-to-last trouper? Who was the last?

[quote]My 7 year old sister and I ran into her at Bullocks Wilshire in Century City years ago

I ain't in Century City, r200.

And during the run of SUGAR BABIES Rip Taylor asked if they were going to be off for Passover and Annie replied: "Oh, honey, I don't do game shows....."

r218 Bullocks Wilshire had multiple locations, but you're correct in stating that there was no BW in Century City. There was a regular Bullock's, however (now a Macy's.)

Did you read your Wiki link, r220? There was only one Bullocks *Wilshire*.

I read it again and it's a bit confusing, r220. But I'd only ever heard of the Wilshire store being referred to as Bullocks Wilshire.

R189: "She always just BROUGHT it. I respect that. She was pretty sensational in "Sugar Babies" and was full on 110% even three years into the run. She seemed like she was having more fun than anyone in the audience. Now that's talent!"

Indeed it was. One Saturday in the summer of 1981 I saw Liz Taylor in a matinee of The Little Foxes and Miller and Rooney in Sugar Babies that night on Broadway. Maybe it wasn't that high a bar, and I love 'em both, but Miller was a helluva lot more entertaining that night than la Liz was as she chewed up the scenery that afternoon.

R206 = June Allyson

I prefer her daughter, Penelope.

Too bad she didn't have a son I could marry.

r221 Bullocks Wilshire-Palm Springs

I got it, r227.

R23 how I envy you.❤️

[Quote] listen out for the oxygen tanks part

I want a "Feud: Miss Ann Miller vs. Mickey Rooney."

Maybe Mickey could have paid the chorus boy to wear his watch and thereby expose Ann's sausage meat.

[Quote] Ann Miller's nose confuses me. When she was young in films like Stage Door, her nose was small, pert and cute. Why would she have had any work done on it?

I wouldn't describe it as small but I think it looked fine.

This is probably the prettiest Ann ever looked.

She is really impressive in that dance rehearsal and performance for television posted above. She still had a nice little rear end and can tap those dance heels like mad. She wants so badly to do well and it's a great big number - she's working it. Seems extremely pleasant if a bit demented.

Remember when Debbie Reynolds or some other ex movie star would do talk shows and we'd have to watch them "sing"? Debbie Reynolds was probably the worst of them, along with OLD Ethyl. Merman.

Ann Miller obviously worked hard to perform at a high standard well into her seventies with fucked up feet and hips. Dancers have the best discipline of any performers - along with most opera singers.

There is a video somewhere on Youtube of the Papermill cast during rehearsal for Follies. Sondheim is there and Ann is wearing a blazer and a headscarf? She sings I'm Still Here. Sondheim chokes up for a moment when she's done and looks into his lap....."No notes, Anne."

[Quote] Dancers have the best discipline of any performers

Bless you!

^ what a moronic post ^

[quote]Dancers have the best discipline of any performers

The beschest.

The DancersOver40 YouTube channel had just as many old fatties as slim(mish) types. RIP Harvey Evans.

Didn’t Annie smoke like a chimney? I think her cause of death was listed as lung cancer.

Like Mae West, she was a great female female impersonator.

Did we ever find out what that other dancin' Ann, Reinking died of? In her last interviews, she looked very, very ill.

her tune on the Love Boat was CLASSIC

[Quote] Did we ever find out what that other dancin' Ann, Reinking died of?

She got aRhythmia.

So when did Ann Miller get her nose job? Was it after STAGE DOOR (1937) and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938)?

I have a feeling it was then, when she went on Broadway in the George White Scandals and had some money. And before she went back to Hollywood. .

She had it by the time of "Go West, Young Lady" (1941) with Glenn Ford.

If this is correctly labelled, Ann still had her original nose in 1940.

She got at least her second right before Easter Parade and that was the one that took too much off causing her to need some reconstruction surgery in the 1950s.

Contralto Annie!

Ann as a blonde.

I swear on my life I remember Ann and Mickey on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show during the "Sugar Babies" run. It was after the evening performance and both Miller and Rooney were game, but exhausted. Notably, Ann wasn't wearing her trademark wig, and appeared in her real grey hair twisted into two smallish ponytails. Tom asked about the wig and Ann just laughed and said it was off for the night and she didn't feel like wearing it, in a funny, good-natured way.

