FROM THE ARCHIVES: GENE KELLY & VERA-ELLEN

Gene Kelly's widow Patricia recently posted this telegram from Vera-Ellen to Gene. Such great memorabilia from March 28, 1949...

VERA-ELLEN AND HER DANCING INSTRUCTOR

 Famed MGM dancing instructor Joan Bayley died in 2022 - just shy of her 102nd birthday. Before she died, she gave an interview, which detailed her relationship with the beautiful and talented Vera-Ellen. When asked about Vera-Ellen,  Joan Bayley who worked with the Hollywood dancer on White Christmas if she was a nice girl. “Yes, she was,” replied Joan. “She was not an exciting personality, but she was friendly and sweet.”

I expressed my opinion that Vera-Ellen’s dancing is not my favorite, as something feels missing in her dancing. With exceptions, she never seems to fully put it together. To this, Joan replied,

“Her body was part of it. She was just so thin, it was distasteful to look at. Because, the femurs that go like this, she didn’t have enough muscles or flesh to fill in this part, so there was always this big space, you notice? her legs went like that. There was always that a big space (between her legs), she had these little fat cheeks, she hated it, she would even would suck in … Sometimes you see it on the screen that she would suck in.

“I would do always do a ballet barre with her in the morning, and I’d say to her, “Did you have breakfast?” She would say, “I had coffee.” Lunch would come; she wouldn’t eat lunch. She had a Frenchman who would come and give her French lessons. While we were all eating lunch she was in her trailer, having French lessons. And I’d say, what are you having for dinner? Steak and salad … And the steak was probably as big as my thumb. That woman could dance though...

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: VERA-ELLEN

 Here is an interesting photo. Upon looking at it, it might not mean much to many people. It's a mother and her daughter. However, that daughter would become the wonderful dancer Vera-Ellen. The White Christmas actress was a long way from Hollywood. The picture was taken in 1939, when Vera-Ellen was 18. Her mother Alma was 48...

BEHIND THE SCENES: WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954)

I really love looking at some of these behind the scene photos from classic movies. Most of us have just viewed the end product, but here is some of the film making it took to make the beloved classic White Christmas. As you know this classic musical starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen...

HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES: VERA-ELLEN

In this new feature we will show case stories and memories of classic Hollywood stars...

I am Ileana Rothschild, and Vera Ellen was my aunt by marriage. I was born in 1967 and my mother and I went for my first visit to my aunt Vera’s home on Outpost Cove in Hollywood, CA.My mother became one of her very close friends, and Aunt Vera gave her many of her baby Victoria’s personal items for me.
I know for a fact that Vera never stopped taking dance classes and maintained her slim figure always. 

Vera was an avid swimmer and she took me for my very first swim with her in her beautiful heated pool when I was only one month old.

My mother and Vera stayed good friends and often had dinner together. At times when having dinner at Vera’s home they were accompanied by Vera’s aged mother. At this time Aunt Vera had been recovering from a mild stroke and would use a regimented swimming program as part of her total recovery: but had no eating disorder. My aunt Vera Ellen was a fine loving and kind person with a beautifully toned body, which she always maintained...

SEVEN THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT VERA-ELLEN

 Every year we post a story about Vera-Ellen. Around this time, people start watching her in the 1954 musical White Christmas so it's a good time to remember this talented entertainer. Here are some things you might not have known about her...

1. Although Vera-Ellen only made 14 films, she was paired with all the famous Hollywood dancers of her day: Fred Astaire (Three Little Words; The Belle of New York); Gene Kelly (On the Town); Donald O’Connor (Call Me Madam); and Danny Kaye (White Christmas and others). Her singing voice was usually dubbed (including her numbers in White Christmas).

2. Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney, who famously played sisters in White Christmas, both grew up near Cincinnati. Vera-Ellen was raised in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood, Ohio (making her a “Norwooder” as the locals say). Rosemary was from Maysville, Kentucky, located about an hour southeast of Cincy.

