Mary Martin

Mary Martin's friend Arthur Godfrey taught her to play "Maria's" songs in the musical "The Sound of Music" on a ukulele the summer before the show went into rehearsal. A ukulele is a small type of guitar of Portuguese origin popularized in Hawaii in the 1880s and strung typically with four strings; opposed to a guitar, a flat-bodied stringed instrument with a long fretted neck and usually six strings plucked with a pick or with fingers. On stage, the producers had one of those expensive beautiful guitars strung for a ukulele because that is how Mary had learned the material. The guitarist in the theatre orchestra pit nearly cried. Mary's understudy Renee Guerin, for several weeks, took lessons from the orchestra's guitarist in order to perform "Maria's musical material" on the guitar.

She lived in an apartment building called "Highland Towers" for a while in the late 1930s near the corner of Highland and Franklin Avenues in Hollywood, California. She would walk the 4 blocks to work as a singer at the "Cinegrill", a nightclub in the Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard and walk back home again in the evenings. Both buildings, including the nightclub remain today.

In 1938, she dubbed the singing voices for Margaret Sullavan in "The Shopworn Angel" and Gypsy Rose Lee in "The Battle of Broadway".

Her daughter, Heller Halliday, was born on November 4, 1941, in Los Angeles. She insisted her second child was going to be a girl and she was right. Her godmothers were Judith Anderson and Jean Arthur.

Husband Richard Halliday acted as Mary Martin's agent. The original "One Touch of Venus" Broadway musical production premiered at the Imperial Theatre on 7 October 1943, closed on 10 February 1945 after 567 performances. "One Touch of Venus" with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash, directed by Ilia Kazan, featured choreography by Agnes de Mille, starring Mary Martin, Kenny Baker and Paula Laurence. The original featured cast role of Venus was to have starred Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich backed out of the title role during rehearsals, calling it "too sexy and profane," which gave Mary Martin the opportunity to justifiably establish herself as a Broadway star. The show satirizes contemporary American suburban values, artistic fads and romantic and sexual mores. Weill had been in America for eight years by the time he wrote this musical, and his music, though retaining his early haunting power, had evolved into a very different Broadway style. The book musical by S.J. Perelman and Ogden Nash was based on the novella "The Tinted Venus" by Thomas Amstey Guthrie, and very loosely spoofing the Pygmalion myth.

Gave birth to a stillborn baby in May, 1945. Her daughter, Heller Halliday, was bitten badly by a dog, causing Martin to go into shock and be rushed to the hospital. This resulted in the stillbirth of her baby, as well as a blood transfusion.

Recreated her first Broadway showstopper "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in the film biography of Cole Porter in Night and Day (1946).

Won four Tony Awards: in 1948, a Special Award for the touring production of "Annie Get Your Gun," cited for "spreading theatre to the country while the original performs in New York;" and three Best Actress (Musical) awards: in 1950, for "South Pacific;" in 1955, for "Peter Pan," a part she recreated in several television versions; and, in 1960, for "The Sound of Music." She was also nominated as Best Actress (Musical) in 1967 for "I Do! I Do!"

Mary Martin and Jean Arthur, close friends, discussed between them selves their individual interest in performing the role of Peter Pan in James M. Barrie's play "Peter Pan." Jean Arthur beat Mary Martin in performing the role. The Shubert Organization, Producers Peter Lawreunce and R. L. Stevens produced the James M. Barrie play revival with music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein, at the Imperial Theatre (4/24/1950-9/30/1950), St. James Theatre (10/02/1950-1/27/1951) with total performances of 321. The music arranged by Trude Rittman; Music orchestrated by Hershy Kay. The production was staged by John Burrell; Associate Director by Wendy Toye; Scenic Design and lighting design by Ralph Alswang; Costume design by Motley. Flying supervisor Peter Foy. Hollywood's Universal Studios feature film horror picture movie star, also a stage actor, Boris Karloff starred as Mr. Darling and Captain James Hook. After the success of Jean Arthur's appearance in the play revival with music, Mary Martin asked close friend and impresario of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Association, Edwin Lester, to develop and produce a musical of the "Peter Pan" property. Edwin Lester assembled a creative team in 1953 to develop the musical for the Broadway stage with Mary Martin featured as Peter Pan.