I scour the internet and have never found the clip of this interview. I loved the Tomorrow Show and thinking of it reminds me how it was on a very long time ago.

I am working on a project that would benefit from a Tom Snyder Tomorrow clip and I couldn't find it. So I got his number and called Tom in his Tiburon home and he told me that many of the shows tapes had been erased. Furthermore, he was ill by that time and had little memory of his interviews/interviewees. Disappointing as it really would be an important slice of pop culture.

Tom Snyder and wigs? Enjoy a great half hour with the criminally charismatic and quick witted Dolly Parton.

Will you accept an interview with Faye instead?

Shakin the Blues Away really works - such a happy, snappy tune.

Not surprised that Ann was into the occult - her hair was black magic.

I can't imagine how Ann and Mickey performed that show 8 times a week for 2 years! I work in an office sitting on my ass and I'm nearly dead by mid-week.

^Ginny from Billing.

R247, she sounds beautiful

R255 more like 10 years though they had breaks. They toured the country and also went to London.

R53 - the song's lyrics were changed from the original which included references to darkies.

In the Mike Douglas Show MGM tribute clip earlier in the thread, nearly everyone is wearing a hairpiece - Mike himself, Fred, Gene, Hermes Pan, Ann, and Debbie.

They should've done a number called "Shakin my Hair Away" where they all end up tossing their respective wigs in the air.

I could fertilize your eggs...if you'd only spread your legs...we could make a beautiful baby after the Easter Parade.

Nine months later he'll be born...our precious Capricorn...he'll be the prettiest baby at next year's Easter Parade.

[quote]Shakin the Blues Away really works - such a happy, snappy tune.

You're telling me, r253!

R255, get yourself an oxygen tank and you'll be doing two shifts in no time.

Angie used an oxygen tank in MAME.

Mame '83?

Liza used an oxygen tank at Studio 54! And the occasional shot of ephedrine to restart her heart.

I believe so, r266.

I can't believe no one's posted her iconic number from 'Small Town Girl', directed by that small town drunk, Busby Berkeley.

A lot of people think Eleanor Powell was a better dancer than Miller. This is proof they are wrong. Powell -- as amazing as she was -- could never tap fast and spin AT THE SAME TIME. Annie could, and did it in spades.

She said Busby called her Ann Miller. Now look, Ann Miller, I don't care if you have a blister. You're going to keep doing the number until we get it right.

If you compare Ann's version of "Shakin' the Blues Away" with Doris Day's at r263, you can see instantly why Doris was such a star and Ann was such a second banana. Ann was a better dancer than Doris (though Doris is fine), but not only does Doris have the infinitely better voice, when she starts striding down the steps towards the audience at about 1:35, she has so much easy confidence--she doesn't have to push it, the way Ann always did. She just shows what a huge star she was with a few simple steps forward.

Oh please. Ann doesn't need 26 chorus boys to do the heavy lifting.

I can't think of an another actress of Hollywood's Golden Age that was given that sort of second chance and really succeeded as they hadn't before.

But I'm sure some Smart Aleck hear will correct me.

by Anonymous reply 68 September 19, 2022 4:03 AM

Not being as Smart Aleck, but the ultimate "second chance" star was Betty Grable, who languished in Hollywood from a 14-year old Goldwyn Girl in WHOOPEE! (1930) with stops at RKO and Paramount till she was let go by the latter and signed by Fox in 1939 as a possible "threat": to Alice Faye. Zanuck had nothing for her to do, so he let her go to Broadway for Cole Porter's DuBARRY WAS A LADY (1939), calling her back to replace an ailing Faye in DOWN ARGENTINE WAY (1940). By 1943, Grable was the number 1 top box-office star eventually becoming the top female box office star of the decade (she had an unbroken ten-year run in the Quigley Top ten lists from 1942 - 1951 . Only Mary Pickford (1914-1926) with 13 years has more, and only Doris Day, Barbra Streisand and Julia Roberts can match Grables 10.

