Hold the Roses - Hardcover

Marie, Rose

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813122643 ISBN 13: 9780813122649

Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky, 2003

Synopsis

A revealing memoir of actress and comedienne Rose Marie traces her career from nightclub singer to her best known role as the wisecracking Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show. (Biography)

About this title

About the Author

Rose Marie lives in California.

Reviews

The wisecracking sidekick of The Dick Van Dyke Show and regular player on Hollywood Squares recounts a fortunate life cleanly lived in this conversational memoir. Born illegitimately in 1923 in a New York railroad tenement as Rose Marie Mazzetta, she won a talent contest at age three and quickly became a radio star as Baby Rose Marie, the "kid who sings like Sophie Tucker." Signing with NBC and the top vaudeville circuits, she (and her parents) dodged child labor laws, and Baby Rose Marie appeared for the next few years with headliners Rudy Vallee and Dick Powell. Through her father (who was well acquainted with "the boys"), she met "Uncle Al" Capone, who kissed her cheek and told her, " `If you ever need me for anything, tell your father to call me.' " After growing up and becoming Miss Rose Marie, there were club dates, a Broadway stint and a happy marriage to trumpeter Bobby Guy. She went on to ham it up as Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and here praises all the principals but doesn't discuss specific show highlights, instead focusing on the friendships (although she wasn't close with Mary Tyler Moore) and remembering everyone's kindness when her husband died. She then recollects her years on Hollywood Squares, her work with Doris Day and Ethel Merman, an affair and the resolution of her multiyear spat with Tim Conway. Though thin on personal commentary and insight, the book's fast pace and happy memories will please Rose Marie's fans. 30 b&w illus.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Between the pages of this book you will find the story of a sixty-five-year career in show business. I started working as a child star on radio, performed on vaudeville, grew up to play the big night clubs and hotels, and graduated to working with all of the greats of show business Jolson, Benny, Burns and Allen, Red Skelton, Phil Silvers, and Milton Berle, to name a few.

I was raised by a mother who was a naïve, Polish lady who believed everything she was told. My father was a tyrant who had another family and never married my mother. He gambled away all the money I made as a child, and my mother never knew a thing about it. He beat me because he was jealous of anybody I ever went out with. I eloped with a musician who tried, in every way, to prove to my parents that he was a good man and who went through hell because my father feared losing his meal ticket me. My marriage of twenty years was the best thing that ever happened to me. We moved to California and a whole new life of respect, love, happiness, and security. We had a beautiful daughter.

I love and respect show business. We have been inseparable all of my life. Here I tell the intimate stories of my years in the business, the hardships and the good times and how they shaped my character and my career. I also tell about some of the so-called Big Stars who are angels to the public and anything but in real life. Most people don t know that I was helped by Mafia influences (Al Capone, Frank Costello, Bugsy Siegel, and Joe Adonis). I opened the Flamingo Hotel for Bugsy Siegel when I was 6 months pregnant and Vegas was still primarily a desert and the Flamingo was only the third hotel there.

During the lean years I struggled to keep my career going because if I didn t work, we didn t eat. Later I struggled to become an actress on TV and in the movies so I could stay home with my husband and daughter. I appeared on series and variety shows. I never stopped working. I refused to give up.

This book is not your usual Hollywood memoir. It is not about who I screwed but rather who screwed me!

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813122643
• ISBN 13: 9780813122649
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208