Rosemary Clooney | |
|---|---|
 Clooney in 1954 | |
| Born | Rose Mary Clooney (1928-05-23)May 23, 1928 Maysville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | June 29, 2002(2002-06-29) (aged 74) |
| Resting place | Saint Patrick's Cemetery, Maysville |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1946–2002 |
| Known for | White Christmas Come On-a My House Botch-a-Me Mambo Italiano Tenderly Half as Much Hey There This Ole House |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5, includingMiguel Ferrer |
| Relatives |
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| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Labels | |
Musical artist | |
| Website | Rosemary Clooney Palladium website |
Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me", "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There", "This Ole House", and "Sway". She also had success as a jazz vocalist.
Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly because of problems related tobipolar disorder and drug addiction, but revived in 1977, when herWhite Christmas co-starBing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. Clooney continued recording until her death in 2002. In her personal life, she was the mother of actorMiguel Ferrer and the aunt of actorGeorge Clooney.
Rosemary Clooney was born on May 23, 1928, inMaysville, Kentucky,[1] the daughter of Marie Frances (née Guilfoyle) and Andrew Joseph Clooney. She was one of five children.[2] Andrew was of Irish and German descent while Marie was of Irish ancestry. Clooney was raised Catholic. At age 15, her mother and brotherNick moved to California. Clooney and her sisterBetty remained with their father.[3] The family resided in theJohn Brett Richeson House in the late 1940s.[citation needed]
Rosemary and Betty became entertainers, whereas Nick became a newsman and television broadcaster (some of her children, includingMiguel Ferrer and Rafael Ferrer, and her nephew,George Clooney, also became respected actors and entertainers). In 1945, the Clooney sisters won a spot onCincinnati's radio stationWLW as singers.[1] Rosemary and Betty sang in a duo for much of Rosemary's early career.[1]
In 1947, the Clooney sisters signed withColumbia Records and cut their first record withTony Pastor'sbig band, "I'm Sorry I Didn't Say Sorry",[1] backed with "The Lady from Twenty-Nine Palms". Pastor had initially been reluctant to take both sisters into his band especially as Betty was still under the age of 18 but finally relented. The Clooneys cut 14 sides with the Pastor band before going their separate ways; Rosemary made her solo recording debut in mid-1949 with "Bargain Day" and "Cabaret". Betty did some recording and live performances as an adult but did not pursue a full-time singing career like her sister.
In 1950–51, Clooney was a regular on the CBS radio and television versions ofSongs for Sale. In early 1951, she had a minor hit with "Beautiful Brown Eyes", but Clooney's recording of "Come On-a My House" four months later, produced byMitch Miller, became her first big chart hit.[1] Miller would gain a semi-notorious reputation for his promotion of novelty pop material, which he often personally selected and provided musical arrangements for.[1] Clooney recounted in her memoir that she despised the song, but as a young upstart singer with no leverage to speak of, she had no say in any of the material that she recorded.[citation needed] Clooney made several duets withMarlene Dietrich (released in the EPRosie and Marlene),[1] and appeared in the early 1950s onFaye Emerson's Wonderful Town series onCBS. She also did several guest appearances on theArthur Godfrey radio show, when it was sponsored byLipton Tea. They did duets as he played hisukulele, and other times, Clooney would sing one of her latest hits.[citation needed]
In 1954, Clooney starred, along with Bing Crosby,Danny Kaye, andVera-Ellen, in the movieWhite Christmas.[4] Two years later, she starred in a half-hoursyndicated television musical-variety show,The Rosemary Clooney Show, which featuredThe Hi-Lo's singing group andNelson Riddle's orchestra. In 1957, the show moved toNBC prime time asThe Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney, but it lasted only one season. The new show featured the singing groupThe Modernaires andFrank DeVol's orchestra. In later years, Clooney often appeared with Bing Crosby on television, such as in the 1957 specialThe Edsel Show, and the two friends made a concert tour of Ireland together. On November 21, 1957, she appeared on NBC'sThe Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, a frequent entry in the "Top 20" and featuring a musical group called "The Top Twenty". In 1960, Clooney and Crosby co-starred in a20-minute CBS radio program that aired before the midday news each weekday. She had 16 songs make the Billboard pop chart from 1951 to 1956 and was one of the biggest names in pop music for several years.[1]
Clooney's last major chart hit was "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face", released in May 1956. Rock-and-roll was displacing older singers from the pop charts but multiple pregnancies and childbirths in a short span of time also impaired her ability to tour or promote records.
Clooney left Columbia in 1958, doing a number of recordings forMGM Records and then some forCoral Records. Toward the end of 1958, she signed withRCA Victor, where she recorded until 1963. In 1964, Clooney recorded forReprise Records, and in 1965,Dot Records.
A one-off single for Dot, "Let Me Down Easy", in 1968 was the last new material Clooney would release for the next eight years as she spent most of that time recovering from a severe mental breakdown and substance abuse issues.
In 1976, Clooney recorded two albums forUnited Artists Records, the first new LP she had released in more than a decade. Beginning in 1977, she recorded an album every year for the Concord Jazz record label,[5] a schedule which continued until her death. At that time, Clooney was one of the few singers of her generation to still be making regular recordings. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Clooney did televisioncommercials for Coronet brand paper towels, during which she sang the memorablejingle, "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Cor-o-net." Clooney sang a duet withWild Man Fischer on "It's a Hard Business" in 1986, and in 1994, she sang a duet of "Green Eyes" withBarry Manilow in his 1994 album,Singin' with the Big Bands.