On the other hand, Annie career lasted much longer than Betty's, who died at only 56 in 1973.

R271, Day had nothing to do with the cinematography choices that helped her 'walking' look better. Having said that, in other movies she was very underrated as a tap dancer. Just as good as any of the 2nd-tier dancers, if not better.

[quote]I can't believe no one's posted her iconic number from 'Small Town Girl', directed by that small town drunk, Busby Berkeley.

The only iconic number from "Small Town Girl" was Bobby Van's.

Does anyone find it remarkable/weird that MGM prominently featured "Shakin' the Blues Away" in 2 of their biggest musicals in less than 10 years?

I guess because these films weren't yet being relentlessly rerun on TV and, of course, before the internet, perhaps audiences had already forgotten Ann's version by the time they saw Doris's? For my money, Ann's has always been more fun, though the extravagance of Doris's version is certainly a treat (though I think Doris looks rather horsey in her costume).

Another thought:

Was "Shakin' the Blues Away" actually a song introduced by Ruth Etting?

Yes, r277. All of her songs were Ruth Etting songs.

If you only knew just how gross and gnarly those golden era gals had to service , just to keep a hoof on the stage...why you'd be a little more understanding!

Ann and Doris no comparison. I find Doris as dull as dog water.

Ann had pizazz

Interview

The thinking behind this number is faulty. Ann was always known for her torso.

The Opposite Sex

Here's the full version of the rehearsal for 'Shakin' in 1987.

Note at 9 minutes in how Ann almost effortlessly puts the other dancers, 30 years her junior, to shame.

BTW - the hot male dancer rehearsing with Annie is Don Correia, Mr. Sandy Duncan since 1980.

Ann Miller is an amusing person to discuss, but I don't think anyone should take her talent too seriously. I honestly don't know how she did as well as she did in movies. Later in life she hoofed it. I wasn't even alive when a show tacky enough to be called Sugar Babies ran for ten years.

Datalounge posters don't like to say it, but though MGM may have had more stars than in the heavens - they did not have the most talented ones.

Ann Miller is as hard to figure out as Carmen Miranda. What exactly was her appeal?

[quote] Does anyone find it remarkable/weird that MGM prominently featured "Shakin' the Blues Away" in 2 of their biggest musicals in less than 10 years?

Not really, especially once MGM decided they wanted to make a film out of Ruth Etting's sensational life story a few years after "Easter Parade." "Shakin the Blues Away" was one of Etting's biggest hits.

Also, it was also one of Irving Berlin's big hits, and "Easter Parade" is a tribute to Berlin's music.

Ruth Etting introduced Berlin's "Shakin' the Blues Away" in "Ziegfeld Follies of 1927."

[quote]Ruth Etting introduced Berlin's "Shakin' the Blues Away" in "Ziegfeld Follies of 1927."

I'm shocked it wasn't 1912, as inferred in Easter Parade. I mean, it was so historically accurate otherwise. Ann's outfit in the number as one example...

I thought I was the hot dancer.

Ann had lots of appeal while Carmen Miranda had lots of peels.

Did any of the MGM ladies reunite with Ricardo Montalban on Fantasy Island?

R287 Ann Miller had more talent in her bloody toenail than you do in your three brain cells.

guest stars

scary to look at

Ann and Linda Darnell were besties. Both were Texas gals with aggressive stage mothers.

[quote]Ruth Etting introduced Berlin's "Shakin' the Blues Away" in "Ziegfeld Follies of 1927."

And I'll bet you still have your program from opening night!

Love the photo at r297 and adore Linda Darnell. who, like Ann Miller, I believe also began her Hollywood career as a young teen, made up to look older.

I always find those1940s hairdos like Linda's amusing, considering our war against the Japanese during that time, as they seem to parody geisha girls, especially with the big lotus flowers adorning them.

It's a pompadour, r299.

I know it's a pompadour and I know that the actual 1940s term for the hairdo was Victory Rolls. But, nevertheless, the hairdo is very reminiscent of a geisha's wig as r297's photo attests, r300.

[quote] And I'll bet you still have your program from opening night!

No, dear. I know how to look up information. Perhaps you should try that some time yourself.

