Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American pop and jazz singer and actress. She came to prominence with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by "Tenderly" (1951), "Half as Much" (1952), "Botch-a-Me" (1952), "Mambo Italiano" (1954), "Hey There" (1954), "This Ole House" (1954), and "Sway" (1960), a remake of "¿Quién será?". In total, her discography includes 49 studio albums, 33 compilation albums, six live albums, four video albums, one soundtrack album, and three box sets.

Clooney's career languished in the 1960s due to her pregnancies, bipolar disorder, and drug addictions, but was revived in 1976, when her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby invited her on his 50th anniversary tour. Clooney continued recording until her death in 2002. She was the mother of actor Miguel Ferrer and the aunt of actor George Clooney. A heavy smoker, Clooney died of lung cancer at age 74.

Early life

Rosemary Clooney was born on May 23, 1928, in Maysville, Kentucky, the daughter of Marie Frances (née Guilfoyle), of Irish ancestry, and Andrew Joseph Clooney, of Irish and German descent. Her father was an alcoholic who was often jailed for public drunkenness Her younger brother, Andy, drowned in the Ohio River as a young boy. She moved between relatives and attended four high schools, all in the Cincinnati-area: Hughes, Withrow, Our Lady of Mercy, and Western Hills.

Career Clooney never received singing lessons or learned how to read sheet music. She and her sister Betty learned to sing by ear and began singing to attract crowds before their grandfather's campaign speeches for mayor of Maysville; he was elected three times. The performances built their confidence and gave them local recognition.

In 1945, Rosemary and Betty won a spot singing on the WLW radio station in Cincinnati, making $20 per week.

Clooney made several duets with Marlene Dietrich, released on the EP Rosie and Marlene (1953). During the production, Clooney realized she could not dance, so she began taking dance lessons from Dante DiPaolo; they fell madly in love.

From 1978 to 1985, Clooney was the spokesperson in television commercials for Coronet paper towels by Georgia-Pacific, during which she sang the jingle, "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Coronet."

Clooney was awarded the Ella Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society of Singers in 1998.

In 1999, Clooney founded the Rosemary Clooney Music Festival, held annually in Maysville, her hometown to benefit the restoration of the Russell Theater in Maysville, where Clooney's first film, The Stars Are Singing, premiered in 1953. Clooney performed at the festival every year until her death.

Clooney received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2002. They moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1954, and then to Los Angeles in 1958. Together, the couple had five children; son Miguel Ferrer also became an actor. Clooney and Ferrer divorced for the first time in 1961; Ferrer had cheated frequently.

In the spring of 1968, Clooney's boyfriend of two years, a drummer 15 years younger than her, walked out on her. On June 5, 1968, as she was standing with her children waiting to greet close friend Robert F. Kennedy, he was assassinated. In July 1968, she had a nervous breakdown onstage in Reno, Nevada, where she shouted insults at her audience and had to be removed from the stage. She then gained 60 pounds.

Clooney's sister Betty died at age 45 of a brain aneurysm in 1976, and she subsequently started a foundation in memory of and named after Betty.

In 1983, Clooney and her brother Nick co-chaired the Betty Clooney Foundation for the Brain-Injured, founded by their cousin, Sherman Holvey. It addresses the needs of survivors of cognitive disabilities caused by strokes, tumors, and brain damage from trauma or age.

In November 1997, Clooney married her longtime friend and a former dancer, Dante DiPaolo in her Kentucky hometown.

Autobiographies In 1977, Clooney wrote her first autobiography, This for Remembrance: The Autobiography of Rosemary Clooney, an Irish-American Singer, written in collaboration with Raymond Strait and published by Playboy Press in 1977. Clooney's friend Bing Crosby wrote the introduction. Katherine Coker adapted the book for Jackie Cooper, who produced and directed the television movie, Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story (1982) starring Sondra Locke (who lip synced Clooney's songs), Penelope Milford as Betty, and Tony Orlando as José Ferrer.

In 1999, Clooney published her second autobiography, Girl Singer: An Autobiography.

Lung cancer and death

Clooney was a lifelong heavy smoker. In 1996, Clooney was hospitalized with acute respiratory failure. She stayed in Rochester, Minnesota to recover; a series of infections delayed her recovery. A funeral was held at St. Patrick's Church in Maysville, Kentucky; she is buried in the church cemetery.

Residences

In 1953, Clooney bought the house formerly owned by George and Ira Gershwin at 1019 North Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills, California. It was sold after her death in 2002 for just under $8 million and sold again for $9 million in 2005. It has since been demolished.

In 1980, Clooney purchased a second home, a former hotel built in 1835–1840, on Riverside Drive in Augusta, Kentucky, near Maysville, her childhood hometown. In 2004, former Miss America Heather French Henry acquired the house and spent another $100,000 on renovations, reopening it as the Rosemary Clooney Museum, a historic house museum, with collections of her personal items and memorabilia from many of her films and singing performances.

Legacy In March 2003, Clooney was inducted into the Kentucky Women Remembered exhibit, and her portrait by Alison Lyne is on permanent display in the Kentucky State Capitol's rotunda.

In May 2003, Bette Midler, recorded Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook with Barry Manilow, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004.

In 2005, the album Reflections of Rosemary by Debby Boone was released. Boone, who was Clooney's daughter-in-law, intended the album to be a musical portrait of Clooney "from a family perspective".

In September 2007, a mural honoring moments from Clooney's life was painted in downtown Maysville; it highlights the 1953 premiere of The Stars Are Singing and her singing career. It was painted by Louisiana muralists Robert Dafford, Herb Roe, and Brett Chigoy as part of the Maysville Floodwall Murals project.

Discography

Filmography Tony Pastor and His Orchestra (1947 short subject) The Stars Are Singing (1953) as Terry Brennan Here Come the Girls (1953) as Daisy Crockett Red Garters (1954) as Calaveras Kate White Christmas (1954) as Betty Haynes Deep in My Heart (1954; cameo appearance) as Performer in 'That Midnight Girl' Conquest of Space (1955) as Musical Number (uncredited) (archive footage) The Joker's Wild (1968, TV Movie) Twilight Theater (1982, TV Movie) Hardcastle and McCormick (1986, TV Series) as Millie Denton Sister Margaret and the Saturday Night Ladies (1987, TV Movie) as Sarah Radioland Murders (1994) as Anna ER (1994, TV Series) as Mary Cavanaugh / 'Madame X' LateLine (1999, TV Series) as Special Guest Mother

Radio broadcasts Year Program Episode/source 1953 Suspense St. James Infirmary