Mary Martin, in the role of Peter Pan, received a Tony for Best Performance by a leading Actress in a Musical in the 1955 Tony Awards. Cyril Ritchard won a Tony for Best Performance by a leading Actor in a Musical for his dual role as Mr. Darling and Captain James Hook. Technical Director Richard Rodda received a 1955 Tony Award for Best Stage Technician. The Los Angeles and San Francisco Civic Light Opera founder and producer Edwin Lester acquired the American rights to adapt the J. M. Barrie's 1904 play "Peter Pan" and Barrie's own novelization of "Peter and Wendy" as a stage musical for Mary Martin. The music is by Mark Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, most of the lyrics written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Incidental music by Elmer Bernstein and Trude Rittman. Musical orchestrated by Albert Sendrey. Directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Scenic Design by Peter Larkin, Costume Design by Motley, Lighting Design by Peggy Clark. Flying Supervisor Peter Foy and Flying Effect by Joseph Kirby. Prior to opening in San Francisco's Geary Street theatre district's Curran Theatre, the production was rehearsed at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. During the San Francisco performance schedule, additional musical material was ordered by Jerome Robbins and Edwin Lester, revisions continued when the expensive musical transferred to Los Angeles in August, 1954. The show opened in a busy Broadway season, competing with such notable shows as The Boy Friend, Fanny, Silk Stockings, and Damn Yankees. However, while still in Los Angeles, a deal was made for the musical to be broadcast on the NBC's Color Television network 90 minute anthology series "Producers' Showcase," that aired every fourth Monday, on March 7, 1955. "Peter Pan" opened on Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre on 20 October 1954, with a limited run of 152 performances, closing 26 February 1955, closed so that it could be broadcast on television, although box office continued to be strong throughout the Broadway run. The aim of the "Producers' Showcase" was to broadcast expensive color spectaculars to promote the new color television system developed by NBC's parent company RCA. On Marh 7, 1955, NBC presented "Peter Pan" live as part of "Producer's Showcase" as the first full-length Broadway production on color TV. The television show attracted a then-record viewing audience of 65 million viewers, the highest ever up to that time for a single television broadcast program. Marry Martin won an EMMY Award for the television production. So well received that the musical was re-staged live for television on 9 January 1956. Both of these broadcasts were produced live and in color, but only black-and-white kine-scope recordings survive.The telecast special followed with rebroadcasts in 1956, and in 1960 with the same stars, production costumes and scenery. The re-staged 1960 telecast had new children in the cast because the original kids had grown to old for their parts. The musical has enjoyed several revivals onstage in 1979, 1990, 1998. Following the successful 1955/56 "Peter Pan" telecast, the NBC Color network mounted a television production of Irving Berlin's Broadway stage musical "Annie Get Your Gun," directed by Vincent J. Donehue, starring Mary Martin as Annie Oakley and John Raitt as Frank Butler, William O'Neal as William Frederick 'Buffalo Bill' Cody. Telecast live as part of the "Producer's Showcase," in color from the NBC Burbank Studios #2 and #4, with an audience, on 27 November 1957.

The initial success of Mary Martin's performance of the 1955 Broadway musical "Peter Pan," with Cyril Ritchard in his dual role as Mr. Darling and Captain James Hook, telecast on NBC's "Producer's Showcase," airing on 7 March 1955, repeated 9 January 1956 as a NBC "Producer's Showcase" Color broadcast special event, was the basis for NBC Events Division's production of the Irving Berlin musical "Annie Get Your Gun." The aim of the "Producers' Showcase" was to broadcast expensive color spectaculars to promote the new color television system developed by NBC's parent company RCA. "Peter Pan" was the first major telecast of a Broadway musical for any network broadcasting company. The NBC Network's "Producer's Showcase" Color special "Mary Martin starring in Irving Berlin's Broadway musical 'Annie Get Your Gun' " was telecast live to New York from the NBC Burbank television facility, from color studio #2 and adjacent studio #4, a live studio audience seated on both stages . The production was expanded to incorporate actual horses on stage, with the studio's central hall stage access corridor floors covered in a cushion of dirt, the hallway corridor dressed with trees, and shrubs, the walls hung with landscape and mountain scenic backings. The corridor ceilings were rigged with pipes enabling stage lighting rigged to focus on the live action of performers, on horseback, staged in the 100 foot long access stage hall corridor. The television studios #2 and #4 each had an audience, who could watch overhead monitors of the staging when performers were on either stage and in the studio corridor located at the back-end of the adjacent stages. The large elephant stage doors on both adjacent studio-stages were open for the corridor access. The 1957 NBC color telecast of the Broadway musical "Annie Get Your Gun" was the second Broadway stage musical production for an NBC Color Special event.

The play "Kind Sir", in which Mary Martin, starred with Charles Boyer on Broadway, was later made into the Cary Grant-Ingrid Bergman movie Indiscreet (1958).