[quote]I wasn't even alive when a show tacky enough to be called Sugar Babies ran for ten years.

It is sad you weren't around then to inform all those delighted paying audience members how wrong they were, and to just go home!

Sugar Babies was a burlesque tribute and appealed to people wishing to experience that corner of live performance. Specifically, you had to like to laugh and have fun.

Dames

SOUP

Powell made it look effortless while Miller tried too hard, R269.

Ann and Eleanor were *both* great...

Yeah, Ann was no Eleanor no matter how fast she could tap. Eleanor was often billed alone above the title whereas Ann was usually third or fourth billed, if that. But it's sad that Eleanor's films are impossible to sit through except for her thrilling dance sequences. She has nothing like Kiss Me Kate, On the Town or Easter Parade on her filmography, thus is much less known today.

Sad but true R308.....although this always makes me smile. I guess I'll always prefer Eleanor to Annie because Eleanor seemed to make it effortless while Annie seemed to make it hard work.

[quote]Eleanor seemed to make it effortless while Annie seemed to make it hard work.

EXACTLY what I said three messages earlier.

Eleanor Powell:Dance Scenes::Esther Williams:Water Scenes

Both of them seem to have plots built around their talents, or were shoehorned into pictures. Ann Miller's films (where she performed) seem to either be musicals had dance numbers that seemed more integrated into the story.

[quote] She has nothing like Kiss Me Kate, On the Town or Easter Parade on her filmography, thus is much less known today.

I disagree.

"Broadway Melody of 1940" is extraordinary if only for pairing Astaire and Powell (considered the finest male and female dancers in Hollywood), and for introducing both "Begin the Beguine" and "I Concentrate on You," two of the most beautiful songs Cole Porter ever wrote.

Spit curls.

Fuck off, Benay, I need the softness.

A dancer should have nice legs or wear pants. Lots of tap dancers wear pants. Anne Miller had short thick kind of shapeless legs. She loves a piano.

See Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers and Cyd Charisse. Even that hunchback Judy Garland had proportionally long legs. Rita Hayworth had probably the most beautiful body of any female movie star. A modern form, natural and lovely. Born to dance. Even chorus girls had better bodies for dancing than Anne vaudeville Milner.

Ann Milliner was a hoofer. That's a different thing. Kinda corny. Tap and twirl. All that huge face required hair. That's why drag queens wear such BIG wigs. Wasn't Anne fucking Louis B Mayer from the time she was 15 years old? There's no explaining her being cast in popular roles. MGM. YUK.

Joan Crawford had the most ugly legs of any major glamour star. Long torso, wide shoulders. rickety and extremely short legs. Wear a gown.

Anne Milliner has no definitiion to her thighs - they're just substantial slabs.

fred and his favourite partner

[quote] Anne Milliner

Hats off to her!

Oh gawd, the "Ann Miller is a hoofer" troll is back. With no legit arguments.

As for Powell, yes, she was technically a great tapper, at least in her early years -- she was/is indeed known almost solely for her amazing number with Astaire in Broadway Melody of 1940. But still, she could not tap as fast as Miller, nor tap and spin at the same time.

That's what made Miller unique in the history of movie musicals.

In her later years, did Eleanor work part time at the Piggly Wiggly?

Haha.

Seriously, I think she was incredibly lonely. If you google "Eleanor Powell" and "autograph", you'll find dozens of examples where she writes her life story on Christmas Cards, 8 x10's, etc., going into great detail like she had nothing else to do.

Speaking of noses, did Ellie have her's cut down to size as well?

R319 - yes, making tapioca.

I can't believe someone actually had the nerve to say Ann Miller's legs weren't good. She had incredible legs well into old age. Her [italic]Too Darn Hot[/italic] figure was to die for.

They probably think female legs should have a thigh gap.

Yeas, Broadway Melody of 1940 has the those two incomparable numbers with Eleanor and Fred but the rest of the film is utterly unwatchable.

R310 that must be where I heard it.

Ellie and Caterina

Of all the post 'Golden Age' movie musical stars, Ginger Rogers was the worst by far. Hopeless without Astaire.

I remember someone here a year or so back saying he was one of her backup dancers, and how she refused to practice the steps in any routine.

