MITZI GAYNOR |
"Mother Made Me Sexy"
screamed a headline in "Movieland" in May 1956. That same month
"Screen Stars" excitedly declared "Suddenly She's Sexy!"
They were both referring to Mitzi Gaynor, who had been sexy for quite
some time but had not always publicised the fact. By 1956 things
were different. Mitzi was playing the pin-up game!
In the 1950s, several movie actresses who originally had not aspired to be glamour girls found it expedient to be photographed in pin-up poses. Some, like Shirley Jones, dipped a toe in the water cautiously. Mitzi Gaynor jumped in the deep end. Like Betty Grable, Mitzi had a pleasant face of no more than ordinary prettiness and exceptionally good legs. Mitzi also had a sexy body. She was well equipped to be a pin-up.
Mitzi was born Francesca Marlene von Gerber in 1931. Her father was a Hungarian musician and her mother a ballroom dancer. Mitzi's parents toured the United States, giving performances in the evening and giving Mitzi dancing lessons by day. Apparently Mitzi was an accomplished dancer by the age of eleven. During her mid-teens, Edwin Lester signed her to dance with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. Mitzi appeared in revivals of musicals like "The Great Waltz" and "Roberta"
Eventually her work was noticed by 20th Century Fox who gave her a role in "My Blue Heaven" when Mitzi was still in her teens. "My Blue Heaven" was one of Betty Grable's lesser movies, and told how she found to her surprise that she is pregnant after she and her radio partner husband (Dan Dailey) have adopted a child.
For three years Mitzi was
kept busy in small, undistinguished movies that today have almost
disappeared. None of the films was highly regarded when first released, nor
did they make much money, but
they allowed Mitzi to demonstrate that she was a good singer,
a very good dancer, and quite a good actress. She starred in some of these movies, and she received good personal
notices for all of them. The general assessment of Mitzi during this
period was that she was talented, unspoiled and lively. This impression was
carried over to her publicity.
Although some photographs of Mitzi in swimsuits were released in the early 1950s, most pictures of Mitzi either showed her dancing frenetically or suggested that she was little more than a child. Magazine articles about her at this time did not suggest that she was glamorous or sexy. They emphasised her family life and her exuberance. "People Today" featured Mitzi on its front cover in October 1952 with the headline "More Bounce To The Ounce".
1954 was a turning point in Mitzi's career. Her contract with 20th Century Fox was not renewed, and her string of movies came to an abrupt end. She also married publicist Jack Bean that year and set about changing her public image.
In 1954 Mitzi declared in interviews that she was not the girl next door after all. She admitted she was on a diet, using a masseur and taking exercises to improve her appearance. Glamour photographs of Mitzi in revealing costumes began to appear in pin-up magazines. These pictures did not suggest that Mitzi was a boisterous youngster: they proved she was a fully grown woman. In February she was on the cover of "People Today". The slogan said she "clowns her way to stardom", but the picture showed a full-bodied Mitzi in an off-the-shoulder garment. The April issue of "Preview" displayed on its cover a calm and poised Mitzi in a low-cut cocktail dress against the slogan "Sex: made to order in Hollywood". In December the front cover of "Tempo" showed a startling photograph of Mitzi in an extremely revealing dress. Mitzi's pin-up period was now in full swing. 20th Century Fox refined the process for the publicity of "There's No Business Like Show Business". Photographs of a very womanly Mitzi with well-rounded shoulders and a raised, elegant hair style were released. They were a taste of things to come.
"There's No Business Like Show Business" was Mitzi's final movie under her Fox contract. She was billed last of the six leading players and was given the least material to work with. (Marilyn Monroe's star was rising, and she was given three solo numbers plus a romantic relationship on which the plot turned.) Nevertheless, Mitzi matched her three ultra-professional, hyper-talented colleagues (Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey and Donald O'Connor) step for step, note for note, comic reaction for comic reaction. She also equalled Marilyn Monroe in sex appeal. Why were 20th Century Fox letting her go?
Joan Collins, who was a Fox
contract artist a few years later, tells in one of her autobiographies that
it was established policy at Fox to drop actresses once they were
in their mid-twenties unless they were proven successes at the box office.
Also, the
commercial viability of musicals was already being questioned in Hollywood. With the benefit of hindsight, Fox's decision is understandable;
short-sighted, but understandable.
Apart from a minor western, "Three Young Texans", where Mitzi was top-billed over Jeffrey Hunter, there was a lull of almost two years before her film career re-started.
Mitzi may have left 20th Century Fox, but their refinement of her glamour poses remained with her. Previously her pin-up photographs had included lavish displays of cleavage, but now Mitzi's necklines were always modest. Often she was pictured in form-fitting dance costumes which clearly outlined her figure as well as showing her legs, but Mitzi no longer competed in the cleavage stakes. From now on Mitzi's glamour pictures concentrated on her legs and her shoulders.