3. As a teen-ager she won the Major Bowes Amateur Hour and toured New York theaters, dancing for $50 a week in the late 1930's. She also toured with the Ted Lewis Band and eventually broke into Broadway musicals, dancing with Ray Bolger in ''By Jupiter'' in 1942 and in the revival of ''A Connecticut Yankee'' in 1943.

4. Her movie career began in 1945, when she appeared with Danny Kaye in Wonder Man.

5. She was a Radio City Rockette (and one of the youngest) but was fired after two weeks because she showed too much individuality on stage.

6. In 1963, her three-month-old daughter died, and she withdrew from public life. “I stopped when I was ahead. I don’t need my work anymore, and I don’t need the applause,” she told a reporter.

7. Victor Rothschild and Vera-Ellen were married for 11 years. They dated for 1 year after getting together in 1953 and married on 13th Nov 1954. 11 years later they divorced in 1966.

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: VERA-ELLEN

Here is a picture of talented dancer Vera-Ellen on her wedding day on November 19, 1954. She was marrying Victor Rothschild, who was an oil man and millionaire. Unfortunately, their marriage would not last. A daughter Victoria, was born on March 3, 1963, but the baby would die tragically on June 20, 1963. The couple were divorced in September of 1966.

This photo did not show the heart ache that would follow after their wedding day...

MOVIE REVIEW: WHITE CHRISTMAS - PART TWO

The song "Snow" was originally written for Call Me Madam with the title "Free," but was dropped in out-of-town tryouts. The melody and some of the words were kept, but the lyrics were changed to be more appropriate for a Christmas movie. The song "What Can You Do with a General?" was originally written for an un-produced project called Stars on My Shoulders.

Trudy Stevens provided the singing voice for Vera-Ellen, who did not have a suitable singing voice. It was not possible to issue an "original soundtrack album" of the film, because Decca Records controlled the soundtrack rights, but Clooney was under exclusive contract with Columbia Records. Consequently, each company issued a separate "soundtrack recording": Decca issuing Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas, while Columbia issued Irving Berlin's White Christmas. On the former, the song "Sisters" (as well as all of Clooney's vocal parts) was recorded by Peggy Lee, while on the latter, the song was sung by Rosemary Clooney and her own sister, Betty.

Berlin wrote "A Singer, A Dancer" for Crosby and his planned co-star Fred Astaire but when he was unavailable, Berlin re-wrote it as "A Crooner – A Comic" for Crosby and Donald O'Connor, but when O'Connor left the project so did the song. Another song written by Berlin for the film was "Sittin' in the Sun (Countin' My Money)" but because of delays in production, Berlin decided to publish it independently.] Crosby and Kaye also recorded another Berlin song ("Santa Claus") for the opening WWII Christmas Eve show scene, but it was not used in the final film. Their recording of the song survives though, and the song is cute but not great.

One of the greatest moments of the film is a bit Bing and Danny Kaye did off the cuff. According to Rosemary Clooney, Bing and Danny’s “Sisters” performance was not originally in the script. They were clowning around on the set, and director Michael Curtiz thought it was so funny that he decided to film it. In the scene, Crosby’s laughs are genuine and unscripted, and he was unable to hold a straight face. Clooney said the filmmakers had a better take where Crosby didn’t laugh, but the version with Crosby laughing was one that they used.

I find myself always comparing White Christmas to Holiday Inn, and I think that is unfair. The movies were done a decade apart and movie musicals were much different in 1954 than 1942. I prefer Holiday Inn, but I have a much better appreciation for White Christmas now that I have seen the film in a move theater. From the understated performance of Dean Jagger as the retired general to the superb dancing of Vera-Ellen to the banter of Crosby and Kaye, White Christmas is really a great film. Yes, the film is sentimental and cheesy at times. While I went to see the film in a theater my wife and kids ran errands, and I am glad. I had tears in eyes at the end when the general was recognized and realized he was not forgotten. I think that is a sign of a great movie that a movie made more than 60 years ago can still evoke emotion in 2017. At the end of the movie screening, the audience stood up and applauded, and I smiled to myself and thought of what a great Christmas gift this film was and is. Thanks again Bing!

