Born Rose Marie Mazetta in New York City, August 1923, her mother was Polish and her father Italian-American. At age 5, she could belt out a song "coon-shoutin'" style like Fanny Brice and Sophie Tucker. She began her career at age 3 and by age 5 had her own radio show on NBC which had a 6 year run. Listeners could not believe this was a 5 year old and NBC got numerous nasty letters accusing the network of fraud and deceit.
In the 1930s, "Baby" had many film appearances. One, International House, was about the new medium of television, the medium in which she would win her greatest fame. She made records for Victor and Brunswick and was a vaudeville headliner. She appeared with Edgar Bergen and 50 years later, appearing with Candice Bergen on Murphy Brown, she related the story of how she appeared with Candice's father when he did his doctor's sketch on vaudeville. Bergen told Rose Marie that couldn't have been possible, she couldn't have played the nurse because she would have been too young. Rose Marie told Candice that she was indeed, not the nurse, but was the headliner act and Bergen merely opened for her. In vaudeville, she also worked with Jimmy Durante, her mentor, and Rudy Valle. The remarkable Rose Marie, still living in 2014, played the White House at the request of Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.
At age 12, she seems to have disappeared for a few years. It is said that she was sent to a convent by her parents. By age 17, she was free (dropped the name Baby) and became a nightclub chanteuse playing New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlantic City and Las Vegas~Wherever the gangsters congregated. Her parents did not have to worry for her safety. She was always under the protection of mobsters such as Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel who called her "The Kid". Many years later, she opened the Las Vegas Flamingo as headliner for her friend Bugsy Siegel. Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam, (her future Dick Van Dyke TV co-star) were her writers.
After WWII, she married Bobby Guy, trumpeter for the Kay Kyser Orchestra and later, The Tonight Show. Rose Marie went onto Broadway in '51 with Phil Silvers, and appeared on radio with Alice Faye and Phil Harris. Then her television career began. My Sister Eileen (1960), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-'66) as wise-cracking, man-chasing Sally Rogers; The Doris Day Show (1969-71), appeared on the Hollywood Squares, Wings, Murphy Brown, and toured as 4girls4 with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O"Connell, and Margaret Whiting and is the last survivor of that group. Why she wears a bow in her hair is her secret.
Baby Rose Marie Mazetta, "Come Out"; accompanied by the Victor Young Orchestra, 1933, Brunswick 6570.
In the 1930s, "Baby" had many film appearances. One, International House, was about the new medium of television, the medium in which she would win her greatest fame. She made records for Victor and Brunswick and was a vaudeville headliner. She appeared with Edgar Bergen and 50 years later, appearing with Candice Bergen on Murphy Brown, she related the story of how she appeared with Candice's father when he did his doctor's sketch on vaudeville. Bergen told Rose Marie that couldn't have been possible, she couldn't have played the nurse because she would have been too young. Rose Marie told Candice that she was indeed, not the nurse, but was the headliner act and Bergen merely opened for her. In vaudeville, she also worked with Jimmy Durante, her mentor, and Rudy Valle. The remarkable Rose Marie, still living in 2014, played the White House at the request of Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.
At age 12, she seems to have disappeared for a few years. It is said that she was sent to a convent by her parents. By age 17, she was free (dropped the name Baby) and became a nightclub chanteuse playing New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlantic City and Las Vegas~Wherever the gangsters congregated. Her parents did not have to worry for her safety. She was always under the protection of mobsters such as Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel who called her "The Kid". Many years later, she opened the Las Vegas Flamingo as headliner for her friend Bugsy Siegel. Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam, (her future Dick Van Dyke TV co-star) were her writers.
After WWII, she married Bobby Guy, trumpeter for the Kay Kyser Orchestra and later, The Tonight Show. Rose Marie went onto Broadway in '51 with Phil Silvers, and appeared on radio with Alice Faye and Phil Harris. Then her television career began. My Sister Eileen (1960), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-'66) as wise-cracking, man-chasing Sally Rogers; The Doris Day Show (1969-71), appeared on the Hollywood Squares, Wings, Murphy Brown, and toured as 4girls4 with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O"Connell, and Margaret Whiting and is the last survivor of that group. Why she wears a bow in her hair is her secret.
Baby Rose Marie Mazetta, "Come Out"; accompanied by the Victor Young Orchestra, 1933, Brunswick 6570.
Category
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Music