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Ann Miller
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Ann Miller was born Lucille Ann Collier (though some sources cite her name asJohnnie Lucille, with the implication that her father wanted a son). At agefive she was sent to dancing school by her mother as therapy for a case of rickets. Since her mother and father separated when Miller was still a child, she started tap dancing at the Elks and Rotary Clubs to help support her mother and herself. When she won a personality contest at age ten, her mother tookher to Hollywood. While tap dancing at the Bal Tabarin, Miller was discovered by Lucille Ball and Benny Rubin, who notified RKO talent scouts. RKO was interested and Miller's first movie, made while she was still a teenager, was New Faces of 1937.
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Ann Miller was a famous American dancer, actress and singer. She was born on 12th April in 1923 at Chireno in Texas. Some sources claim that she was born in Houston where she was raised too. At the time of her birth, she was named as Johnnie Lucille Collier, but later on she changed her name to Annie. Ann Miller had gone through quite a troubled childhood, as her parents got divorced when she was just a little child
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From All Movie Guide: In the latter stages of her long career, musical comedy star Ann Miller spent much of her time thanking her colleagues for not revealing a secret concerning her early days in Hollywood. According to Miller, she was but 14 years old when she began receiving sizeable screen roles in such RKO films as New Faces of 1937 (1937), Having Wonderful Time (1938), and Room Service (1938)... it was illegal for her to appear on the set without a guardian or tutor. Perhaps the reason that her co-stars conspired to keep her age a secret was because she was doing so; Miller was in fact 18 when she signed her RKO contract. Not that any of this bears the slightest relevance to Ms. Miller's dazzling terpsichorean talent (in one of her Columbia-starring vehicles, she set a world record for taps-per-minute) nor her stellar contributions to such MGM Technicolor musicals as Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), and Kiss Me Kate (1953). More famous for her winning personality and shapely stems than her acting ability, Miller tended to flounder a bit in her non-singing and non-dancing appearances; thus, when the MGM brand of musicals went out of fashion in the mid-'50s, her film career came to a standstill. Continuing to prosper on the nightclub circuit, Miller made a return before the cameras in a celebrated 1970 TV soup commercial, produced and directed by Stan Freberg and choreographed by Hermes Pan in the all-stops-out manner of a Busby Berkeley spectacular.
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Ann Miller started her Hollywood career at the tender age of 11. At such a small age, she grew quite tall and possessed great personality. Moreover, she had already mastered herself as a tap dancer. All these qualities she possessed helped her to earn a seven-year contract with R.K.O. She had to support her family from a very tender age. This was so because her mother was deaf and was unable to hold a job.
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Ann Miller was born April 12, 1923 in Houston, Texas. she lived there until she was nine, when she and her mother left her philandering father for California. Even at that young age, she had to support her mother, who was hearing-impaired and unable to hold a job. After taking tap-dancing lessons, she got jobs dancing in various Hollywood clubs while being home-schooled.
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Ann Miller's extraordinary collection spans sixty years and includes some of the finest examples of costume jewelry produced in the 20th century. On June 4, 2005 the jewelry will be offered for sale by Harrice Simons Miller, renowned costume jewelry expert, historian, author and dealer, at a live and online auction conducted by Julien's Auctions (juliensauctions.com). Auction is to be held at the Los Angeles showroom of national interior and furnishing designer Barclay Butera. Over 350 pieces of specially selected jewelry will be offered for sale, each with an individualized Certificate of Authenticity.
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