Vera-Ellen

Vera-Ellen (born Vera-Ellen Rohe; February 16, 1921 and Alma C. Westmeier. Both were descended from German immigrants. Her mother dreamed she would have a girl named Vera-Ellen, including the hyphen.

She began ballet dancing at age 10 and quickly became proficient. One of her fellow dance students at Hessler Studio of Dancing was Doris Day. At age 13, she was a winner on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour and embarked upon a professional career.

Career

Stage In 1939, she made her Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein musical Very Warm for May. She became one of the youngest Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. This led to roles on Broadway in Panama Hattie, By Jupiter, and A Connecticut Yankee, where she was spotted by Samuel Goldwyn, who cast her opposite Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo in the 1945 film Wonder Man.

Dubbing Starting in 1945 with Wonder Man, her first film, her singing was dubbed. However, the Decca Broadway Original Cast Album of 1943's revival of A Connecticut Yankee has two vocals by Vera-Ellen, "I Feel at Home with You" and "You Always Love the Same Girl," both duets with Chester Stratton. Her style is of a comic soubrette. and a February 14, 1959, broadcast of The Dinah Shore Show. Following that, Vera-Ellen retired from performing. A friend, Bill Dennington, who knew her during the last 20 years of her life, dismissed the story about her neck and added that he hated "that people think of her as 'the dancer with anorexia' and not just the fabulous dancer who has been so overlooked." Her second husband was oilman Victor Bennett Rothschild. They were married from 1954 to 1966 when they divorced. While married to Rothschild, she gave birth to a daughter, Victoria Ellen, who died in 1963 at three months from SIDS. Following the death of her only child, she withdrew from public life.

Death Vera-Ellen died at the Los Angeles County General Hospital on August 30, 1981, of ovarian cancer, aged 60.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1945 Wonder Man Midge Mallon Singing voice dubbed by June Hutton 1946 The Kid from Brooklyn Susie Sullivan Singing voice dubbed by Suzanne Ellers Three Little Girls in Blue Myra Charters Singing voice dubbed by Carol Stewart 1947 Carnival in Costa Rica Luisa Molina Singing voice dubbed by Pat Friday 1948 Words and Music Herself 1949 Love Happy Maggie Phillips On the Town Ivy Smith 1950 Three Little Words Jessie Brown Singing voice dubbed by Anita Ellis 1951 Happy Go Lovely Janet Jones Singing voice dubbed by Eve Boswell 1952 The Belle of New York Angela Bonfils Singing voice dubbed by Anita Ellis 1953 Call Me Madam Princess Maria Singing voice dubbed by Carol Richards Big Leaguer Christy 1954 White Christmas Judy Haynes Singing voice dubbed by Trudy Stevens 1957 Let's Be Happy Jeannie MacLean Singing voice dubbed by Joan Small(final film role)