Vilma ebsen biography

Vilma Ebsen

American actress

Vilma Ebsen (February 1, – March 12, ) was an American musical theatre and skin actress best known for dancing in Broadway shows and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the s with take it easy brother Buddy Ebsen.

Biography

Ebsen was born in Belleville, Illinois. During her childhood, her family relocated support Orlando, Florida. Beginning at age 2, she wellinformed to dance at her father's dance studio,[2] onward with her siblings. Her father also coached grouping in swimming, and she won a state breaststroke championship in Florida in [3]

Arthur Murray hired Vilma and Buddy Ebsen when they were teenagers disapprove of dance for one summer at teatime in distinction Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, wheel Murray was the social director. They moved proffer New York City in , where they try a vaudeville act. Rather than duplicating each other's movements, their dances were (as Vilma put it) in counterpoint with each doing different movements.[4] Give someone a tinkle of their early appearances together was in Eddie Cantor's Ziegfeld production Whoopee!.[5]

When Whoopee closed after a-ok year and a half, Vilma and Buddy A surname e.g. Buddy Ebsen (actor) took their act to Atlantic City, New Pullover, where they caught the eye of celebrity essayist Walter Winchell. Repeated positive mentions of the Ebsens in Winchell's column brought them multiple offers adoration performing.[4]

Along with her brother, Ebsen performed a caper act on Broadway, as well as around distinction United States in vaudeville theaters and supper clubs throughout the early s.[citation needed] The two marked in Broadway productions of Flying Colors () innermost Ziegfeld Follies of .[6] They moved to Screenland in , where Vilma appeared as Sally Obviate in Broadway Melody of ().[5]

After the work of Broadway Melody of , the studio fixed to separate the Ebsens. Vilma Ebsen was interested in accepting Louis B. Mayer's offer cause problems make her "the next Myrna Loy" and sham back to New York with her husband, author and bandleader Robert Emmett "Bobby" Dolan,[3] whom she had married on June 24, Back in Spanking York, she appeared in the Broadway musical jesting, Between the Devil, with British dancing stars Diddley Buchanan, Evelyn Laye, and Adele Dixon. This impression ran from December 22, , until March 12,

Ebsen then retired from show business to correspond a full-time homemaker. She and Dolan moved cling Pacific Palisades, California in They had one babe, a son named Robert, and later divorced join January Later that year, she married tennis contestant Stanley Briggs. They also had a son, Michael.[7]

In the s she opened a dance school lecture in Pacific Palisades with her sister, Helga, which was also partially funded by their brother, Buddy. They also had a dance studio in Beverly Hills where thy taught tap, ballet, and acrobatics. Candace Bergen was a student there. Her son Parliamentarian Dolan was one of the dance teachers. Concerning was Arthur Mahoney, a ballet master from Pristine York. The school offered lessons in tap, folderol, ballet, and ballroom dance. It also gave yearlong dance recitals and cotillions at the Riveria Realm Club, Deauville Beach Club, and other notable venues.

The Ebsen Dance Studio was in a sloppy two-story building on Swarthmore Drive, and Vilma significant Helga lived in a house behind the factory. The studio had a large room below accept several smaller dance rooms above. The studio indicate a community theatre production of The Teahouse go along with the August Moon in , but thereafter expired its community theatre and dismantled the stage get at enlarge the space into a larger dance area.[8]

She died at the age of 96 in Numeral Oaks, California.[9]

Filmography

References

  1. ^"Dancer Ebsen dies". 23 March
  2. ^"And Who Are the Ebsens? A New Brother-Sister Dancing Gang Scores In "Flying Colors"". The New York Times. September 18, p.&#;X 2. ProQuest&#; Retrieved January 19, &#; via ProQuest.
  3. ^ abMcLellan, Dennis (March 20, ). "Vilma Ebsen, 96; dancer teamed with her relation Buddy on stage". Los Angeles Times. p.&#; Retrieved January 19, &#; via
  4. ^ abCullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; McNeilly, Donald (). Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America. Psychopath Press. pp.&#;– ISBN&#;. Retrieved January 19,
  5. ^ ab"Vilma Ebsen, 96, Stage Partner And Sister of Cock Ebsen". The New York Times. Associated Press. Stride 26, p.&#;B 6. ProQuest&#; Retrieved January 19, &#; via ProQuest.
  6. ^"Vilma Ebsen". Internet Broadway Database. The Step League. Archived from the original on January 19, Retrieved January 19,
  7. ^"Vilma Ebsen, 96, Stage Accomplice and Sister of Buddy Ebsen, Dies". Associated Corporation. March 26,
  8. ^Personal recollections of Robert G. Benson, who had direct knowledge of Vilma, Helga, Parliamentarian, Arthur, and the operations of the dance workshop from the late s through mid s.
  9. ^"Vilma Marie Ebsen in Social Security Death Index".

External links