Marge Champion | |
|---|---|
 Champion in 1952 | |
| Born | Marjorie Celeste Belcher (1919-09-02)September 2, 1919 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | October 21, 2020(2020-10-21) (aged 101) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Education | Hollywood High School |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1930–2001 |
| Known for | |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives |
|
| Awards | National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame |
Marjorie Celeste Champion (néeBelcher; September 2, 1919 – October 21, 2020) was an American dancer and actress. At fourteen, she was hired as a dance model forWalt Disney Studios animated films. Later, she performed as an actress and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a television show based on song and dance. She also did creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries,The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in theOhio Valley.
Champion was born in Los Angeles on September 2, 1919.[1] Her father, Ernest Belcher, was a dance director who taughtShirley Temple,Betty Grable,Ramon Novarro,Cyd Charisse,Fay Wray andJoan Crawford, as well as Champion's future husbandGower Champion;[1][2] her mother was Gladys Lee Baskette (née Rosenberg).[1] Champion had an older half sister,Lina Basquette,[2] who began acting in 1916 in silent films. Lina was the daughter of her mother's first husband, Frank Baskette, who died by suicide.[3] Champion and Basquette's maternal grandfather, Lazarus Rosenberg, was Jewish.[4][5]
Champion began dancing at an early age as her sister had done. She started as a child under the instruction of her father.[6] She studied exclusively with her father from age five until she left for New York.[7] She credited her good health and long career to her father's teaching principles: careful, strict progression of activity, emphasis on correct alignment, precise placement of body, attention to detail and to the totality of dynamics and phrasing.[7] Her first dance partner was Louis Hightower.[8] In 1930, she made her debut in the Hollywood Bowl at age 11 in the ballet "Carnival in Venice".[9] By age twelve, she became a ballet instructor at her father's studio. Champion played Tina in theHollywood High School operettaThe Red Mill. She also sang in the Hollywood High School Girls' Senior Glee Club and graduated in 1936.[10]
She was hired in 1933 at age 14 by the Walt Disney Studio as a dance model for their animated filmSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).[11] Her movements were copied to enhance the realism of the animated Snow White character.[9] For one scene Champion served as model while wrapped in a baggy overcoat for two dwarfs at once, when for the "Silly Song" dance, Dopey gets on Sneezy's shoulder to dance with Snow White.[12] Champion later modeled for characters in other animated films: the Blue Fairy inPinocchio (1940) and Hyacinth Hippo in theDance of the Hours segment ofFantasia, a ballet parody that she also helped choreograph. She even recalled doing some modeling for Mr. Stork in Dumbo.[6][9] When working with Disney onSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Champion recalled, "the animators couldn't take a young girl out of themselves, they couldn't take the prince out of themselves".[13]
The first picture Champion remembered being in wasThe Castles with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.[14] This gave her a feeling that she would really like to do movies but what she really wanted to do was go to New York and be in New York shows. Sadly, Champion wasn't tall enough for ballet, which is what she trained all her life for.[13]
After her marriage toGower Champion, the two performed together as a dance team inMGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s, including their first MGM musicalTill the Clouds Roll By (1946),[15]Show Boat (1951) andEverything I Have Is Yours (1952). Other films with Gower includedMr. Music (1950, withBing Crosby),Give a Girl a Break (1953),Jupiter's Darling (1955), andThree for the Show (1955).[16] MGM wanted the couple to remakeFred Astaire andGinger Rogers films, but only one,Lovely to Look At (1952), a remake ofRoberta (1935), was completed.[17] The couple refused to remake any of the others, the rights to which were still owned byRKO.[18]
Gower and Marge Champion appeared as the Mystery Guests on the May 15, 1955, airing ofWhat's My Line.Mary Healy guessed who they were. They appeared again on the February 8, 1959, airing of the show, with panelistMartin Gabel guessing who they were.[19]
During the summer of 1957, the Champions had their own TV series,The Marge and Gower Champion Show, a situation comedy with song and dance numbers. Marge played a dancer and Gower a choreographer.[16][20] Real-life drummerBuddy Rich was featured as a fictional drummer named Cozy.[21]
In the 1970s, Champion, actress Marilee Zdenek, and choreographer John West were part of a team at Bel Aire Presbyterian Church that created a number of creative worship services featuring dance and music. They later offered workshops and related liturgical arts programs throughout the country. She and Zdenek co-authored two books,Catch the New Wind andGod Is a Verb, related to this work.[22]
