Rosie Clooney Marries Cyrano de Bergerac — July 13, 1953

Posted by medusamorlock on July 13, 2008

Okay, so she didn’t really marry Cyrano; the

famous and popular self-described “girl singer” married actor Jose Ferrer, who had won an Oscar playing Rostand’s nosy hero a few years earlier. It was an unlikely match — Rosemary, a newly-minted celebrity chanteuse from Maysville, Kentucky, meets and falls for sophisticated New York theater actor/director/Renaissance man Jose — but both were making their marks in Hollywood, too. Perhaps more titillating than the seeming culture clash was the fact that Jose had just gotten a divorce from his second wife and was also nearly twenty years older than the 25-year-old singer.

Ferrer had a biography that you couldn’t make up. He was born in Puerto Rico, attended Princeton University as a star student, and found himself appearing on Broadway at 25. After starring as Iago in the acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s Othello featuring Paul Robeson in the title role, Ferrer was firmly on target to become one of the most exciting faces and forces in contemporary American theater. In October of 1946 he starred in the revival of Cyrano de Bergerac and his future was assured; he simply was Cyrano and would go on to win the Tony, Oscar and Emmy in different productions of the play.

Rosemary, the child (one of three) of an alcoholic father and busy working mother, grew up in difficult circumstances stemming from her parents’ shaky marriage. As teenagers, Rosemary and her sister Betty ended up living with their father while their brother moved with mom to Los Angeles. Betty and Rosemary became a singing sister and found success at a Cincinatti radio station, and both began working with the Tony Pastor band and cut a few records with them. Betty opted out of band tours to return to radio work after a while, but Rosemary stayed on the road and eventually moved out on her own as a single act.

Her contract at Columbia Records brought her into contact with bandleader Mitch Miller (yes, he of TV’s Sing-Along With Mitch series that many of us watched as kids), and in 1951 he presented her with her first huge hit, the peppy novelty song “Come On-a My House” which made Rosemary a star. A national radio show with Bing Crosby followed, along with more hit records, and soon Paramount signed her to a movie contract, hoping her cheerful good looks and approachable demeanor — her lack of pretension helped everyone refer to her simply as “Rosie” — would translate to the screen.

As Jose Ferrer juggled a busy stage career with making movies for MGM and other studios — Joan of Arc (Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom for his screen debut), Crisis, Whirlpool, Anything Can Happen — Rosemary was taking her first steps on the silver screen in The Stars Are Singing, with Anna Maria Alberghetti as a Polish girl who wants to sing and Clooney as a struggling songstress who helps her along. No great outcry, either critical or at the box-office, resulted, and her next film Here Come the Girls, a Bob Hope-starring period comedy set in Old New York, was not one of his more popular. Her next picture, director George Marshall’s oddball but extremely colorful musical Western spoof Red Garters, co-starring Jack Carson, singer Guy Mitchell, and Gene Barry, was a noble and interesting failure.

Ferrer had better luck onscreen. In addition to winning the Oscar as Cyrano, he starred in Moulin Rouge, director John Huston’s tale of deformed painter Toulouse-Lautrec (and can any Monty Python fan not think of “No Time Toulouse” when you say his name? Didn’t think so). Around this time he and Rosemary got together, and though the smart money may not have been on Cupid, the intriguing couple — the female crooner and the theatrical giant — got along just fine and decided to marry.

And so it brings us to July 13, 1953, fifty-five years ago. Rosemary and Jose ended up having five children — their son Miguel is a terrific actor, too – and Rosie even had a big hit movie with 1954’s White Christmas starring her old radio co-star Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye (as substitute for Fred Astaire and Donald O’Connor who were first approached), and the talented Vera-Ellen. Ferrer was nominated but did not win for his sensitive and physically torturous (walking on his knees with lower legs strapped up) role in Moulin Rouge. His screen career continued successfully — The Caine Mutiny among many others — and in Deep in My Heart, where Ferrer played songwriter Sigmund Romberg, he and his wife sang an onscreen duet together called “Mr. and Mrs.” which was a neat publicity gimmick as well as a cute number. Rosie got her own television show in 1956, and also continued her busy recording career which yielded a number of big hits over the years.

Despite their career highlights, Rosemary and Jose’s marriage was not one of their unqualified successes. They split up in 1961 but reconciled in 1964 for three more years, but permanently called it quits in 1967. Much has been written of Rosemary’s tough struggle with mental illness which was triggered by the traumatic events surrounding the assassination of her friend Robert Kennedy in 1968. Rosie was present at the Ambassador Hotel for his California Primary victory party and was in the ballroom when he was shot as he passed through the hotel kitchen. The shock affected her deeply and she suffered a nervous breakdown later that year. Her performing life was shattered and it took years before she was back up on stage, but she eventually toured with her old friend Bing and even later had a wonderful revival and became very popular again (possibly with some help from the enormous buzz surrounding her nephew actor George Clooney, son of her brother). (When I was in college I saw her performing at a Holiday Inn in Torrance, California, one of the small gigs she did when she was starting to sing again after her breakdown. My friend and I were the youngest people in the room, and it was a very intimate venue, and Rosie was absolutely wonderful. I feel so lucky to have seen her at that time. We all applauded not just for her music but for her life.)

Jose Ferrer died in 1992 at the age of 83. In 2003, Rosemary Clooney succumbed to lung cancer at 74.

