Elder Dataloungers Please enlighten me on Hollywood legend Mitzi Gaynor don't forget to share all the gossip and scandal please!

Any fans of her performance in South Pacific?

She was *huge*, child. You know she was Gloria Gaynor’s mother, right? Only *the* disco hit of all disco hits “I Will Survive”

Bills Lhasa apso was named after her. She was that big.

Who?? r3

She would have been better than Angela in MAME in 1966.

What was her best film? r5

Ann Miller had more pizzazz, and was A bigger 🌟.

Mitzi. She just didn't care.

She was so weird--the sexless blond sex kitten.

when I was a kid, I recall regular programming on CBS on a Tuesday at 10 pm being interrupted for a special: Mitzi...Zings Into Spring.

The show, apparently, was Kojak. I must have been pissed because I really had the daddy hots for Kevin Dobson.

Fabulous r8 !!

She put Dawson to shame. He only had 50 -- Mitzi did it with a HUNDRED GUYS.

She was a doll!!! I saw her in Vegas when I was a kid, what a sweetheart. It was right after her show (I was too young to go in) and she gave me her photo. There was no one else around. I didn't really understand why she sent this guy off to "get a picture" and then she signed it. My mom was so thrilled because she loved Mitzi.

Awe that's a lovely story r13 she sounds like a real down to earth sweetheart by celebrity showbiz standards.

I think she's tremendous.

She had the career poor Vera-Ellen should have had after White Christmas.

Mitzi Gaynor was the 'poor man's' Doris Day.

She got the role of star role in "South Pacific" because Doris couldn't do it. I personally thought Mitzi was rather dull— especially compared to the vivacious Kay Kendall in 'Les Girls'.

Loves her gay guys.

She made a wretched musical remake of THE LADY EVE called THE BIRDS AND THE BEES. She's not worthy of holding Barbara Stanwyck's pap smear.

(I bet her real name was Gladys Gaynor)

I've written a song in honor of Mitzi's Bob Macke gown, called "Nude Illusion":

You love my curves, my legs and hips

I love your body, your eyes and lips

You put my body in a state of confusion

Oh baby, we're both in a nude illusion

I'm still into Mitzi Green.

The OP's link says Bob Mackie's first 'nude dress was created for Mitzi Gaynor in 1968.

But Wiki says Dietrich wore a "daringly sheer "nude dress"—a heavily beaded evening gown of silk soufflé, which gave the illusion of transparency—designed by Jean Louis, attracted a lot of publicity" in 1953.

This video might help clear things up:

Basically, the "nude dress" illussion goes way back in Hollywood ... at least to Clara Bow the 1920s.

Skip to [bold]02:50 mark[/bold]

My mom couldn't stand watching Gaynor, because the star's nose job was overly bobbed, and just too "cute".

It's been made so small, it rather leaves a characterless [italic]void[/italic] in the middle of her face.

Very creative r21 !

r17 Thanks for the information .I had no idea Doris Day was considered for a role in South Pacific.

Mitzi was 18 years old when she began dating the 47-year-old Howard Hughes. He proposed marriage, but she refused. He did, however, give her sound piece of advice, telling her to buy some "dirt" in Las Vegas. So she bought five acres on the Strip and became a very wealthy woman.

She looks like Lauren Tewes^^

Her birth name was Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber. She has only been married once, and it lasted over 50 years (until her husband's death.) One of Hollywood's longest.

[quote]r27 I had no idea Doris Day was considered for a role in South Pacific.

In his first autobiography, director Josh Logan describes that casting process. He said the obvious choice for the role of Nellie was Doris Day, but it was so obvious he could imagine exactly how she'd play the part, and couldn't get excited about her. Then they were both at a Hollywood party and someone urged her to sing informally around the piano, and he joined in, thinking if he saw Day being spontaneous that maybe his mind would change. But she retreated into herself and said she didn't feel like singing, and he gave up on the thought of using her.

The performer he really wanted was Elizabeth Taylor, who he thought would be very fresh and outdoorsy, and her singing was good enough when they met alone. But then she froze up when singing for Richard Rogers and only squawked (quietly). So she was out.