Champion served as a dialogue and movement coach for the TV miniseries,The Awakening Land (1978), adapted fromConrad Richter'strilogy of the same name.[23][24] It was set in the late 18th-century Ohio Valley. She has also worked as a dance instructor and choreographer in New York City. She made a rare television acting appearance in 1982 on the dramatic TV seriesFame, playing a ballet teacher with a racial bias against African-American students.[2][25]
Champion appeared in several stage musicals and plays on Broadway as a performer. She made her New York debut inWhat's Up (1943). She also performed in theDark of the Moon (1945) as the Fair Witch, andBeggar's Holiday (1946) having multiple roles. She made her last Broadway appearance in3 for Tonight in 1955.[26] She also worked as a choreographer or Assistant, includingLend an Ear in 1948 as assistant to the Choreographer;Make a Wish in 1951, as assistant to Gower Champion;Hello, Dolly! in 1964 as special assistant; andStepping Out (1987) as choreographic associate.[15][27] She appeared as Emily Whitman in the 2001Broadway stage revival ofFollies.[28] She stated how "as a dancer, by the time you're 40 you're done. If I ever come back, I want to be an actress – it lasts long. But I was 81 when I was in "Follies".[29]
Champion marriedArt Babbitt, an animator at Disney and creator ofGoofy, in 1937, when she was 18 and he was 30. They divorced three years later.[1] She married dancerGower Champion in 1947, and they had two sons (Blake andGregg).[1] Gower was a student at Champion's father's dance school, and the two met when they were 12 years old.[13] Although performances often took them away from California, Los Angeles remained their home base.[7] They divorced in January 1973.[30][22]
Champion married directorBoris Sagal in 1977.[1] He died four years later on May 22, 1981, in a helicopter accident during the production of the miniseriesWorld War III.[30][31] She became stepmother to Boris' five children includingKatey,Jean,Liz, andJoey.[32][33] Her son Blake died at the age of 25 in a car accident in 1987.[1]
Champion died on October 21, 2020, at her son's home in Los Angeles.[1] She was 101.[2]
Champion choreographedWhose Life Is It Anyway?, The Day of the Locust, andQueen of the Stardust Ballroom, for which she received an Emmy Award.[6] She was honored with theDisney Legends Award in 2007.[14] Two years later, she was inducted into theNational Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame[34] In 2013, Champion received The Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award at theFred and Adele Astaire Awards ceremonies.[35]
Champion was interviewed in numerous documentaries, including for thebehind-the-scenesdocumentary directed byOscar-winnerChris Innis,The Story of the Swimmer, which was featured on the 2014Grindhouse Releasing/Box Office Spectaculars Blu-ray/DVD restoration ofThe Swimmer. She was also interviewed at a screening ofThe Swimmer by filmmakerAllison Anders for the same release.[36] Champion andDonald Saddler, who met while performing together in theFollies in 2001, are the subjects of a short film about the two dancers leading meaningful lives at age 90.[37] She still danced twice a week with choreographer, actor, and an original member of American Ballet Theatre, Donald Saddler, who first performed at Jacob's Pillow in 1941. The still-spry dance partners were making a documentary "Still Dancing," which chronicles their biweekly dance sessions.[38]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Model for "Snow White" | Uncredited |
| 1938 | The Goldwyn Follies | — | Associate choreographer[39] |
| 1939 | Honor of the West | Diane Allen | |
| What a Life | Student in Doorway at Dance | Uncredited | |
| Sorority House | Coed | Uncredited | |
| 1940 | Pinocchio | Model for "The Blue Fairy" | Uncredited[1] |
| Fantasia | Model for "Hyacinth Hippo" | Uncredited[1] | |
| 1941 | Dumbo | Model for "Mr. Stork" | Uncredited[2] |
| 1950 | Mr. Music | Herself | |
| 1951 | Show Boat | Ellie Mae Shipley | |
| 1952 | Lovely to Look At | Clarisse | |
| Everything I Have Is Yours | Pamela Hubbard | ||
| 1953 | Give a Girl a Break | Madelyn Corlane | |
| 1955 | Three for the Show | Gwen Howard | |
| Jupiter's Darling | Meta | ||
| 1968 | The Party | Rosalind Dunphy | |
| The Swimmer | Peggy Forsburgh | ||
| 1970 | The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County | Mrs. Bester | |
| 1975 | The Day of the Locust | — | Dance supervisor |
| 2012 | Carol Channing: Larger Than Life | Herself | Documentary |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | The Philco Television Playhouse | — | Episode:Dark of the Moon |
| 1953 | Lux Video Theatre | Millie | Episode:A Bouquet for Millie |
| 1954 | The Red Skelton Hour | Cameo | Episode:Deadeye at the Golden Nugget |
| 1975 | Queen of the Stardust Ballroom | — | TV film (Choreographer )[40] |
| 1982 | Fame | Ann Carlton | Episode:Beginnings |
| Archives at | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| How to use archival material |
