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?Giant footsteps ? we?ve taken giant footsteps!?? With evangelical fervor, Ben Vereen was praising the progress of the arts.? The award-winning actor, singer, dancer, an international breakout star during the ?70s with his starring role in Pippin, was honored with the 26th annual Gypsy Award during the Professional Dancers Society luncheon at The Beverly Hilton?s Grand Ballroom. ? For more than four decades, Ben?s showcased his astonishing versatility, and today he and his band are touring his one-man show, Steppin? Out.
This looked-forward-to event hosted by the Professional Dancers Society sells out, recently honoring Julie Andrews.? For $170, there?s the three-course luncheon and a whale?s worth of entertainment, including a treasure trove of film clips starring fabulous dancers of yesterday and today. ? Did you know Carl Reiner, now 91, was a shake-your-booty dancer once upon a time?
Lee Hale?s the genius behind the thrilling video/film clip segments, featuring Busby Berkeley and Hermes Pan classics, along with fabled hoofers through the decades. ? His autobiography, The Lee Hale Story, traces a childhood from Tacoma, Washington to his brilliant career in Hollywood.? Producing, writing and directing with the best of the best. ? Gene Kelly, Dean Martin, Mitzi Gaynor, Florence Henderson, Bob Hope, Rita Hayworth, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett. In 1971, Orson Welles declared, ?Lee put me where I am today in the world of music.?
Every spring, Mitzi Gaynor, the PDS president for nine years, pops the cork for the afternoon, regaling everyone with drop-dead comic timing.? The ballroom?s filled with loving warmth, and nonstop applause from the crush of dancers and friends of all ages, attesting to Sandi Johnson?s belief that ?we dancers are fun folk.?? Sandi received the Gypsy Robe this year, a tradition from the 1950s handed down from one dancer to another, each adding their personal memorabilia to Ret Turner?s raggedy-ass costume, a Mad Hatter?s ?hello, there!? hallucination.
After the luncheon of carrot soup, chicken with a mild chili sauce, and baked Alaska, underwritten by heiress Joni Berry, the big-hearted chairman of the PDS board, Michael Rooney (yes, the son of Mickey) was presented with the First Choreographers Award.? ? Comings and goings flourished, with loyalists Florence Henderson and Dick Van Dyke lighting up the stage, the best hotel ballroom stage in our town.
Mitzi had returned from Chicago, where Leonard Maltin interviewed her for Turner Movie Classics (?fell in love with him?). ? Indefatigable, she travels week after week performing her one woman show. ? ?Show business isn?t simply New York or L.A.,? she reminded.? ?It?s Muncie, Indiana and Spokane, Washington.?? We?ve never forgotten Mitzi?s remark that she was ?born to make people happy!?
Monies from the luncheon give life to dancers in need, as the Actors Fund?s Keith McNutt noted.? More than $150,000 was raised. ? ?We?re there for dancers whose talents contribute so much to our joyful memories,? says Joni,? and we?re there to help with medical expenses, low income housing and emergency concerns through our affiliation with the Actors Fund of America.?
The late PR veteran Dale Olson made the marriage between PDS and the Actors Fund, and he was remembered, as were Billy Barnes and those performers the entertainment community lost over the year.? ? Birthdays were also remembered. ? Among them were? designer Bob Mackie, Lee Hale, and Shane Rosamonda, Mitzi?s co-manager with Rene Reyes.
Debbie Reynolds, always a presence of sheer delight, presented Ben Vereen with his Gypsy Award.? Debbie brought back our recollection from a USC Town and Gown evening when she was honored.? Arriving from El Paso, Texas with her mom, she was Mary Frances Reynolds.? A spark plug of a singer, dancer, actress. ? Happily she and mom managed an appointment/audition with Jack Warner of Warner Bros. ? Driving to the studio in Burbank, they were delayed.? For more than an hour. ? A dog called Debbie bolted headlong into a truck.? A sympathetic crowd quickly clustered, halting traffic.
Mr. Warner was not amused by the Texas latecomers.? However, he was charmed by the mother and talented daughter, complaining that Mary Frances was no name for a movie star. ? In an inspired moment, mogul Warner decided to professionally rename Mary Frances as Debbie Reynolds.? After that dead dog named Debbie. ? So help us, we were there.? In that Town and Gown audience as a Sunday dinner guest of MCA founder Jules Stein and his wife Doris, who were the Emperor and Empress of Hollywood.
Debbie?s now published her memoir, Unthinkable.? We were floored with the naughty tale about Shelley Winters during a Malibu party.? She writes that the Rat Pack?s Sammy Davis Jr. has the ?smallest ass.?
?If Jay Leno were a Jewish (or Italian) mother, he?d know how to handle NBC,? writes the New York Post?s right-on television critic Linda Stasi about the network dumping Jay for Jimmy Fallon.? ?He wouldn?t use his scathing nightly monologues or his worldwide reach to cut them down for trying to cut him out ?
?He?d use something much more deadly.? He?d use that sentence ? the one that has felled millions of mighty men and women ? the deadly bullet of guilt ?
?Repeat after me: ?That?s the thanks I get for giving you the best 21 years of my life and making you so (pick one) rich/happy ? ??
Linda Stasi continued, ?For 21 years, Leno has made NBC gazillions by delivering almost consistently the top-rated show in late night.? For 21 years, he has been the best son any network could want.?
Television?s changing at a dizzying pace with archivists recalling the launch of the The Tonight Show during the ?50s.? Host Steve Allen described it as ?a mild little show in a New York theatre that sleeps 800 people.?? For his premiere night, Steve fried 100 eggs in a gigantic frying pan.
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