Rose Marie, Decades-Spanning Showbiz Veteran, Is Dead at 94

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

Rose Marie, who became a radio star as a toddler in the 1920s and a television star on the hit sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show” in the 1960s — and who continued performing into the 21st century — died on Thursday in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. She was 94.

Her death was announced on her website and confirmed by her longtime publicist, B. Harlan Boll.

Originally known as Baby Rose Marie, she is probably best remembered for her “Dick Van Dyke Show” role as Sally Rogers, one of three comedy writers — the others were Rob Petrie (Mr. Van Dyke) and Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) — who worked for the fictional series-within-a-series, “The Alan Brady Show.”

<...>

She was also seen frequently — from the first episode, in 1966, to the last, in 1980 — on the original version of “Hollywood Squares,” the game show on which celebrities answered questions (and made jokes) to help contestants score X’s or O’s on a giant tick-tack-toe board. There, with her trademark bow in her hair, she flaunted the persona she had perfected: a feisty, witty, outspoken spinster (although she was actually a widow) who refused to grow old without a fight.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/obituaries/rose-marie-dead.html

---

I heard this on the radio this morning.

She was such a hoot and I didn't realize she was still around nor did I know her back story as a child performer.

R.I.P.

[Soxfan58]

1. Am I that old

Hollywood squares has to be discribed? RIP Rose Marie your responsible for many of the laughs Iv'e had in my life.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Used to love her and other regulars on Hollywood Squares

like Paul Lynde, Charo, "Charlie Weaver", George Gobel, etc.

[Soxfan58]

6. Charlie Weaver!

I had forgot all about him. My faverite was Paul Lynde.

[Cattledog]

3. This is her at 6 years old in 1929.

&feature=player_embedded

[kaotikross]

4. Both she and her costar

Morey Amsterdam worked in mob joints in the 1930's. Considering booze was outlawed but people weren't going to booze-free clubs, with nightclubs came booze and with booze, hoods. They certainly weren't alone in this, most any entertainer who worked in the 1930's was doing it, you had to work someplace. Rose was quite young, of Italian descent, and was rumored to be a Capone and Seigel favorite. Morey was actually caught in the middle of a gunfight between two men fighting over a woman at a club owned by Capone, later describing "hearing a bullet whizz right by and feeling the breeze from it passing" and made a hasty move out west to Los Angeles right after that. Probably a wise decision.

[BigOleDummy]

5. I follow/ed her on Twitter

A nicer sweeter person never lived. I actually felt a pang when I logged on last night and saw this. Rose Marie was a hell of a woman who stood up for herself back when it wasn't "feminine" to do so. An awful lot to admire in this "old broad" as she would say.

[yallerdawg]

7. I just saw her last week in a colorized Christmas "Doris Day Show."

She did a Jimmy Durante stand-up bit at "The Christmas Office Party." My Millennial children were there, and had absolutely no idea who ANY of these people were or recognized the Durante bit.

Rose Marie was every bit the equal of Rob and Buddy in the comedy writer's office. Professional, familiar, comfortable, social - and never crossed that line. What a role model for the times to come.

Thank you and rest in peace, Rose Marie.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Since you mentioned Jimmy Durante

...about the only thing left that the millennials and younger set might have been exposed to that featured him was the '60s animated "Frosty the Snowman" that does air every year somewhere.