This clip is proof of that.

Well, r328, she's the only Astaire partner that I can think of that won a Best Actress Oscar.

Didn't Annie Milner win an Oscar for The Thighs The Limit?

Gingie Rogers was a bit like Barbaric Streizand. A homely girl with one great talent - but she ONLY wanted to be an adored BEAUTY and movie ACTRESS.

Ginger could dance - very well and all day and night. Night and Day, you could say. Barbara Streusel could sing but don't ask her. She doesn't like to.

Tell her she's pretty and the world's greatest Film STAR.

Some old MGM movie Queen once told a story about being on a publicity tour with Annie.

Annie woke everyone up one morning running down the hall screaming “where are my flapchickies.? Someone stole my flapchickies!”

Turns out her flapchickies were a set of falsies she wore for public appearances.

R332, the name and application of Miss Miller's "flapchickies" came from the time that Judy Garland got a little silly during "Easter Parade" filming and told Miller that her tits looked like flapjacks. She did change them over time, as her figure (ahem) adapted to time.

Streisand was much more versatile than Rogers--she could dance a bit and was ok within a limited range of roles.

If Ginger was homely, what was Merman?

Ginger and Ann danced together in Stage Door.

Merman was as she appeared and behaved and sounded. A blaring human gargoyle.

I thought Ann Milliner's Oscar was for [italic]Talking Through My Hat.[/italic]

Oh, but you didn't know her in 1934, R337.

Or did you?

Ginger was a huge star throughout the 1930s with the talent to back it up. She could do drama, comedy, sing and dance, all with ease, a combination like no other actress of the decade. Just watch her in Stage Door hold her own with Hepburn and all those other scene stealers. She's also great in the early 40s but, it's true, she became very grand and taken with herself as the 40s wore on, never to recover, until she became rather insufferable.

Ginger is fine in Monkey Business, as I recall.

Ginger's mother was a complete cunt, and what Ginger became over time always looked like a curse from the old parasite hag.

Yes! I also love Ginger in Monkey Business where she went back to her screwball comedy roots and showed a sense of humor about herself. Cary Grant brought out the best in her, as he did with so many of his leading ladies.

Not true. Lila Rogers provided care and guidance for a lot of young, vulnerable actresses. Lucille Ball talked about it to a class that included Taylor Negron on the day Lila died.

A gargoylette.

Hit the Deck!

[quote]Streisand was much more versatile than Rogers

Lying liars who lie.

[quote] Streisand was much more versatile than Rogers

Ginger won an Oscar for doing drama ("Kitty Foyle"), was notably terrific in comedy ("The Major and the Minor," "Stage Door," "Bachelor Mother," and "Tom, Dick, and Harry" are all classics), and is most famous today for her musicals. She's equally as versatile as Streisand.

Ginger was a much better dancer, and a slightly better comedienne, although Barbra was a much better singer.

I would call them equal as dramatic actresses: adequate, but hammy.

Audrey Hepburn also won a Best Actress Oscar for "Roman Holiday" before she worked with Astaire.

Joan Crawford danced with Fred in his first film, "Dancing Lady" and she later won the Best Actress Oscar for "Mildred Pierce"

If you look closely at the the gay marines dancing w/Miller in the clip at R346, the smiley one in the center HOLDS HANDS w/the guy next to him as they move off to the left when Miller starts whirling...

Keeping herself for you!

Ginger Rogers' late-in-life wig was even more ridiculous than Ann's.

True. But if she got hungry, she had all the cotton candy she needed.

Thanks for the link, R351, I've never seen Hit the Deck - that was great!

In her films, Ginger introduced songs written expressly for her by Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Vincent Youmans and George Gershwin. Not bad for a singer being disparaged upthread. Can any other actress make that claim on their filmography?

No wonder she got a swelled head, that's quite an accomplishment.

Rogers' mother was a glorified pimp and a fanatic McCarthyite Republican anticommunist in the blacklist era. In a word, despicable.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree.

I love how because of her wig, she has to wear the moon lady hat flat on her head...

Ginge...

Ginger deserves props for not giving away Ann's secret real age, as does Lucille Ball.