In 1994, Clooneyguest-starred in the NBC television medical dramaER[1] (starring her nephew, George Clooney); for her performance, she received aPrimetime Emmy Award nomination forOutstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. On January 27, 1996, Clooney appeared onGarrison Keillor'sPrairie Home Companion radio program. She sang "When October Goes"—lyrics byJohnny Mercer and music by Barry Manilow (after Mercer's death)—from Manilow's 1984 album2:00 AM Paradise Cafe, and discussed the excellence of Manilow the musician.[6]
Clooney was also awarded aSociety of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.[7] In 1999, she founded the Rosemary Clooney Music Festival, held annually in Maysville, her hometown.[8] Clooney performed at the festival every year until her death. Proceeds benefit the restoration of the Russell Theater in Maysville, where Clooney's first film,The Stars Are Singing, premiered in 1953.
Clooney received theGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.
Clooney was married twice toJosé Ferrer. They first married on July 13, 1953, inDurant, Oklahoma.[9] They moved toSanta Monica, California, in 1954, and then toLos Angeles in 1958. Together, the couple had five children; sonMiguel Ferrer also became an actor. Clooney and Ferrer divorced for the first time in 1961.
Clooney remarried Ferrer on November 22, 1964, in Los Angeles. However, the marriage again crumbled while Ferrer was carrying on an affair with the woman who would become his last wife, Stella Magee. The couple divorced again after Clooney found out about the affair, this time in 1967.
In 1968, Clooney's relationship with a drummer ended after two years. At this time, following a tour, she became increasingly dependent on tranquilizers and sleeping pills.[9]
Clooney joined thepresidential campaign of close friendRobert F. Kennedy and heard the shots when he wasassassinated on June 5, 1968.[10] A month later, she had anervous breakdown onstage inReno, Nevada, where Clooney began shouting insults at her audience. She was hospitalized in a mental health care facility and remained inpsychoanalytic therapy for eight years.[11]
Clooney's sister Betty died at age 45 of abrain aneurysm in 1976, and she subsequently started a foundation in memory of and named for Betty. During this time, Clooney also wrote her first autobiography,This for Remembrance: The Autobiography of Rosemary Clooney, an Irish-American Singer, written in collaboration with Raymond Strait and published byPlayboy Press in 1977.[12] Clooney chronicled her unhappy early life, her career as a singer, her marriage to Ferrer, her mental breakdown in 1968, and the diagnosis ofbipolar disorder that seriously disrupted her career, concluding with her comeback as a singer and her happiness. Clooney's good friend Bing Crosby wrote the introduction. Katherine Coker adapted the book forJackie Cooper, who produced and directed the television movie,Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story (1982) starringSondra Locke (who lip synced Clooney's songs),Penelope Milford as Betty, andTony Orlando as José Ferrer. The 1944-born Locke was 38 at the time and just 16 years younger than Clooney in real life, yet playing her from 17 to 40. Orlando and Locke were the same age, although the real Ferrer was 16 years older than Clooney.
In 1983, Clooney and her brother Nick co-chaired the Betty Clooney Foundation for the Brain-Injured, addressing the needs of survivors of cognitive disabilities caused bystrokes,tumors, andbrain damage from trauma or age.
In 1997, Clooney married her longtime friend and a former dancer,Dante DiPaolo, at St. Patrick's Church in Maysville, Kentucky.[13][14]
In 1999, Clooney published her second autobiography,Girl Singer: An Autobiography, describing her battles with addiction toprescription drugs fordepression, and how she lost and then regained a fortune.[15] "I'd call myself a sweet singer with a big band sensibility," she wrote.
A longtime heavy smoker, Clooney was diagnosed with lung cancer at the end of 2001.[16] She died on June 29, 2002, at age 74 at herBeverly Hills home from complications of cancer.[17][18][19] A funeral was held for Clooney at St. Patrick's Church in Maysville, Kentucky.[20][21]
Clooney lived for many years in Beverly Hills, California, in the house formerly owned byGeorge andIra Gershwin at 1019 North Roxbury Drive. It was sold to a developer after her death in 2002 and has since been demolished. In 1980, Clooney purchased a second home on Riverside Drive inAugusta, Kentucky, near Maysville, her childhood hometown. Today, the Augusta house serves as ahistoric house museum, allowing visitors to view collections of her personal items and memorabilia from many of her films and singing performances. Clooney also maintained an apartment in the early 1960s at the Winslow Hotel on Madison Avenue (now demolished).[citation needed]
In 2003, Clooney was inducted into theKentucky Women Remembered exhibit, and her portrait by Alison Lyne is on permanent display in theKentucky State Capitol's rotunda.[22] That same year,Bette Midler, after many years apart, rejoined forces with Barry Manilow to recordBette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook. The album was an instant success, being certified gold byRecording Industry Association of America. One of the songbook selections, "This Ole House", became Midler's firstChristian radio single shipped by Rick Hendrix and his positive music movement. The album was nominated for aGrammy the following year.[citation needed]
In 2005, the albumReflections of Rosemary byDebby Boone was released. Boone, who was Clooney's daughter-in-law, intended the album to be a musical portrait of Clooney, or as Boone put it: "I wanted to select songs that would give an insight into Rosemary from a family perspective".[23]
In September 2007, a mural honoring moments from Clooney's life was painted in downtown Maysville; it highlights the 1953 premiere ofThe Stars Are Singing and her singing career. It was painted byLouisiana muralistsRobert Dafford,Herb Roe, and Brett Chigoy as part of theMaysville Floodwall Murals project.[24][25] Clooney's brother, Nick, spoke during the dedication for the mural, explaining various images to the crowd.[26]
| Year | Program | Episode/source |
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| 1953 | Suspense | St. James Infirmary[27] |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
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| Other | |
