Happy Birthday: Gwen Verdon!

Gwen Verdon (January 13, 1925 – October 18, 2000) was one of Broadway's biggest stars during its "golden" era. She was an actress and dancer who won four Tony awards for her musical comedy performances. Please click here to read past Gwen Verdon reviews and bios.

Video: From the movie, The Merry Widow with, Lana Turner,  Fernando Lamas, and A 26-27 year old, Gwen Verdon. Ms. Verdon, never received screen credit for this performance.

Betty Grable- From the movie: Three for the Show(1955).

From the movie: Three for the Show(1955). Musical comedy remake of Too Many Husbands. It starred actress Betty Grable in her last musical, opposite Jack Lemmon, Gower Champion and Marge Champion.

Is it just me or does this dance number seem like: you took Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees - Who's Got the Pain. Mix them together and whoa la ???

Betty Grable and Gwen Verdon.

Betty Grable and Gwen Verdon dancing in, "No Talent Joe" in "Meet me after the Show".

Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon: "feelin" no pain.

Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees - Who's Got the Pain

Gwen Verdon- Dancer

Gwen Verdon's, family could be described as "show people." Her father was an electrician at the MGM studios and her mother was a former vaudevillian of the Denishawn dance troupe, as well as a dance teacher. As a child, Gwen had rickets, and was called "Gimpy" by other children and spent years in orthopedic boots and leg braces. Ballet training strengthened her legs. By the time she was six, she was dancing on stage. She went on to study dance, ranging from tap, jazz, ballroom and flamenco to Balinese. At age 11, she performed as a solo ballerina in the film The King Steps Out(1936). She then went on to study under balletomane Ernest Belcher and was cast in a revival of Show Boat. Verdon shocked everyone when she abandoned her career in 1942 to elope with reporter James Henaghan. In 1945, she performed as a dancer in the musical The Blond From Brooklyn. Needing to earn a living, Verdon found a job as assistant to choreographer Jack Cole. During her five-year employment with Cole, she took small roles in musicals as a "specialty dancer". She also taught dance to performers such as Jane Russell, Gene Kelly, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. Verdon started out on Broadway going from one chorus line to another. Her breakthrough role came when choreographer Michael Kidd cast her in Cole Porter's musical Can-Can (1953), starring Lilo. Reviews stated that Verdon's performance of Eve in the Garden of Eden ballet upstaged the shows star, who demanded Verdon's role be cut to only two featured dance numbers. With that Verdon wanted to quit the show. But opening night, the audience screamed her name until the actress was brought stage to take a curtain call. Verdon was considered the best dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and '60s. She performed in her next show, Damn Yankees (1955). It was on this show that she first worked with Bob Fosse as her choreographer and fiancee. Another Tony came when Verdon played a role in the musical New Girl in Town. In 1966, Verdon returned to the stage in Sweet Charity. Verdon would also travel to Berlin to help Fosse with Cabaret. Although they became estranged as a couple by this time, Verdon and Fosse continued to work on projects such as Chicago (1975) and the musical Dancin' (1978), as well as Fosse's autobiographical movie All That Jazz (1979). She kept Fosse's trademark choreography alive after Fosse's death in the highly successful Broadway revival of "Chicago" that opened in 1996. Verdon then focused playing character roles in movies such as The Cotton Club (1984), Cocoon (1985) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). She continued to teach dance and musical theater and to act. She receiving three Emmy Award nominations for performances on Magnum PI (1988), Dream On (1993) and Homicide (1993). Verdon performed in the Woody Allen movie Alice (1990) and in Marvin's Room (1996). In 1999, Verdon worked as artistic consultant on a Broadway musical designed to showcase Fosse choreography, called Fosse. Verdon's daughter Nicole received a "special thanks" credit. The show received a Tony for best musical. Verdon played in the movie Walking Across Egypt (1999) and appeared in the film Bruno( 2000) .Verdon received a total of four Tonys, for best supporting actress for Can-Can (1953) and best leading actress for Damn Yankees (1955), New Girl in Town (1957) and Redhead (1959). She also won a Grammy Award for the cast recording of Redhead. In 1998, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

On the Riviera (1951): makes a good impression.

On the Riviera (1951). Musical/comedy. Director: Walter Lang. Producer: Sol C. Siegel from a screenplay by Valentine Davies and Phoebe and Henry Ephron, based on the play The Red Cat by Rudolph Lotharand Hans Adler, with dance sequences choreographed and staged by Jack Cole. This "backstage" musical, all songs occurring as stage performances. The film was to Spotlight Broadway veteran Danny Kaye. This was the third film version of the same story. The original was entitled Folies Bergere (1935) and starred Maurice Chevalier, Merle Oberon and Ann Sothern. The remake in 1941 was That Night in Rio and starred Don Ameche, Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda. This version stars Danny Kaye, Gene Tierney and Corinne Calvet with Marcel Dalio, Henri Letondal, Sig Ruman with uncredited featured dancer Gwen Verdon. It was nominated for two Academy Awards; for Best Music and Best Art Direction Lyle Wheeler, Leland Fuller, Joseph C. Wright, Thomas Little, Walter M. Scott.

The movie is about Jack Martin, an American entertainer who does impressions on the French Riviera stage, he does an impersonation of Henri Duran so well that even Duran's wife is fooled by it. When Duran's business takes him to London when he is supposed to be hosting a party at his home, Martin is hired to impersonate Duran at the party. But things turn for the worse when Martin is confronted by several of the womanizers women and by Duran's business rival, M. Periton .

I'm not really a Kaye fan, but his performance is good in his dual role (he won a Golden Globe award for it). I really did not think it was a funny film, except maybe his typical Kaye moment, in the The Puppet dance number, as he mangles names of animals and flowers. I did enjoy seeing Gwen Verdon in her dance numbers.

FUN FACTS:

The painting of Gene Tierney over the fireplace is, the famous portrait of her from the black-and-white noir classic Laura (1944). It is the only opportunity to see the legendary painting in color.


Essentially a remake of the Don Ameche film That Night in Rio (1941), which itself was a remake of 'Maurice Chavalier (I)''s film Folies-Bergère (1936). All three films were based on a 1934 stage play called "The Red Cat".



Soundtracks:

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"On The Riviera"
Music and Lyrics by Sylvia Fine

"Rhythm Of A New Romance"
Music and Lyrics by Sylvia Fine

"Popo The Puppet"
Music and Lyrics by Sylvia Fine

"Happy Ending"
Music and Lyrics by Sylvia Fine

"Ballin' the Jack"
Music by Chris Smith
Lyrics by Jim Burris
French Lyrics by Andre Touffel
Performed by Danny Kaye