Eventually Logan was very happy with Mitzi Gaynor.

Thank you for the information r31

I have never thought of Elizabeth Taylor as being someone who may have starred in musicals. You learn something new everyday.

R32 It's not that she had a TERRIFIC voice, but Logan thought she was perfect for the part, in personality and looks, and he knew that singing in a movie can get a lot of help along the way. And it's not like Nellie Forebush is some big, operatic role.

Logan had already directed the musical onstage and was looking for something new in the casting to inspire him. So, Liz Taylor was along those lines . . . something new and unexpected that invigorated him.

[quote]I have never thought of Elizabeth Taylor as being someone who may have starred in musicals. You learn something new everyday.

Really?

Oh my god, don't bring THAT up! She's so terrible in that!!

There's a reason it bombed.

R32 Logan seriously considered Tab Hunter, who had done so well in "Damn Yankees," for the role, but Tab towered over Rosanno. Logan knew the audience wouldn't accept that. Tab never got over losing the part. In his darker moments, he could be heard to mutter, "The one that got away..."

Rodgers and Hammerstein were insistent that every actor in the film do their own singing. That complicated the casting and is a big reason that La Liz was not cast. She was exquisite in the mid-1950's. Young. Beautiful. But not a strong singer. In the end, after lots of wasted time and effort, the only actor in the film doing his or her own singing is Mitzi Gaynor. So it could have been Liz. But Mitzi Gaynor is just fine in the role.

Mitzi is also a good dishy interview.

Big beef curtains.

In a pinch, she used them as a dress.

Really R37??? Explain Deborah Kerr, Rita Moreno, Peggy Wood, Christopher Plummer, and Nancy Kwan.

This thread has made me more fond of Mitz. She was hardworking, proficient, cute . . . she just didn't have that extra something that makes a BIG star. But, you know, she was fine. She was a solid SECOND choice.

She seems like she was a funny, wholehearted person. She's actually a bit more interesting offscreen than on.

I grew up hearing her name a lot, even though I didn't really know who she was. Apparently my dad had a big crush on her, and it drove my mom nuts. I can remember many times when she'd yell (half-jokingly) "enough about that damn Mitzi Gaynor!!!" This was in the 70s and 80s--wasn't that way after her glory days?

He had odd taste...the other actress he loved was Jennilee Harrison from THREE'S COMPANY!

Talk about her CBS variety specialsi n the 70s that's what we really want information on!!

I had the pleasure of singing and dancing with Mitzi Gaynor in 1992 or so, which means she was 61 years old. It was a convention type thing for American Movie Classics, when it was in its previous form - showing classic films. She along with some other movie stars were there as the entertainment. It wasn't long or complicated choreography, and another guy and I moved around her, lifted her up on our shoulders, etc., but she did actually dance, and sang. I can't remember what the song was. We had learned the choreography some time before, and then had a little rehearsal with her at the event. She looked fantastic, in great shape, still very slim, and was wearing a bright pink dress with a full skirt, and a pair of high heels that I remember thinking were really high for a woman her age, especially to dance in.. She was really, really nice to us, and funny.

How was the other guy in the sack?

So so

Stop being cunty, R40. You're not very good at it.

Deborah Kerr and Rita Moreno were in "The King and I." That film was produced two years before "South Pacific." No one here has made any assertions about what the authors wanted for "The King and I."

Joshua Logan has written about the making of "South Pacific." The authors started out being adamant about the actors in "South Pacific" doing their own singing. They had already made "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel" and "The King and I." For reasons the authors would know best, they did not want to dub their leading actors for "South Pacific." That decision caused a lot of difficulty. It eventually had to be abandoned and that pissed off the actors. Juanita Hall created the role of Bloody Mary on Broadway and she plays the role in the film. But even she got dubbed by the time the film was released.

I have no particular information to share with you about their casting ideas for films after "South Pacific."

R36 I would have adored seeing Tab Hunter in this big, scenic, hummable movie 'South Pacific'.

Unfortunately the role was given to some tiny meat. In fact all the five main roles in this film were give to five unappealing actors.

