REVISITING  SUPERSTARS AND LEGENDS BY MAXIMILLIEN DE LAFAYETTE

ANN MILLER

She Was #1 In The World...

 

 What breaks my heart is the fatal blow of death that takes away from me, the people I love and admire. Our biggest enemy is not communism or absurd intellectualism, radical fanaticism or arrogant vanity, but DEATH ITSELF. The fact that we will never see again the face of  our beloved friends, family members and buddies who left us for ever kills me. And how silly is the human race that waits for such tragic loss to immortalize or remember such outstanding human beings. People like Ida Lupino, my wonderful friends Simone Signoret and Melina Mercouri, Maria Felix, and now Ann Miller...

The star of forty motion pictures and Broadway shows, national tours and innumerable television appearances, Ann Miller has been tap dancing since her earliest childhood days. Ann began her Hollywood career at age eleven, and with her vibrant personality, great legs and her tap dancing, won a seven year contract with R.K.O. at the age of thirteen (claiming to be eighteen). She was so remarkable that by age fourteen, she played Ginger Roger's dancing partner in "Stage Door", which started a Motion Picture Career that spanned 20 years. During that period, Ann appeared in more than 40 films. At fifteen, Ann was "borrowed" by Columbia to appear with James Stewart and Jean Arthur in "You Can't Take It With You" which won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1938. That same year, back at R.K.O., she appeared with the Marx Brothers in "Room Service". She left R.K.O. and starred on Broadway in the George White Scandals of 1939 and 1940. Following her initial contract with R.K.O., Ann came back to appear in the Rogers and Hart musical, "Too Many Girls". She went on to make twelve movies in six years at Columbia Studios. She was borrowed by Republic Studio to star in Gene Autry's first musical "Melody Ranch" in 1940 and "Hit Parade" of 1941. Ann Miller was then signed by MGM where, from the late forties to the mid fifties, she starred in some of MGM's most spectacular musical productions, as well as, in films where she played straight acting roles. These memorable musicals included "Easter Parade" which featured her dancing with Fred Astaire and "On The Town" with Gene Kelly. Ann appeared in top notch form in the role of Bianca, in what is considered her finest film for MGM, "Kiss Me Kate". Several of Ann Miller's legendary dance and song routines were featured in "That's Dancing" and the popular retrospective films "That's Entertainment I", and "That's Entertainment 11". In 1994 she was the hostess for the Fred Astaire segment of "That's Entertainment III which also featured some of her dance numbers. For years, MGM was proud to have the outgoing, charming and articulate Ann Miller represent them around the world on speaking engagements, and personal appearances as a most effective Good Will Ambassador.

At the end of her MGM contract she flew overseas to Morocco to entertain on the Timex TV Hour for Bob Hope. She sang and danced "Too Darn Hot" in 120 degrees heat entertaining rive thousand soldiers. She was an incredible success as she took over the role of "Mamell on Broadway from 1969 to 1970 and has been acclaimed for her fantastic performance with Mickey Rooney in "Sugar Babies" for nine years, which played for three years (1979-1982) on Broadway, and then toured the country for four and one-half years. She and Mickey both appeared for six months on the London stage in 1989. Ann appears frequently on television interview shows including Sally Jessy Raphael, Phil Donahue, David Letterman, Joan Rivers and the Vickie Lawrence show. In 1994 she appeared on the Conan O'Brien and Tom Snyder shows. Her sparkling wit and humor made her a delightful guest. She has appeared as a guest star in numerous television shows including a special with Ann Margaret in "Dames at Sea" and a two hour version of the "Love Boat" with Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and Van Johnson. Ann did a straight acting stint as a guest star on the situation comedy called "Out of This World" in 1991 and appeared as a guest star on the hit series "Home Improvement" in 1993 with Tim Allen. Ann Miller is the recipient of many awards. Among them the Best Legs Award from the Hall of Fame. The George M. Cohen award for the best female entertainer in 1980 and the prestigious Sarah Siddons award for best performer of the year for "Sugar Babies" in 1984. She was also nominated for a Tony award for "Sugar Babies" and a also a nominee for the Laurence Olivier award in London in 1989 for "Sugar Babies" She was just honored on "This is Your Life" television show in England, which included twenty stars who came to honor her.

 

FOLLOW UP...

And following the publication of this article,  a tragic piece on the legendary Ann Miller appeared on the pages of the New York social diary. Here it is

Ann Miller, the dancing star of Hollywood musicals from the 1930s through the 1960s died in Los Angeles last week. I knew her in the 1980s through our mutual friend Hermes Pan who was the first man to give her a job in pictures – at RKO in 1936. They were lifelong friends after that. He called her Annie Crow because she claimed to be part Cherokee, and she in turn called him “Bear.” Pan’s voice often rumbled with laughter when he talked about “Ann Miller” as he’d refer to her. She told him when he hired her that she was only fourteen. He didn’t really (ever) believe her. But he laughed and accepted it. He admired her drive and indefatigability. She was a naturally funny lady on stage and off. The dumb blonde syndrome (although she was always raven haired); dumb like a fox, a mixture of show-biz smarts, (street smarts really), over-the-rainbow naiveté and an intense commitment to her job. It was Pan who first suggested she rip off her skirt as she went into her dance – a move she repeated many times on screen. She became famous to her audience for her tap-tap whirling-dervish twirls. These often produced amusement for her choreographer as well as thrills for her audience. When she was at MGM, she had had plastic surgery to change the shape of her nose. The result was less than flattering and reduced the size too much, so that when she was filming, the make-up artist had to apply a temporary piece to make the nose more photogenic. During the shooting of a dance sequence for Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me Kate,” (which was filmed in 3-D), Miller went into one of her twirls and the nosepiece went flying off right into the camera.

Photo: Ann Miller in Kiss Me Kate.

She went to work at a very young age to support herself and her mother to whom she was devoted all her life. A number of girls of Miller’s generation who became film stars were very close to their mothers who often ruled with an iron hand – which is where those girls got a lot of the discipline it took to maintain a career. (There were enough of these “mothers” to have formed a “club” during the 1940s and 50s when the mothers would meet a couple of times a month.) Ann Miller was married three times, all never for more than a year or two. The husbands were all wealthy but somehow they all cost her. She got pregnant by the first, Reese Milner, a wealthy Los Angeles oilman. Milner had a legendary temper, so vile that he eventually ended up behind bars. He was also an alcoholic.

One night in the bedroom of their Holmby Hills mansion, when Miller’s pregnancy was close to term, the couple got into a quarrel (although it’s impossible to imagine Ann Miller ever having a fight with anybody). Milner picked up a gun and threatened to shoot his wife. She ran and he shot. Bang-bang. She was able to dodge the bullets by making a fast exit down the grand staircase. He missed (the bullets ended up lodged in the wall next to the staircase).*