Rose Marie

Blessed with a remarkable singing voice for a child that allowed her to belt out jazz songs in the "coon shouter" style of the 1920s (as exemplified by Sophie Tucker), she began performing when she was three years old as "Baby Rose Marie.

The legendary performer was born Rose Marie Mazetta on August 15, 1923 in New York City, the daughter of an Italian-American father, Frank Mazetta (known as Frank Curley), and Polish-American mother, Stella (Gluszcak).

Rose Marie was a legend of show business, with a career stretching 90 years, since her debut as her self in a Vitaphone musical short that appeared on the bill with The Jazz Singer (1927) at its premiere in 1927. According to Rose Marie, when she approached Al Jolson at The Wintergarden Theater in New York on the night of the premiere that made movie history and told him, "You were wonderful, Mr. Jolson!", his reply was, "Get away, you little brat!""He didn't like kids," Rose Marie explained.

Her first credited appearance was in another musical short, Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder (1929) in 1929.

Baby Rose Marie made many appearances in films in the 1930s, most famously in International House (1933), a movie about television, the medium in which Rose Marie would win her everlasting fame. In addition to her film performances, Baby Rose Marie also appeared on records and performed in vaudeville as a headliner. One of the acts she appeared with was Edgar Bergen before his Charlie McCarthy ventriloquism act, when he was still a small-timer.

After the war she married trumpeter Bobby Guy of the Kay Kyser Orchestra, in 1946.

Daughter, Georgiana Marie Guy (born May 18, 1947), with Bobby Guy.

" By the time she was five, she had her own radio show on NBC, appearing after 'Amos and Andy' (1949)_, the most popular show in the country. Many people could not believe the voice they were hearing actually belonged to a child.

She made her Broadway debut in 1951, co-starring with Phil Silvers in the hit show Top Banana (1954) (she also appeared in the 1954 film adaptation).

Rose Marie had a career resurgence as an actress in the 1960s, starring in three sit-coms during the decade: First, My Sister Eileen (1960) in the 1960-1961 season.

Rose Marie also appeared on radio on "The Phil Harris - Alice Faye Show", playing the sister of Sheldon Leonard, who would later hire her for The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) in his capacity as executive producer.

Second: as comedy writer "Sally Rogers" on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) from 1961 to 1966, and on The Doris Day Show (1968) from 1969 to 1971.

Her always wearing a black velvet hair bow had some personal significance on which Rose Marie had refused to elaborate. However one of the many interesting facts found out about over time is the reason why Rose Marie always wore that small, black, velvet ribbon in her hair while working. Supposedly it was an homage to the love of her life, jazz trumpeter Bobby Guy, who died from a mysterious blood disease at the age of 48 in 1964.

She also appeared frequently on The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965).

She also kept her singing career going, touring as part of the musical revue "4 Girls 4" from 1977 to 1981 with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O'Connell and Margaret Whiting. In her latter years, she continued to make occasional appearances.

Lifelong friend of Randy West, from 1981 until Marie's death in 2017.

She appeared in a Remington Steele episode "Steele in the Spotlight (1986).

A half century later, when she appeared on Murphy Brown (1988), she told star Candice Bergen, "I worked with your father in vaudeville when he was doing a doctor sketch. "When Bergen replied that she couldn't have played the nurse in the act as she was too young, Rose Marie told her that she was the headliner and he was her opening act. "She didn't care for that too much," Rose Marie remembered. She also appeared in vaudeville with Dick Powell, Rudy Vallee and Jimmy Durante, who mentored her. She also entertained at the White House three separate times at the request of three presidents. They were Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She transitioned to becoming a nightclub chanteuse as a teenager, playing all the big night clubs and hotels in New York, Chicago, Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Miami, Florida, usually in Mob-controlled venues. (Prominent mobsters, who called her "The Kid", liked her and protected her. ) A young Milton Berle, whom she had known since she was a child, wrote some of her material, as did Morey Amsterdam, her future "Dick Van Dyke" co-star whom she knew since she was nine years old.

She was the center square at least once, and had a recurring role on Murphy Brown (1988) and Wings (1990).

Her mother, Stella Gluscak Curley, had young Rose Marie when she was only 16. Years later, her mother passed away on November 6, 2000, having lived to age 93, which was almost exactly the age her daughter had died, 17 years later, near the end of 2017.

Received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 3, 2001. It was the 2184th star issued.

Toured for over eight years in the musical revue, "4 Girls 4", with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O'Connell, and Margaret Whiting. After the death of Margaret Whiting in 2011, Rose Marie is the last remaining member of the four.