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7 Responses Rosie Clooney Marries Cyrano de Bergerac — July 13, 1953

Posted By Al Lowe : July 14, 2008 1:23 am

There were so-called Renaissance Men who couldn’t spell the word “renaissance.” I’m sure Ferrer never had that problem.
They certainly were an odd couple.
I wondered why Rosemary did not have a longer movie career. My guess is that the studio executives wrote her off because of the string of turkeys she made in addition to her blockbuster hit, White Christmas.
That movie is one of my favorite 200 movies but White Christmas wasn’t good for anybody.
The movie careers of Kaye, Crosby and Vera Ellen went into decline not long after the movie appeared. Kaye made his best vehicle ever and one of the best comedies ever made, The Court Jester, but it wasn’t a hit. Crosby made High Society but its success was dependent on its other stars.
Good old White Christmas was not only popular at the box office but was popular for years when aired on television.
Yet you can’t find an appreciation of it. References to it in film books are put downs.
However, the people like it. (I sound like I’m quoting Grapes of Wrath - We’re the people and we’ll go on forever.)
I think the chemistry in the film works. Crosby is good with Kaye and Clooney. Vera Ellen is good with Kaye and Clooney.
(Chemistry is very important. Yes, I know Lucille Ball had phenomenal talent but I wonder if I Love Lucy would have been as big a hit with people other than William Frawley and Vivian Vance.)
And then there’s the great Irving Berlin tunes, some of his best.
Kaye has no special Sylvia Fine material this time and is fine as comedy relief/second banana. But I don’t think he ever did that type of role again.
So I guess we should count our blessings (instead of sheep) that we have White Christmas to watch over and over and over. It certainly kept Clooney’s popularity alive.

Incidentally, Medusa, What’s My Line is now airing (in chronological order) episodes from early 1955. Fred Allen is now a regular panelist.

Posted By Al Lowe : July 14, 2008 3:33 am

Portland Allen, Mrs. Fred Allen, who was his radio sidekick, was the Mystery Guest tonight.
She didn’t speak and rang a bell in response to questions.
Fred asked if she was the president of the Good Humor Company.
Medusa, he didn’t guess her identity. Arlene Francis did.
(As you know, we talked about Fred Allen in response to your other blogs.)

Posted By Patricia : July 14, 2008 8:52 am

My Rosie concert experience wasn’t in an intimate venue like yours (Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto). Her brother, Nick, was working in Buffalo at the time and was at the concert, sitting right behind us. My, she held that crowd in the palm of her hand. She owed me. I’d had tickets for the Crosby tour, but he just had to go golfing in Spain! Her variety show with Nelson Riddle and the Hi-Lo’s is an absolutely treasure of song and unpretentious skits. Ferrer guested a couple of times. Once, as Toulouse. So fond are we of the “girl singer” in our house that we have named a cat in her honour. Television gave Ferrer a memorable comedy character to remember as Stephanie’s pompous rich father in “Newhart”. I have heard Miguel refer to his parents as people who loved their work. It shows in the quality.

Posted By Medusa : July 14, 2008 11:10 am

Al, as a Danny Kaye lover, I like “White Christmas” a lot though you are right, it doesn’t get any respect. I wouldn’t say that it’s amazing, exactly, but there is nice work in it and it has a interesting mix of show business cynicism and people-pleasing sentimentality. Crosby’s Bob Wallace is kind of a grump, and the Haynes sisters are struggling to make it, and of course the Gen. Waverly’s Inn has no snow. The movie might be a little sedate, perhaps, but I think Danny brings out some nice stuff with Bing in their scenes at the beginning of the movie, particularly. And you are right, Danny as support, or even equal status, wasn’t quite his style.

Rosie’s movie career was certainly an afterthought and she didn’t need it, that’s for sure. She’s pretty good in her TV show which I’ve seen up here on Canadian TV pretty recently. I guess it wasn’t just enough to exploit her voice, they had to push her into other things. I just love her and her singing style. Thanks for the tip about “What’s My Line?”!

Patrica, glad you were able to see her onstage, and I agree about her show, which I did see on Cool TV here in Canada. I was going to post a clip from it with Jose and Rosie but it seems to have disappeared from YouTube!

Thanks for the comments! :-) Rosie definitely left a lot of fans behind when she passed away.

Posted By bobbi : July 14, 2008 6:43 pm

Very nicely written memory piece in tribute to Rosemary Clooney, whose way of caressing a lyric became more meaningful as she grew older. I thought that her later (post breakdown) work was absolutely beautiful.

If you have a chance, check out Mothers and Daughters,, a 1997 album of graceful and simple renditions of such songs as “That Face”, “God Bless the Child” and the immortal “Funny Face”.

Though José Ferrer’s screen and stage triumphs are largely forgotten, a recent broadcast of John Huston’s Moulin Rouge reminded me of how good he could be when given good direction. A gracious man, interested in all the arts, I met him once when he was playing in “Man of La Mancha”, which he did very well. Did you know he was the inspiration for the Jeffrey Cordova character played by Jack Buchanan in The Band Wagon (1951)?

Posted By Medusa : July 15, 2008 10:22 am

Hi Bobbi!

No, I didn’t realize he was the real Cordova — what a great bit of background info! You are right that he is not top-of-mind these days…a shame, since he’s wonderful and such a presence. That’s one of the problems with performers who are so versatile — their theater work is so ephemeral, only movies and TV still live as watchable proof of excellence. We all need to take the time to re-appreciate talents like his. thanks for the feedback!

Posted By Al Lowe : July 22, 2008 3:48 am

Rosemary Clooney was the mystery guest on the last episode of What’s My Line that Game Show Network aired.
She tried an English accent that worked for a little while and said later that she was so proud of it.
But her throaty laugh gave her away. “Are you married to Toulouse Lautrec?” a panelist asked.
She’d been out of the country and couldn’t wait to get back to see her baby. “He’s an angel.”
“Do you count your blessings?” panelist Bennett Cerf asked.
“Yes, all the time.”

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