In 1956 Mitzi worked with Donald O'Connor again and Bing Crosby in an unsatisfying version of "Anything Goes" which, in the usual Hollywood manner, incorporated new songs, none of which has survived. The screenplay was unimaginative and the song and dance numbers, although quite well done, lack energy and excitement. Unlike the movie itself, Mitzi again received good notices and suddenly she was in demand. 20th Century Fox themselves wanted Mitzi back for "The Best Things In Life Are Free" which she turned down. (When she saw the "Birth Of The Blues" routine between Sheree North and Jacques D' Amboise, Mitzi might have regretted her decision.) She played the female lead in "The Birds And The Bees", a remake of "The Lady Eve", and was then Frank Sinatra's wife in "The Joker Is Wild". (As Paramount have now issued "Anything Goes" as a Region 1 DVD, it is to be hoped they will also issue "The Joker Is Wild" which has been difficult to find for several years.) Mitzi was then cast in "Les Girls" opposite another major musical star, Gene Kelly.
Mitzi was unlucky with "Les Girls" which should have been her chance to show her dancing skills in a MGM musical. However Kay Kendall had been cast as one of the dance troupe, and to accommodate her the dance routines were kept very simple. Partly because of this and partly because of the screenplay - there is no music or dancing in the last reel of the movie - George Cukor decided to treat "Les Girls" as a comedy with music rather than as a musical comedy. In addition, Mitzi's character, Joy, was very down-to-earth compared with her two flighty colleagues, and gave Mitzi little opportunity to sparkle.
The segment involving
and Joy and Barry (Gene Kelly) was written sourly, with suggestions
of sexual harassment, and was not funny enough. The lightness of the
earlier episodes was absent, and
the stylised use of colour emphasized this. Director George Cukor, art director Gene Allen, colour consultant George
Hoyningen-Huene, and cinematographer Robert Surtees
- a formidable quartet indeed - used colour expressively throughout the movie,
and parts of the earlier episodes were visually resplendent.
In the scenes between Gene Kelly and Mitzi the colours were subdued, with
brown, beige and fawn predominating. The drabness of the colours combined
with the unattractive nature of the relationship between Barry and Joy robs
their story of charm. However their "Why Am I So Gone About That Girl?"
number provides "Les Girls" with its one really excellent dance routine, although Mitzi's black,
V-necked dress was far too long and denied the audience
a clear view of her legs. (On the other hand, for another scene Orry-Kelly
designed a blue and white, off-the-shoulder dress for Mitzi that was extremely glamorous.)
After "Les Girls", Mitzi won what should have been the role of her lifetime, Nellie Forbush, the female lead in "South Pacific".
"South Pacific" is one of the worst directed movies ever, and Mitzi suffered as much as the rest of the cast. Neither of her character's two driving forces - romantic love and racial prejudice - is properly delineated in either the screenplay or the staging and playing of the scenes. (Nellie Forbush's distress on learning that the children of the man she loves are half-caste even though she is enchanted by the children themselves indicates a very unusual type of racial prejudice.) The scenes between Mitzi and Rosanno Brazzi do not explain why these two people love each other or convey any semblance of real love. Mitzi is given almost no dancing in "South Pacific" and, playing a nurse in war-time, is appropriately de-glamorised. However a better director working with master cinematographer Leon Shamroy could have used light imaginatively to enhance her beauty. (Shamroy found working with Joshua Logan frustrating, and his advice to abandon the use of colour filters in the song sequences was ignored.) The movie was rescued by Richard Rodgers' extraordinary gift for melody, and "South Pacific" was an enormous box-office success, although none of the actors' careers was strengthened by the movie.
Mitzi was one of the few
members of the cast who did her own singing, and her capabilities in this
area were noted by Verve Records. Verve was the creation of jazz impresario
Norman Granz, and specialised in recording the best jazz musicians, such as
Oscar Peterson. However Verve sometimes branched out into recording conventional
popular singers, (including Jane Powell, a most un-Verve-like performer!)
Mitzi made two long-playing records for Verve, both of which were well received
and which still have admirers. "Mitzi" was recorded in the Autumn
of 1958 and "The Lyrics Of Ira Gershwin" in February, 1959.
"Mitzi" is now
available on a Japanese CD.
Although Mitzi seemed to be riding high with a recording contract and with roles in big-budget movies, her film career was coming to an end. Hollywood's abandonment of musicals deprived Mitzi of an appropriate outlet for her talent, and for the few worthwhile roles in non-musicals she was in competition with all the other Hollywood actresses. Mitzi made only three more films, all of which are now difficult to see.
She appeared opposite David Niven in "Happy Anniversary", a satire about television which although released by United Artists has still not appeared on DVD. (Most United Artists films are available on DVD). The following year Mitzi appeared on television with Frank Sinatra, and this is now available on DVD although seemingly unknown to the IMDb. Also in 1959 Mitzi made "Surprise Package", which was universally slated by critics. There was a gap of almost four years before her final movie in 1963. "For Love Or Money" was a mild but enjoyable romantic comedy with Kirk Douglas and Thelma Ritter, which also deserves a DVD resurrection.
Mitzi now concentrated on television, theatres and clubs, and seems to have been very successful for the rest of her life. Certainly her reputation as a dancer and all-round entertainer owes more to her work outside movies than to anything she did in Hollywood.