MY RATING: 10 OUT OF 10

MOVIE REVIEW: WHITE CHRISTMAS - PART ONE

I had the the great opportunity to see 1954’s White Christmas in a movie theater a couple of days before Christmas in 2017. I actually fulfilled one of my bucket list items by seeing a Bing Crosby movie in a theater. I had never had the pleasure of seeing one like that before. I have to admit that White Christmas has never been my favorite Crosby film. I thought the story was contrite, and I did not care for the pairing of Bing with funny man Danny Kaye. However, upon seeing this movie in the theater, I have a completely new appreciation for the film.

The beloved classic that everyone watches during the holiday season is a lot different from what was proposed in the beginning. At first, Bing Crosby turned down the role due to the recent death of his wife Dixie Lee. However, Bing knew working on a musical with Irving Berlin tunes was destined to be a hit so he signed. Bing had co-star approval, and had wanted Fred Astaire for the role of his Army buddy. Crosby and Astaire had previously starred in Holiday Inn (1942) and Blue Skies (1946) earlier. Astaire read the script, but he then turned it down. The last movie that Astaire had made for Paramount was the 1950 disastrous musical Let’s Dance with Betty Hutton, and by 1954 Astaire was really being choosy on what roles he was accepting at that point. Next Bing wanted to work with dancer Donald O’ Connor again. Donald had played Bing’s younger brother in an earlier Paramount musical Sing You Sinners in 1938, and Bing and Donald had work together on radio shows since then. O’Connor was all set to be in the film, until he broke his ankle right before film rehearsals were set to begin. This sent Paramount scrambling, and they came up with the idea of pairing Bing with comedian Danny Kaye.

Even though Kaye was third choice for the film, he had this to say about Bing:

"I loved to work with him. I had the feeling he was my close personal friend. The real truth is that everybody knows Bing, but no one knows him. Through the years, he has created a legendary character that is so vivid, no one knows where the legend begins and the real Crosby leaves off. I thought I knew Bing--thought I knew all about him until we started to make White Christmas. Then I realized I actually didn't know the man at all. The truth of the matter is, there isn't a lazy bone in Bing's body. He works harder than any man I've met--but he does it with an easy casualness that makes him look lazy." (The Danny Kaye Story pg 198).

The movie plot, as flimsy as it may be, does has some serious overtones. By 1954, World War II had been over for almost a decade, and the film touches on what happens to soldiers after the fighting is over. Like many of Irving Berlin’s movie musicals, the plot of White Christmas is basically a vehicle to move from song to song. Many of Berlin’s standards are present like “Blue Skies”, “Heat Wave”, “Abraham” and of course the title song that was sung in the first minutes of the movie by Bing, and then by the group at the end. The new songs that Berlin wrote for the film were good but not up to par with the songs he was writing two decades earlier. My favorite of these new songs was the torchy number “Love You Didn’t Do Right For Me” which was sung in the movie by Rosemary Clooney. Other new songs like “Snow” and “Sisters” have also become standards....  TO BE CONTINUED...

GUEST REVIEW: WHITE CHRISTMAS

Bruce Kogan is back with a review of the yuletide classic White Christmas...

By 1954 the song White Christmas had become such a timeless classic that it was inevitable that a film would be made around it. And of course the star would be none other than Bing Crosby. But who to star with him.

Originally this was to be the third Irving Berlin outing for Bing and Fred Astaire. Then Donald O'Connor was to co-star, but finally Danny Kaye teamed with Der Bingle. Proved to be a felicitous combination.

By then Rosemary Clooney had worked in a few films well and more importantly, she had clicked with Crosby on the radio. Bing had teamed with several girl singers over the years, like Connee Boswell, Frances Langford, Mary Martin, Trudy Erwin, Carole Richards, Peggy Lee and a trio of sisters named Andrews. But he always said Rosemary Clooney was it for him and besides Mary Martin, the only other one who did became a leading lady for him.

