Felicitations go today to the lovely Marge Champion, who is (remarkably) still with us, aged 101!
All hail.
With her former husband Gower [they divorced in 1973; he died in 1980], the feisty Miss Champion revitalised the world of dancing (as performer and choreographer) in the Technicolor age in such films as Show Boat, Bye Bye Birdie, Hello Dolly, Lovely To Look At, Three for the Show and this one...
Facts:
- Miss Champion was the model for Walt Disney’s original Snow White.
- Their film Lovely to Look At was a remake of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie Roberta; Marge and Gower were originally asked to do a series of colour remakes of Fred and Ginger's classics, but they turned down the proposal.
- Among many others who got their first break in Marge and Gower's sumptuously choreographed shows was none other than Miss Carol Channing, who Marge "discovered" in 1940.
- In 2009, at age 90, Marge was still dancing - as featured in a television documentary on her friendship with dance partner Donald Saddler [watch it here].
[More Champion stuff here and here]