Ginger and Lucy talk about Lela Rogers in The RKO Story.

Thanks, R360. I love Lucy! Lucille Ball - not so much.

I have a very dear friend named...Ann Miller.

Imagine that anyone could be so deranged and tasteless to believe that hunched over fat legged vaudeville hoofer - tap a tap tap Anne Miller should ever be compared to Ginger Rogers?

Ginger was lyrical and lovely in movement and form. A beautiful dancer.

Annie Miller tapped heavy on a soup can with her tits and wig leaning forward.

Ann was a lot more fun. Ginger after about 1942 was insufferable.

Ann also was the better dancer. Ginger was serviceable and a good partner, but overall at the level of a talented chorus girl, not a star.

Oscar.

R363, a.k.a. Ann Miller was a Hoofer Troll: Go find ANY clip of Rogers post 1955 or so walking, I mean, dancing WITHOUT Astaire, and you'll see who the klunky and heavy one was. My gawd, he even had to tone down their routines for their 1949 reunion because she was no longer as limber as he was.

Anne Millner was the better "tap" dancer. On soup cans. And barely that. It's not even a thing.

R367: Ann made a thing out of it. Rogers was someone you exhumed once in awhile for nostalgia, while Miller was working steadily.

Hardly. Rogers was the first replacement in Hello, Dolly. Miller was, what, the fourth Mame?

I have to throw in one more Ellie. She is soooo smooth and effortless- and her finish with Buddy Rich is astonishing.

Eleanor truly express the joy in dance.

To my eyes, Eleanor always did this amazingly wonderful thing with her body when she danced where it seemed like her upper torso was in a different rhythm than her hips and legs and feet. Does anyone else that?

R370: I see your "Ship Ahoy" and raise it en route to "Honolulu," demonstrating what R371 mentions.

Miss Powell only made 14 movies, and when her career was over, she ended up as the hostess of a religious program, "The Faith of Our Children," which featured none other than JACK WRANGLER!

Eleanor was born to dance...

I agree about the unique and appealing dance of Eleanor Powell, and respect the somewhat wind-up "showgirl perfection" that Ann Miller gave.

Ginger Rogers in her youth was a fine actress, too, and no matter how overt and "just playing the scene" as she could be, she also can shock you with her seeming authenticity in her line readings, as if she herself was surprised by her feeling the drama. Of course she presented that in her dancing. It always was a performance - Astaire at his most down-home-aw-heck-just-dance poses was crystalline (except for perhaps his loveliest number, with Judy Garland with "We're a Couple of Swells" in "Easter Parade") couldn't really have it any other way. He was too-imprinted by his early smash stage work with sister Adele.

But my absolute favorite came with Rita Hayworth. Her sheer joy in the dance - whatever dance - has the brilliance of life and sex. Her Latin career, freed of her father's oppressive partnering, prepared her for this letting go. She was very sincere as an actress, and followed direction, but what she was was a dancer who could do the steps but feel it - or convince you she felt it - all the way from her soul to her healthy G-spot.

Mary.

Ginger was a stupendous Roxie...

r376 She was no Phyllis Haver.

Phyllis Haver was neither a Phyllis Thaxter nor a June Haver...

Watching Rita Haywroth dance is one of the most enjoyable viewing experiences, as she's good at what she does and loves what she does. Also, there may be more beautiful women and perhaps even prettier women, but Rita in her prime was just so darn lovely. Mary! I know.

[quote]Phyllis Haver was neither a Phyllis Thaxter nor a June Haver...

Nor a June Havoc, for that matter.

Mickey Rooney was really fucking talented. And so much charisma for being such an utter asshole.

Havoc was a Hovick, r380.

R373, yeah...kind of. Except her career was basically over in 1941 -- only five years after it started. I have a feeling she was perhaps a little naive and/or gullible -- like most religious types. After all, she stayed with Glenn Ford for 14 years after he cheated on her with Rita Hayworth and half of Hollywood.

What those women saw in him is beyond comprehension.

Mr. Eleanor Powell was a SLUT.

"According to his son Peter Ford's book Glenn Ford: A Life (2011), Ford had affairs with 146 actresses, all of which were documented in his personal diaries..."