It's not remembered because of the success of her solo career, but Rosemary Clooney started as a duo with her sister Betty who retired early to raise a family. So with Vera-Ellen as her sister in the movie, that was an aspect of the plot Rosemary could handle with ease.

The plot such as it is involves Bing and Danny as a song and dance duo who've expanded into the production end of show business. Through a little bit of a con game worked by Vera Ellen, the two meet a singing sister act like the Clooney sisters were. The sisters turn out to be headed to Vermont to work at a resort and the smitten guys go along with them.

Problem is there ain't any snow there. It's an unheard of 68 degrees Fahrenheit in early December. And the place is owned by Crosby and Kaye's former commander from World War II, played by Dean Jagger. He's about to lose his shirt and his pride. So our intrepid quartet go to work.

Irving Berlin's score for White Christmas is about half new songs and the other half from previous scores. That's how it was when you got Irving to work for you. Listen carefully even to the background music. You will not hear one note of a non-Berlin song.

One of those songs was a personal favorite of mine, Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep. I recall in grade school in Brooklyn it was a song that the teachers had us sing in the school assemblies. Little did I know that it was introduced by the guy who proved to be my favorite entertainer. It's a patented philosophical Bing Crosby song that he did best and it serves as a ballad to woo and win Rosie. Bing sings it and then Rosie joins him in the reprise.

Danny Kaye has two good numbers. The first The Best Things Happen While Your Dancing is clearly originally for Fred Astaire, though Kaye and Vera Ellen make a lovely couple on the dance floor. The Choreography number I think was also done for Astaire, but here dancer John Brascia does the complicated dance routine while Kaye sings. I'm sure Astaire would have handled both jobs had the film been made with him.

All the stars do the Minstrel Show/Mandy number, but Vera Ellen really shines in it. She was a great dancer, really sparkled in every film she did.

Besides Sisters, Rosemary Clooney has a grand torch ballad that sold a few platters for her in Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me. She had a wonderful singing voice and the most impeccable diction of any female singer ever. You don't miss one throbbing word on any of her ballads.

White Christmas was Paramount's first film done in their wide screen process called VistaVision. And of course it was proper that their number one star for over 20 years be in this film. Of course jokes about Bing's derrière and the wide screen got into the repertoire of a certain comedian named Hope.

Just like the song that inspired it, White Christmas has proved to be a timeless holiday classic and will remain so...

BRUCE'S RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

MY RATING: 10 OUT OF 10

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: VERA-ELLEN AND HER LEADING MEN

Vera-Ellen only made 14 movies in her short Hollywood career, but every minute of the screen moment that was captured of her was memorable. Here are some great pictures of some of her leading men and friends that she worked with...

with Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby

with Gene Kelly

with Donald O'Connor

with Caesar Romero

with Rock Hudson

with Edward G. Robinson

MY FIVE FAVORITE VERA-ELLEN FILMS

As a lifelong fans of movie musicals, I have always loved the dancing in movies. Vera-Ellen was never my favorite dancer growing up. (Eleanor Powell was always my favorite.) However as I get older I have come to really appreciate the movies of Vera-Ellen more. Here are my five favorite Vera-Ellen musicals...

5. THE BELLE OF NEW YORK (1952)
Set in turn-of-the-century New York, wealthy playboy Charles Hill (Fred Astaire) falls in love with Angela (Vera-Ellen) a Salvation Army worker. The plot is slight but the musical numbers are top notch. The highlights was the musical number "Baby Doll" , which was sung by Astaire and danced by Astaire and Vera-Ellen with much emphasis  on twirling motifs and platform work and "Naughty But Nice", which was sung by ghost singer Anita Ellis but danced beautifully by Vera. The film lost money in its initial release, but it is a cute movie.

4. THREE LITTLE WORDS (1950)

This film was a "biography" of songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Fred Astaire played Kalmar and Red Skelton played Ruby. Vera-Ellen's role was not great, but he played Fred Astaire's wife in this fictional biography. The best number was 'Where Did You Get That Girl" which was danced by Astaire and Vera-Ellen. It was the highlight of the film and most of the other numbers went to Fred Astaire and Red Skelton. Another number not to miss was "Come On Papa". It was another high-kicking song and dance routine, this time for Vera-Ellen though!

3. WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954)

This film is the movie that Vera is most remembered for. It also was her last big movie musical appearance, which is a pity. Vera got the chance to perform some great Irving Berlin numbers, and she never looked lovelier dancing to Berlin songs like: "Abraham" and "Mandy". The film belonged to Bing Crosby, but Vera-Ellen was great as Rosemary Clooney's sister and Danny Kaye's love interest. Vera and Danny Kaye had a beautiful musical dancing to a newer Irving Berlin song "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing". The movie was a great end to a short movie musical career.

2.WORDS AND MUSIC (1948)

This film was another musical biography that MGM was famous for. This time it was the life story of composers Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. It is sad that Vera-Ellen is only in the movie for one number, but it was one of the greatest dances ever captured on film. Vera dances with Gene Kelly to the classic number "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue". The movie is basically fiction but the appearance that Vera makes in the film is definitely the best part of the film.

1. ON THE TOWN (1949)

Set in New York City, this classic movie musical probably featured Vera-Ellen the most. The whole film is spent with three soldiers (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin) trying to find Miss Turnstiles (Vera). I am not a big ballet fan, but I love the "Miss Turnstiles Ballet" (an instrumental number from Leonard Bernstein's score). Vera's dance numbers in the movie tended to be more of a ballet orgin, but the dances were flawless. Although Vera appeared with Fred Astaire and Danny Kaye in a lot of movies, I think the screen chemistry of Vera and Gene Kelly were the best. Vera possessed that athletic and enthusiastic dancing ability that Gene Kelly possessed.

THE LAST DAYS OF VERA-ELLEN

With the internet, I get a lot of spam and junk email. I nearly deleted an email I got from an address I didn't recognize. However, I read it, and it was from someone who had read one of my stories about the great Vera-Ellen. It was more than just a fan, it was a nurse that took care of Vera while the dancer was a patient at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center when Vera-Ellen died on August 30, 1981. I was still skeptical at this email, but I called the medical center and verified this nurse worked there. She did not want me to publish her name, even though she retired from the hospital in 2002. She got to know Vera-Ellen briefly...

QUESTION: Many people say Vera-Ellen was a recluse in her final years, so people have no clue what Vera-Ellen was like when she got older. What was she like when you knew her?

NURSE: I didn't meet Vera until she was diagnosed with cancer a few months before she died. She was quiet and petite, and she had the most beautiful eyes

QUESTION: There has been rumors that Vera-Ellen suffered from anorexia. Do you know if there is any truth of this?

NURSE: When I was assigned to be her nurse, I got to look at her file. At the time, around 1981, she was not suffering from anorexia, but her medical history did mention she suffered from anorexia when she was younger.

QUESTION: How was Vera during her final days?

NURSE: I was on vacation when Vera died so I did not see her on her final days. However, the other nurses say she died peacefully in her sleep. She was highly sedated on her final days, but she was a very sweet and kind woman.


QUESTION: Did Vera ever talk about her days in Hollywood?

NURSE: If you would not know who she was, you would never have known she was a Hollywood star or even in the movies. The only thing that she got in the hospital was a bouquet of flowers from a Fred. We later learned they were from Fred Astaire.


QUESTION: What do you remember most about Vera?

NURSE: What I remember most is she seemed a little sad. However, no matter how bad she was feeling, to the end she would ask how I was and what was going on in my life? I have had a few other famous people as my patients, but Vera-Ellen was the nicest and sweetest...

THE BELLE OF NEW YORK: A 1952 REVIEW

To start off our month of Vera-Ellen, here is the original review of the forgotten Vera-Ellen/Fred Astaire gem The Belle of New York (1952). This was written by Bosley Crowther and appeared in the NY Times of  March 6, 1952...

Add to the list of young ladies who have danced on the screen with Fred Astaire the name of Vera-Ellen and mark it with a star. For this agile and twinkling charmer, who accompanies the ageless Mr. A. in his latest if not his greatest Metro musical, "The Belle of New York," is as graceful and pleasing a dancer as any that has gone before, and she adds a considerable presence to this trifle at Loew's State.