And indeed Joshua Logans's offbeat casting also wrecked 'Camelot' and 'Paint Your Wagon'. I went to the effort of reading his memoirs because he was the third most successful homosexual director in Hollywood. But it didn't tell me much except he publicly suffered from some mental illness and that he, for some reason, married a woman.

She was a fucking hog!

I interviewed Mitzi in 2012. She was great. Very old tyme. When she spoke of her deceased husband, Jack Bean, she referred to him as "Mr. Bean"

It was at her home in Beverly Hills. I was waiting in her living room. She kept us waiting for a good 20 minutes. Suddenly, she appears at the top of the stairs as glamorous as you can imagine. She took a look at me and said "Look at 'em! He's tall and he's gorgeous!"

It was like Norma Desmond, if Norma were happy.

[quote] Really?

Really, r34.

Believe it or not, since the film version of [italic]A Little Night Music[/italic] flopped, and it is more than forty years old, there are many people alive today who have never heard of it or that Elizabeth Taylor was in it.

Actually, "South Pacific" is one of the few musicals in which I can tolerate Mitzi Gaynor, and in which I think she's actually good.

She spent 99% of her time onscreen being artificially adorable and fake-sexy, and this is one of the few musicals she was in where her director told her to be natural. She is genuinely quite moving in her big "This is something that was born in me!" scene.

WOW r5o Care to share any more gossip or insight?What was your gauging of her personality ? Was she down to earth?

And then, R50, she fell down the stairs because she wasn't wearing her glasses.

[quote]r51 Believe it or not, since the film version of A Little Night Music flopped, and it is more than forty years old, there are many people alive today who have never heard of it or that Elizabeth Taylor was in it.

If only NO ONE had heard of it [bold]: ([/bold]

I love that stage musical so much (it may be my favorite) that that pile-of-puke movie version almost makes me physically ill. Liz Taylor could conceivably be a decent Desiree, but she's directed horribly, and gives such a wretched performance, vocally [italic]and[/italic] acting wise.

Diana Rigg is sharp and well cast, and Lesley-Anne Down certainly looks lovely, and I actually like the new solo version of "The Glamorous Life" ... but it's just such a terribly awful film!

R53 very down to earth and funny. A very cool lady, I enjoyed her very much. Off camera, she talked about a difficult female co-star of her's who often refused to leave her dressing room and would pee in a towel instead of leaving to use the restroom.

I imagine it HAS to be Marilyn Monore.

No, it was the Merm.

R56 yes, Monore was famous for that. They called her "What A Chore" Monore.

[quote] Off camera, she talked about a difficult female co-star of her's who often refused to leave her dressing room and would pee in a towel instead of leaving to use the restroom.

It's a terrible thing to reveal about Juanita Hall, but it's unfortunately the truth, and the truth hurts.

R59 I heard "Urinata Hall" did the same thing backstage on 'Flower Drum Song'.

Years ago when there was an A/E Biography on Mitzi - some clips of her screen tests for South Pacific were shown......she was much better in them than she was in the movie. She said later in the program that Joshua Logan gave her exact line readings for the part and wouldn't let her "act" the role. It was Josh Logan as Nellie Forbush.

Never a great actress - but fun to watch for awhile.

When she was in town locally to do her variety show, a friend of mine worked at the hotel she stayed in. He was shocked that the hotel did not give her fresh flowers daily. He was a florist, so he had flowers sent in every morning on his own dime.

When Mitzi left, she mentioned at the front desk how lovely the flowers were and how much she appreciated them....the clerk told her they didn't send them.

A few weeks later, my friend received a nice note and a check from Mitzi for the flowers.....he never figured out how she found out it was him.

Mitzi knows What's Hot!!

She feels like Dancing!

Three classic broads together!

....

....

Thanks for all the brilliant links up to post 66 ! I don't know if it all the same person but either way bless you it is appreciated!

I love Mitzi. While never cool, or hip, she's always been bright, fun, talented and authentic. She seems like a wonderful lady.

You know, R31, that was a really stupid way to cast a major motion picture.

And Mitzi was lifeless in it, but then she was a lifeless actress. She had the career she deserved in the end, doing Vegas and variety shows.