Glenn Ford was one of the hottest leading men in Hollywood and his looks were timeless. He looks just as hot today in r384's photo as Brad Pitt or.....whoever.

As talented as Eleanor Powell was as a dancer, she was basically a novelty act who could really only do that one thing brilliantly, which never translates to a long term career for a leading lady. She wasn't even particularly pretty. Not Unlike other leading ladies Ruby Keeler, Grace Moore (a 1930s opera star who was a much bigger movie star than most here would realize), Jeanette MacDonald, Esther Williams and Sonja Henie.

Musical stars like Judy Garland, Betty Grable, Alice Faye and Rita Hayworth had a wide range of talents.

Now, a supporting player like Ann Miller, who also could really only do one thing well, was always seen in smaller measures and never had films built around her, so she lasted longer.

Ann could dance, sing and act. She had a A film developed for her at Columbia - The Petty Girl - but she decided to leave the studio to marry instead.

Gee thanks, Ann.

Joan Caulfield was perfect casting in The Petty Girl because she looked just like....The Petty Girl! Ann Miller did not. She simply wasn't pretty or sexy enough and she'd never have been believable as a college professor, which the character is until she becomes....The Petty Girl!

It's a delightful movie, by the way, that should be better known. with a wonderful and endearing supporting cast of hams: Elsa Lanchester, Melville Cooper and Mary Wickes. Oh, and also Bob Cummings as cheesecake artist George Petty.

r384, it sounds much more like Glenn Ford was the slut.

That's what it says R390. Read it again...slowly. Then maybe it'll sink in.

R385, that was truly hilarious. Glenn Ford...one of the hottest men.......bwahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA!

Paul Newman, Marlon Brando and...GLENN FORD.

Well, *I* thought he was hot.

Even in his youth, I don't think Glenn Ford was handsome.

Glen Ford looks like a gas station attendant. And not the dumb hot one. The lazy one who reeks of stale cigarette smoke.

I gotta admit he looks at least a little better there in that very young photo at R394.

But at the height of his confounding 'stardom', he looked like a science teacher that wandered onto the set.

He knew how to please the dames.

He managed to seduce a lot of women, so he must have been more fun in person.

Anne Milliner never fucked Glenn Ford. She married fat old oil men and had lots of hairdressers and Liberace type escorts. I don't think Annie had a vagina. She had one of those change machines like on old streetcars where her pussy was meant to be. That's what made her sound so metallic. She had a pelvic machine that helped her tap so fast. And accept cash. Unfortunately the weight of if also caused her to lean forward when she danced. Such a heavy hoofer. Most dancers knees or hips give out. Annie had ankle pain. All that weight THROWN forward while she danced - her taps didn't really extend through her legs - just from the shins. Some say they were mechanical shoes, still tapping.

More than you could ever want to know about Eleanor Powell. She's kind of brassy and common but lots of stories.I lasted 15 minutes. Never heard of her. But like a proper older age dancer - she wears a shift. Not some sequence gown with corsets and fake TITS like trashy tapper Anime Miller.

A proper older dancer who gains some weight wears a shift. See Shirley MacLaine and Jacques D'amboise. Bebe Neuwirth even.

Note how the White Canadian who operates as the AWF Troll makes a point of using "sequence."

^ Ancient White RACIST Fag ^

R401 owns some sequence dresses himself. He used to accompany Anne Millner to special events. Someone should have informed her.

Ann's perfectly fine in this number, but the choreography doesn't really suit her. She excelled at tap, not jazz/modern. Imagine Cyd doing it.

Yes, Ann was fine, but Cyd Charisse would have aced that dance, R404.

As much as I love Ann, I've never really loved her singing voice. She seems to be restricted to one octave.

She's all belt, r405.

Ann’s career highlight was “Shakin’ the Blues Away” in Easter Parade . She held her own admirably with Judy and Fred in a movie with many highlights.

One reason why the Too Darn Hot choreography is weird is that it was filmed in 3D. Saw it at The Music Box in Chicago 30 years ago in its original format and it makes much more sense.