And, believe us, a presence is needed, in addition to that of Mr. A., for little of any marked distinction is in evidence, outside the two stars. A couple of bright production numbers, including a series of Currier & Ives tableaux that have a beguiling sparkle in the Technicolor used; a couple of Johnny Mercer lyrics, attached to some Harry Warren tunes, and that is about the total—outside of Vera-Ellen and Mr. A. If it weren't for them and their dancing, "The Belle of New York" would be kaput.

As it is, the two nimble performers have just about all they can do to keep this slight musical moving for the brief hour and twenty minutes that it runs. Somehow the script about a playboy who falls wildly and buoyantly in love with a prim hallelujah singer on the sidewalks of gaslit New York is so thin and dramatically boneless that it couldn't possibly move from here to there on the strength of the trifling complications with which it is barely endowed or the mild incidental assistance of Keenan Wynn. Alice Pearce and Marjorie Main.

And so Director Charles Walters desperately calls upon his stars to remedy the vast emaciation with the frequent use of their muscular limbs, to which enterprise of salvation they apply themselves with a will. Together they cut some darling figures in those Currier & Ives tableaux, directed by Robert Alton in a cutely exaggerated style. A game of old-fashioned badminton is burlesqued with delicacy and grace and a gay figure-dance on an ice pond is actually done by the two on skates. Together they also scamper to a nice tune called "Baby Doll" and frolic all over a horse-car to a frivolous jingle called "Oops!"

It is separately, however, that they deliver their best, to our taste—as if vyeing with one another in pedal dexterity. Mr. A. gets first go with a dizzying and reminiscent tap, in top hat and tails, while perched precariously atop the Arch in Washington Square. That is put in the shade by Vera-Ellen when she does a delicious pantomime, in opera-length hose and ruffled scanties, to the tune of "Naughty But Nice." And just when you're starting to pity the old master for being outclassed Mr. A. pops back in a honey of a soft-shoe sand dance that takes the prize. The title of the tune to which he does it? With pleasure: "I Wanna Be a Dancin' Man!"

But again, as we say, there's little cooking but Vera-Ellen and Mr. Astaire in this handsomely costumed, brightly lighted, dramatically empty film. Punning upon the nursery jingle, "The Belle of New York" has only toes.

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COMING SOON: A MONTH OF VERA-ELLEN

Each Christmas time when the 1954 classic White Christmas movie is shown I am re-introduced to dancer Vera-Ellen. Her grace and talent is in every movie she made. It is unfortunate that she hasn't made more movies. For the month of December, all of our articles will feature the underrated dancer Vera-Ellen (1921-1981).

We have a lot of special stories planned from movies reviews and rare photos to a rare interview with one of the last people to have known Vera-Ellen. I hope December will be a special month - not only for the holiday season, but for the remembrances of Vera-Ellen. She was one of the most remarkable dancers of Broadway and Hollywood...

FINAL RESTING PLACES: VERA-ELLEN

Vera-Ellen is best remembered for her role of 'Judy Haynes' in the movie, "White Christmas" (1954), playing opposite fellow actors Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney. Born Vera-Ellen Westmeyer Rohe in Norwood, Ohio, she began dancing at the age of ten, and within a few years, became one of the youngest Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and a Broadway dancer.

In 1945, she was spotted by film producer Samuel Goldwyn and invited to Hollywood, where she was cast opposite Danny Kaye in "Wonder Man" (1945). There she earned a reputation as a hard worker. She would also dance with Gene Kelly in "On the Town" (1949) and with Fred Astaire in "Three Little Words" (1950). 