She did an interview in which she said that she didn't think she was very good onscreen, but good onstage. Very matter-of-factly. That honesty was impressive.

R70 - she is being very honest here! - and is probably correct. Haven’t seen her live - but onscreen - she always comes across as fake. She has the ‘cute’ schtick - and not a lot outside that limited range. But then - in South Pacific - as a previous posted said - she was hamstrung by the director. Maybe that wasn’t the only instance?

Love to see a childhood or teenage pic of her before the radical nosejob! Was it a Marlo Thomas-level honker?

And to the earlier poster whose dad was supposedly Mitzi Gaynor obsessed:

Did your dad spend a lot of time away from home? Lots of odd, unexplained absences? Just that - hate to break it to you! - but can’t see an actual straight man finding her sexy. She’s curiously devoid of any real sex appeal. Was your dad a huge musical fan??

Could someone please tell me why doesn't this lovely lady write her memoirs? I think she has a lot of terrific stuff to say. Especially after R37 post! She is the type of person who seems like if anyone was going to write about her life, it has to be from her. She has a Facebook book page ,and she answered various questions people were asking her. I asked her if she was planning on writing her autobiography, and she didn't respond to my question. BTW, I remember she did an interview with Robert Osborn on TCM and she said you know, Betty Grable didn't like me.Do you want to here about that story? He quickly changed the subject. I would have love to heard what she wanted to say in that interview.

My mother owned the movie soundtrack album on vinyl. She's on the cover with Rosanno Brazzi. I always thought her lipstick revealed an odd chalky color. She sings passabley well. Brazzi was dubbed the famous bass Giogio Tozzi, who sang at the wedding of the parents of a former coworker of mine.

She was initially cast as Sugar Cane, Marilyn Monroe's role in Some Like It Hot. Jack Lemmon's role would have been Frank Sinatra. Luckily the producers decided otherwise. What a boring movie that would have been.

What a horrible thought, R74! Because yes, Gaynor read as oddly sexless on film, and that could never have worked in "Some Like It Hot". I mean, Sugar has got to practically rape a guy.

Not only that, for that role she had to be a good comedic actress, which Marilyn Monroe certainly was. MM was a delight in that movie, she had enormous screen presence too.

Sinatra would have been horrible as Daphne.

R72, I saw an interview she gave in which she jokingly talked about being awe-struck when meeting Grable on a film set, and Grable saying, "Kid, you're blocking my light." So they were in some movie together. She had a nice sense of humour about herself.

R77 that would be How to Marry a Millionaire. Also starring DL fave Lauren Bacall.

Here's Mitzi to sing you through Christmas.

Thanks R66 - she's so much better in that test than she was in the movie.....damned Logan.

And Gaynor wasn't in MILLIONAIRE. The only movie Grable and Gaynor made together was MY BLUE HEAVEN...

R66 she's quite charming in those. I don't know the movie, so can't compare.

Oops. My bad r80. I misunderstood the question and thought it was Monroe and Grable being referenced.

Circa 1990, she toured with the Lincoln Center revival of Anything Goes, which was the production that Patti LuPone had starred in on Broadway. It struck me as a mistake when I heard about it way back then. When I asked her about it in our interview, she said she didn't enjoy doing it at all.

John Kerr does not get a lot of love on here but in his white bathing suit in SP I find him so much sexier than the beefcake hunks Logan has walking around shirtless at the beginning of the film. Muscle bound physique types have always looked freakish to me.

I'm tickled by posters commenting that Liz couldn't sing "very well." As Ethan Mordden said somewhere, most people can sing, or fake sing, at least a little. Liz was one of the rare ones who couldn't sing AT ALL. She had tried, briefly, to sing in the notorious, little-seen "Blue Bird" and was terrible. A year or two later, she gave us "A Little Night Music."

According to Eddie Fisher Liz wanted MFL and according to Ernest Lehman she wanted Dolly. Well she would have been better than Lucy in Mame.

R70 this interview? She's refreshingly candid and self-aware for an actress.

R34 did they really advertise the film version as "The 'Send in the Clowns' Musical"?

