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One of our favourite "all-rounders"; our Patron Saint of Bugle Beads, the ever-shimmying, uber-camp saviour of the career of many a "safety gay" - Miss Mitzi Gaynor is 90 years old today! Lordy.
Miss Mitzi is one of the rare stars for whom the epithet "legend" was coined - she began her Broadway career in 1946, starred in her first film in 1950, was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award for her role in South Pacific in 1958, became the highest-paid female entertainer in Las Vegas in 1961, starred in nine television specials that received 16 Emmy nominations in the 1960s and 70s, returned to cabaret in the 1980s, became a newspaper columnist in the 90s, toured the US with her one woman show Razzle Dazzle: My Life Behind the Sequins from 2009 to 2014, was inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame in 2017 - and, despite her venerable age has never officially retired...
Time for a proper celebration of a monumental career, methinks!
And finally, a house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers. I practice these moves regularly:
Campness abounds!
Many happy retuns, Mitzi Gaynor (born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber, 4th September 1931)!
I'd love a shimmy dress like the one Mitzi is wearing in the last video! Maybe one day.
ReplyDeleteSx
Everybody loves a shimmy dress! Imagine shimmying your way down the lanes of North Devon in one, though... Jx
DeleteThanks for introducing me to the real Mitzi - I only know it as the name of a princess in Monty Python
ReplyDeleteThere is only one Mitzi Gaynor! Jx
DeleteIf anyone needs me, I'll be in the Egyptian Disco...
ReplyDeleteBeen there. I'll look out for you mingling with the gate guards... Jx
DeleteYou know me so well!
DeleteThe title Divine Adoratrice of Amun suits you, dear. Jx
DeleteTalented and adorable.
ReplyDeleteand a fab collection of videos to demonstrate the fact.
Fox has blocked The Merman clip by the way.
Our Mitzi was unstoppable! Jx
DeletePS Video link fixed (hopefully)
A lot of people think I named myself after her or that character from Pricilla, truth be known I named myself after the family dog, a white haired, long haired chihuahua, as a child I used to colour her with felt tip pens and plait her tail and paint her nails with shellac, pink cognac being her particular favourite, sadly Mitzi met with a grisly end *sniff sniff*, during her 'season' my sister let her out to be a good girl in the garden, being fond brazen for dog cock, she escaped through a gap in the fence and got pursued by a pack of dogs all wanting to take advantage of her, playing hard to get, she ran across a main road into a van, she had to be scraped off the tyre.
ReplyDeleteSad story - but she's immortalised forever in the form of your good self. Our other favourite Mitzi... Jx
Delete90 and still has her marbles. I'll come back and play the clips later...
ReplyDeleteShe's in good company - William Shatner, Angela Lansbury, Clint Eastwood, Gena Rowlands, Mel Brooks, Eva Marie Saint, Sydney Poitier, Tippi Hedren, Robert Wagner, Dick Van Dyke and (of course) Betty White are all still alive (and cogent) in their 90s... Jx
DeleteHuh. Apparently Mitzi only does cray cray when it comes to the 1970's. I adore. That Egyptian number is off the hook. I had no idea she was still with us. Amazing. Simply amazing. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteShe covered all bases in this selection, methinks. Glad you enjoyed them! Jx
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