She married twice, first to fellow actor and dancer Robert Hightower (1945 to 1948) and then to millionaire Victor Rothschild (1954 to 1966); both marriages ended in divorce. She would also date Rock Hudson for three years, but this was a publicity event orchestrated by his agent, yet they remained good friends for years after. After her success in "White Christmas", the motion picture industry decided to make fewer musicals, and it did not consider her for non-dancing roles. To keep her weight down, Vera-Ellen also became anorexic, which caused premature aging, and expressed itself mostly in her upper body and neck (this eventually came out as the explaination as to why she always covered her neck in "White Christmas"). 

In addition, her only child and daughter, Victoria Ellen Rothschild, died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 1963. Her last film, "Let's Be Happy", was made in 1957, and she then retired from public life. She continued to dance, in part to fight the arthritis she suffered later from. She would die of cancer in Los Angeles, California. Author David Soren wrote a book, "Vera-Ellen: the Magic and the Mystery," about her life; it was published by McGraw-Hill Press.

Her mother, Alma Catherine Westmeier Rohe died a year before Vera did in 1980 at the age of 89. Her 2nd husband remarried after their divorce. Victor Bennett Rothschild died in 2008 at the age of 85. Vera-Ellen is buried in a modest grave at Glen Haven Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California...

WHITE CHRISTMAS: A 1954 REVIEW

White Christmas is considered a holiday classic today, over 60 years after it was originally in movie theaters. I thought it would be interesting to see what critics thought of the film when it was new in 1954. Here is a review by Bosley Crowther that appeared in the New York Times of October 15, 1954...

IT was twelve years ago that Bing Crosby was in a place and a film called "Holiday Inn," wherein he sang a little number tagged "White Christmas," written—as was all the music in that picture—by Irving Berlin. The occasion was happily historic, for a reason we scarcely need recall: "White Christmas" and Mr. Crosby became like "God Bless America" and Kate Smith—so much so, indeed, that the notion of starring Mr. Crosby in a film that would have the title "White Christmas" was broached as long as six years ago.

Various obstructions beset it, but the purpose was ultimately achieved. "White Christmas," with Mr. Crosby, opened yesterday at the Music Hall. What's more, it is in Technicolor and VistaVision, which is Paramount's new wide-screen device, and it has Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen in addition to its focal star. A new batch of Irving Berlin numbers comprises its musical score. Paramount, to put it simply, has done "White Christmas" up brown.

But, oddly enough, the confection is not so tasty as one might suppose. The flavoring is largely in the line-up and not in the output of the cooks. Everyone works hard at the business of singing, dancing and cracking jokes, but the stuff that they work with is minor. It doesn't have the old inspiration and spark.

For one thing, the credited scriptwriters—Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank—have shown very little imagination in putting together what is sometimes called the "book." They have hacked out a way of getting two teams of entertainers—a pair of celebrated male hoofers and a singing sister act—to a ski lodge in New England (reminiscent of the Holiday Inn) which happens to be run by the good old general of the outfit the fellows Were in during the war. And to show their appreciation of the good old general and the difficult circumstances he appears to be in, they provide free entertainment and call in a big rally of comrades for the Christmas holidays.

It is a routine accumulation of standard romance and sentiment, blessed by a few funny set-ups that are usually grabbed with most effect by Mr. Kaye. And the music of Mr. Berlir is a good bit less than inspired Outside of the old "White Christmas," which is sung at the beginning and the end, there are only a couple of numbers that have a measure of charm. One of these is "Count Your Blessings," a song of reassurance that Mr. Crosby and Miss Clooney chant, and another is "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing," which Mr. Kaye sings and to which he and Vera-Ellen cavort.

Three numbers are given over to the admiration of generals and Army life, which seems not alone an extravagance but a reckless audacity. Even the sweetness of Dean Jagger as the old general does not justify the expense. Someone's nostalgia for the war years and the U. S. O. tours has taken the show awry.

Fortunately, the use of VistaVision, which is another process of projecting on a wide, flat screen, has made it possible to endow "White Christmas" with a fine pictorial quality. The colors on the big screen are rich and luminous, the images are clear and sharp, and rapid movements are got without blurring—or very little—such as sometimes is seen on other large screens. Director Michael Curtiz has made his picture look good. It is too bad that it doesn't hit the eardrums and the funnybone with equal force...

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