[quote]Well she would have been better than Lucy in Mame.

As I've said previously, so would Mike Mazurki.

R87, yes, that's what I was thinking of. Thanks.

She's so honest she says my husband didn't pass away he died.

Wow R87 That refreshingly candid interview makes me feel a bit more respect for her.

I like to display my [italic] derrière [/italic]

She was also famous for her TINY waste.....they say (she may have said it) that she slept at night with a mens belt pulled tight around her waist.

^^^waist not waste....sorry^^^

Thanks for posting that interview.....great stuff.

I wasn't a fan. There seemed something prissy and cock-teasy about her. Of the three girls in Les Girls (wonderful Cukor musical) she didn't seem the right one for hunky Gene to end up with. BUT the various interviews I've seen recently on YouTube have impressed me. Like her no-nonsense manner.

r97 There is nothing wrong in being a cock tease.

But there is in being WITH a cock tease.

Not sure I agree r100 !

Anyway back to the fabulous Mitzi!

I bet the chorus boys loved her.

Nellie Forbush was written for Mary Martin. And Mary did South Pacific on Broadway and London.

Possible to Iimage Martin at the Castro in SF as s gay icon telling stories about working with Merman, Yul and Nole Coward..

Julie should have gotten the film of South Pacific.

And about Martin’s own love affair with Janet Gaynor, weren’t they supposed to be lovers? I wonder what ever became of all those chorus boys, what are they doing now? Mitzi Gaynor also wasn’t very pretty.

R104 Julie who?

Julie WHO?!

r84 = Janet Weiss

The thing about Mitzi Gaynor was that she was promoted by the studios as being "darling," not pretty--and people pretty much bought into that (I liked that made reference to this in of "Mrs. Maisel"). She wasn't pretty, but she was sexy and cute, and she had tons of pizzazz--there's a clip from one of her TV specials where she sings "Alice Blue Gown" that I'm fascinated by, because though shew sings okay (nothing special), and she dances pretty badly--but she puts the number over by CONVINCING you she can dance, even though she can't. (Look at how awful her moves were.)

R109 what's wrong with her dance moves?

First of all, at the dance break part, she's not really dancing: she's just sashaying and vamping and shuffling her feet around (almost all the moves are above the waist). The above-the-waist gestures are themselves not executed very crisply, either.

Look at it again, and try not to be distracted by her outfit or her figure.

Mitzi Gaynor kicked little girl Stephanie Nicks in the cunt bone.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned her invention of the Half Gaynor

R105, Mitzi, Janet, and Gloria were first cousins, once removed.

R107, Julie Chen.

Julie London!

R109 / R111 knows nothing. If you want to discuss a dancer's ability, do it by examining a dance. Not a song.

Here she is dancing beautifully with Donald O'Connor.

Anything Goes. Dancing and lip syncing.

She stole my role

Oh, hush up, Mary. You were 45 fucking years old when South Pacific was made. Old enough to play Bloody Mary or Commander Harbison, but waaaaaaay too old to play a young nurse.

Here's Mitzi in "I Wish I Knew!" She's about 20 years old here, ballet technique firmly in hand.

Nice asses on those guys, too. Thx!

The rumour back in the 70s was that her annual TV specials were financed by her rich husband and they never would have been broadcast otherwise.

R120 that's from Bloodhounds of Broadway, which has in its cast Richard Allan, who's the hunky murderous lover in Niagara and who dances with Hayward in With A Song in My Heart, when she has the nip slip. That might be he in that Mitzi dance number.

Mitzi dancing The Johnson Rag staged by Jack Cole.

[quote]Oh, hush up, Mary. You were 45 fucking years old when South Pacific was made. Old enough to play Bloody Mary or Commander Harbison, but waaaaaaay too old to play a young nurse.

Didn't stop me!

Mary M received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989 with among others Harry Belafonte and Claudette Colbert. Still relatively early selections.

Now THAT'S a line up. Nowadays it's dreck.^^^

[quote]r103 Image Mary Martin at the Castro in SF as s gay icon telling stories about working with Merman, Yul and Nole Coward..

Wasn't she a lez?