The 1956 West German film "The Trapp Family" - about the von Trapp family, and its 1958 sequel "Die Trapp-Familie in America" became the most successful films in West Germany during the post-war years. The two films popularity extended throughout Europe and South America. In 1956, Paramount Pictures purchased the United States film rights, intending to produce an English language version with Audrey Hepburn as Maria. The studio eventually dropped their option; but one of the Paramount film studio's directors involved in preliminary development of the film, Vincent J. Donehue, proposed the story as a stage musical for his friend Mary Martin. Broadway producers Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday (Mary Martin's husband) agreed and secured the rights. Originally envisioned as a non-musical play, they hired playwrights Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for "State of the Union," with the play featuring songs from the repertoire of the Trapp Family Singers. Developing the property, Mary Martin agreed with the production team to ask Richard Rogers to add an original song or two by Rogers and Hammerstein. Soon, agreed with the composers Rogers and Hammerstein, the two styles of traditional Austrian folk songs and their two song compositions would not work together. Rogers and Hammerstein offered to write a complete new score for the entire production if the producers were willing to wait while they completed work on "Flower Drum Song." Rogers and Hammerstein based their fictionalized musical on the memoir of Maria Augusta von Trapp, "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" - published in 1949 by J.B. Lippincott Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The original multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway musical by Richard Rogers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse - "The Sound of Music" - starring Mary Martin (at age 46) and Theodore Bikel (at age 35), opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959, moved to the Mark Hellinger Theatre on November 6, 1962 and closed on June 15, 1963 after 1,433 performances. The director was Vincent J. Donehue, and the choreographer was Joe Layton. The original cast included Mary Martin as Maria, Theodore Bikel as Captain Georg von Trapp, (Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the song "Edelweiss" specifically for him to perform), Patricia Neway as Mother Abbess, Kurt Kaszner as Max Detweiler, Marion Marlowe as Elsa Schrader, Brian Davies as Rolf and Lauri Peters as Liesl. Sopranos Patricia Brooks and June Card were ensemble members in the original production. The show tied for the Tony Award for Best Musical with "Fiorello!." Other awards included Martin for Best Actress in a Musical, Neway for Best featured Actress, Best Scenic Design (Oliver Smith) and Best Musical Direction (Frederick Dvonch). Bikel and Kasznar were nominated for Tony acting awards, and Donehue was nominated for his direction. The entire children's cast was nominated for Best Featured Actress category as a Tony single nominee, even though two children were boys. Mary's understudy Renee Guerin performed the 'Maria' role with Theodore Bikel during the Broadway run when Mary vacationed from the show. Martha Wright replaced Martin in the role of Maria on Broadway in October 1961, followed by Karen Gantz in July 1962, Jeannie Carson in August 1962 and Nancy Dussault in September 1962. Jon Voight, who eventually married co-star Lauri Peters, was a replacement for Rolf. The national tour starred Florence Henderson as Maria and Beatrice Krebs as Mother Abbess. It opened at the Grand Riviera Theater, Detroit, on February 27, 1961 and closed November 23, 1963 at the O'Keefe Centre, Toronto. Henderson was succeeded by Barbara Meister in June 1962. Theodore Bikel was not satisfied playing the role of the Captain because of the role's limited singing; Bikel did not like to play the same role over and over again. In his autobiography, he writes: "I promised myself then that if I could afford it, I would never do a run as long as that again." The original Broadway cast album sold three million copies. The musical premiered in London's West End at the Palace Theatre on May 18, 1961, and ran for 2,385 performances. It was directed by Jerome Whyte and used the original New York choreography, supervised by Joe Layton, and the original sets designed by Oliver Smith. The cast included Jean Bayless as Maria, followed by Sonia Rees, Roger Dann as Captain von Trapp, Constance Shacklock as Mother Abbess, Eunice Gayson as Elsa Schrader, Harold Kasket as Max Detweiler, Barbara Brown as Liesl, Nicholas Bennett as Rolf and Olive Gilbert as Sister Margaretta. "The Sound of Music" was the final musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Oscar Hammerstein II died of cancer nine months after the Broadway premiere (b: July 12, 1895-to-d: August 23, 1960, at age 65).

Former mother-in-law, from 1962 to 1972, of Tony Weir.

Was offered the role of Miss Ellie on Dallas (1978) when Barbara Bel Geddes left the show due to health problems. She turned it down. Had she accepted, she would have played the mother of JR Ewing, who was played by Martin's son, Larry Hagman.

Won a Peabody Award for her work in the television film Valentine (1979) in 1979.

Made her final appearance on the London stage in the 1980 Royal Variety Performance when she performed an engaging version of "Honeybun" from one of her biggest musicals "South Pacific."

In 1982, Mary Martin, friend and manager Ben Washer, actress Janet Gaynor and Gaynor's husband, Paul Gregory, were riding in a taxi cab when a drunk driver named Bob Cato sped through a red light and smashed into their vehicle at the corner of Franklin and California Streets. The four were on their way to dinner in downtown San Francisco. Mary and Paul Gregory suffered multiple injuries but recovered. Washer was killed. Ms. Janet Gaynor subsequently died in 1984 from complications of her injuries.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 610-611. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.