Mame and Sugar Babies were certainly career highlights for her, r407.

r404: You are right. She's not really comfortable with jazz dance. in EADIE WAS A LADY, she taps around the Jack Cole choreography and isn't really engaged with it.

This was Cole's first assignment with Columbia in 1945 and isn't even credited. He's the croupier at 1:10.

A year later, she is better but her jazz dance is just a preamble to her usual firey tap. The number features a favorite Cole mainstay: chorus boys in tight white pants.

THE THIRLL OF BRAZIL is one of her last Columbia "B"s ((third billed after Keenan Wynn abnd Evelyn Keyes) before she went to MGM. She just walks through Cole's great 'Macumba' finale number.

KELT by any other name is still a RACIST old white man.

Poor Ellie saved it for her wedding night with Glenn. He was a real asshole.

[quote]Poor Ellie saved it for her wedding night with Glenn. He was a real asshole.

Not with Sid Luft as her 1930s assistant!

I Dood It

B the B...part 1

How did they ever keep that mirrored floor unscratched and unsmudged?

How did they *dance* on it?

When this thread gets close to 600 can we consolidate it with the Ezra Miller thread? They were probably relateeves.

Ezra certainly would have raided Ann's costumes if given the chance.

Is Ezra also a Hollywood hoarder?

R417 -the dancers wore soft heels and the crew repolished the floor after every take.

I just watched Three Little Words and there was a lot of Easter Parade recycling, Also Gloria De Haven looked just like Ann.

Gloria and Ann both suffered from too great an expanse of cheek.

Who does this remind you of?

oops.

Gloria was prettier in late middle age than in her youth.

R423 I love the "All Alone Monday" number performed by the beauteous Gale Robbins, in Ann's feathered Easter Parade dress!

she's peppy says Vera-Ellen.

It's kind of sad that most of her '40s Columbia films are so hard to find. They haven't ever been shown on TV, except on TCM one night which had 3 or 4 of them. I've seen them only by exchanging copies with other film collectors. They're really a lot of fun, as is she.

I've been collecting them too R430. Mostly from OK.ru. Sad that the copies aren't in the greatest shape. I love the milieu of B Musicals.

two of 1them feature the grimly unfunny Joe Besser who is like a poor man's Lou Costello.

She had verve!

Second rate talent and performer.

Compared to whom, R434?

She let me motorboat her.

r432: I actually like Besser. He isn't whiny like Costella and more importantly, isn't smacked around like the sadistic Abbott . His fatness is teased but it isn't meAn-spirited and he's accepted as one of the gang.....and he's kind of campy - when he's being grilled by a sargent , Besser turns to the camera and silently mouths "I HATE HIM".

Now the WORST Ann Miller 'B' is CAROLINA BLUES which is also one of the most unbearable films I've ever seen. The film is dominated by the leaden Kay Kasyser and his unfunny comediuan-singer Ish Kabibble. They actually interrupt Ann's ONE tap number, which cuts away to a dialogue scene with them while you can hear Annie singing and tapping in the background. When I saw it at Film Forum , NY many years ago, there was a moment when the audience thought it was over - abnd let out a collective groan when it was clear there were more scenes to follow.

The sole worthwhile moment was Harold Nicholas (and The Four Step Brothers, Marie Bryant and belter June Richmond) sensational "Mr. Bebe" number ( by Styne and Cahn) introduced by Ann. The rest of the film could be flushed.

R437 Funny that you mention Carolina Blues. I have a particular soft spot for that movie after catching it on TCM over a decade ago. It's not a great film by any means, but it holds a nostalgic appeal for me, as many of those cheap hokey WWII musicals do.

R437 thank you. Even with only one Nicholas Brother and it’s still so spectacular.

[quote]She had verve!

She had sufficient.

Here's another dance number from Carolina Blues where the director keeps cutting away from Ann.

I'm still HERREEEEEEE! I'm still HERREEEEEEE! I'm STILLLLLLL HEEEEEERRRRRRRREEEEE!

That IS really bizarre R441, all that cutting away. But cool to see all the hoof(er) marks Annie left on the stage.

Never thought Ray Bolger was much of a dancer, but he keeps up well w/Miller here in 1964.