It's my B-Day (and that of Ann Miller)

Today is my b-day.  It is also the birthday of actress and dancer Ann Miller.

So wish Ann a happy birthday.  

Ann Miller was born here in Texas in 1923, in the small town of Chireno, out near Nacogdoches.  

She was a professional dancer by the age of 13 and began appearing in pictures as a child.  Her final role was in David Lynch's Mulholland Falls.  You may also remember her from Easter Parade, Kiss Me Kate, You Can't Take it With You or, most likely, On the Town.  

what are you doing, Ann Miller?

Miller was an extraordinary dancer, especially in tap.  The studios pitched her as being able to tap 500 times per minute (which was a bit of studio hyperbole, but who was counting?).  

Miller was also a fixture of TV, Broadway and pantyhose commercials.  In fact, if you really want to go down a Google-hole, there's a story that she invented the idea of pantyhose so she wasn't having to deal with complicated costume problems when she tore a stocking.  I'll let you pursue that one on your own.

So, happy B-Day to my fellow April 12th b-day buddy.

Here's Miller singing and dancing to a statue of Victor Mature (not really, but...  really) and celebrating the potential for romance with a neanderthal.  It's a weird bit.



It's been a while since I'd seen that bit. It could easily be considered pretty racist, so let's pretend we didn't watch that.

Here's a bit from "Lovely To Look At", which is, of course, a dream of a title for feminist film studies majors looking for a movie upon which to write a scathing essay.



Actually, that whole clip is a gift from me to the feminist film studies major looking for a clip to deconstruct a scene. Y'all go nuts.