Ann Miller

 ( 1923 Births ) 

Miller was put in dance classes at the age of five in an attempt to strengthen her legs after suffering from rickets. She came to be considered a child dance child prodigy. In a documentary on the making of the compilation film That's Entertainment! Part III (1994), she said that Eleanor Powell was an early inspiration.

When Miller was nine, her parents divorced, reportedly due to her father's infidelities. Miller later noted that her father "wasn't a very good dad." After the divorce, her mother and she moved to Los Angeles, but her mother struggled to find work due to deafness. Because Miller appeared much older than her true age, she began to work as a dancer in nightclubs and supported her mother. She adopted the stage name Ann Miller, which she kept throughout her career.

While working at Bal Tabarin, Miller was discovered by Lucille Ball and talent scout/comic Benny Rubin. This led to a contract with RKO Pictures, who also believed that Miller was 18. When RKO discovered her true age later, Miller's father provided a fake birth certificate with the name Lucy Ann Collier.

Miller had small appearances for RKO in New Faces of 1937 (1937) and The Life of the Party (1937). Her first major role came as Ginger Rogers’ dancing partner in Gregory La Cava’s Stage Door in 1937.

In 1938 and 1939, Miller was a supporting actress in many of the studio's films, such as Radio City Revels, Having Wonderful Time, Room Service, Tarnished Angel, and most notably as the quirky Essie Carmichael in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You (made at Columbia). Her last film at RKO was Too Many Girls (1940).

In 1939, Miller made her Broadway theatre debut in George White's Scandals of 1939. She remained at RKO until 1940.

Miller was famed for her speed in tap dance. Studio publicists drafted press releases claiming that she could tap 500 times per minute, but because the stage floors were waxed and too slick for regular tap shoes, she had to dance in shoes with rubber treads on the soles. Then, like all other film dancers of the time -- including Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, Gene Kelly, etc., -- she would then loop or 'dub' the sound of the taps while watching the film and dance on a "tap board" to match her steps in the film.

In later life, Miller claimed to have invented pantyhose in the 1940s as a solution to the continual problem of torn stockings during the filming of dance-production numbers. The common practice had been to sew hosiery to briefs, and if torn, the entire garment had to be removed and resewn with a new pair. Miller asked a hosiery maker to produce a single combined garment.

In 1941, Miller signed with Columbia Pictures starring in 11 B movie musicals from 1941 to 1945, beginning with Time Out for Rhythm with Rudy Vallee. Miller followed it with Go West, Young Lady (1941), True to the Army (1942), Priorities on Parade (1942), Reveille with Beverly (1943), What's Buzzin', Cousin? (1943), Hey, Rookie (1943), Sailor's Holiday (1944), Jam Session (1944), Carolina Blues (1945), Eadie Was a Lady (1945), and Eve Knew Her Apples (1945), a musical remake of It Happened One Night. In July 1945, Miller posed in a bathing suit as a Yank pin-up girl. She ended her contract in 1946 with one A film, The Thrill of Brazil. An advertisement for the film in Life featured Miller's leg in a stocking tied with a large red bow as the "T" in "Thrill."

During her tenure at MGM, Miller usually appeared as the secondary female lead in musical films such as The Kissing Bandit (1948), On the Town (1949), Watch the Birdie with Red Skelton, Texas Carnival (1951) with Esther Williams, Two Tickets to Broadway (1951), Lovely to Look At (1952), Small Town Girl (1953), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Deep in My Heart (1954), Hit the Deck (1955), and The Opposite Sex (1956). Her last MGM film was a flop non-musical comedy The Great American Pastime (1956).

In May 1969, Miller made a comeback on Broadway when she took over the title role in the musical Mame, dancing a tap number created for her. Miller remained in the role until the show closed in January 1970. The following year, she headlined a television production of Dames at Sea alongside Ann-Margret for NBC.

She also appeared in an iconic television commercial for "The Great American Soup" (created by Stan Freberg), in which she rose through the floor atop an eight-foot-high cylinder designed to resemble a giant soup can. The advertisement was intended as a spectacular song-and-dance number in the tradition of the musicals in which she had starred.

Miller began touring with theater productions such as Hello, Dolly! and Panama Hattie. In 1979, she appeared in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. The duo toured the country extensively after the show's Broadway run. In 1983, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre, On May 1, 1989, at the age of 66, Miller sang and tap-danced to "42nd Street" at the opening of the Disney MGM Studios, her last live dance performance.

Miller appeared in a special 1982 episode of The Love Boat, joined by fellow showbiz legends Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Della Reese, Van Johnson, and Cab Calloway in a storyline that cast them as older relatives of the show's regular characters. Miller also published two books. Her first was an autobiography, Miller's High Life (1972).

During her marriage to Milner, Miller became pregnant. During her last trimester, Milner threw her down a flight of stairs, breaking her back and causing her to experience premature labor. Her baby, Mary, lived only three hours on November 12, 1946. Miller filed for divorce shortly after. She alleged that her second husband was also abusive.

by [[Ned Scott]]