Mary Martin

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Mary Martin photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949
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Mary Martin photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949

Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) born in Weatherford, Texas was a Tony Award winning American star of (mainly stage) musicals. Amongst the roles originally created by her were those of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Her life as a child, as Martin describes it in her autobiography My Heart Belongs, was secure and joyful. She had close relationships with both her mother and father, as well as her other siblings. Her autobiography details how the young actress had an instinctive ear for recreating the sounds heard in the musical world.

[edit] Career

Mary Martin struggled for nearly two years to break into show business. She was nicknamed "Audition Mary" because she auditioned so often. As a struggling young actress, Martin endured humorous and sometimes frightful luck trying to make it in the world, from car crashes leading to vocal instruction, unknowingly singing in front of Oscar Hammerstein II, to her final break on Broadway granted by the very prominent producer, Lawrence Schwab.

Martin's career then took off at a rapid pace. She received the Donaldson Award and the New York Film Critics Circle Award in 1943 for One Touch of Venus. In 1955 and 1956, she received, first, a Tony for Peter Pan, and then an Emmy for appearing in the same role on television. She also received Tony Awards for South Pacific, and, in 1959, for The Sound of Music.

Although she did a few films early in her career, she was generally passed over for the filmed version of the musical plays in which she starred. She herself once explained that she did not enjoy making films, because she did not have the "connection" with an audience that she had in live performances. The closest she ever came to preserving her stage performances were her famous television appearances as Peter Pan (she had starred in a musical version on Broadway in 1954, and this production was subsequently performed on television in 1955, 1956 and 1960). While Mary Martin did not enjoy making theatrical films, however, she apparently enjoyed appearing on television, and did so frequently.

[edit] Personal life, marriages, relationships

  • She married a second time in 1940 to Richard Halliday, and they had a daughter, Heller Halliday, who is Larry's half-sister.
  • It has been claimed by author Boze Hadleigh that Martin had a longtime intimate lesbian relationship with Oscar winning actress Janet Gaynor, who quoted, in his 1994 book Hollywood Babble On, actor Robert Cummings as saying: 'Janet Gaynor's husband was Adrian, the MGM fashion designer. But her wife was Mary Martin...' This claim is echoed, with differing strengths of conviction, on various websites - ([1], [2], [3], [4]), but it should be noted that neither Mary Martin nor Janet Gaynor was interviewed by Hadleigh nor was either of them alive at the time of the book's publication, and that Gaynor's last husband, Paul Gregory, denied the rumors/claims.

[edit] Trivia

  • She was not disappointed by not getting the role of "Nellie Forbush" in the film version of South Pacific (it went to Mitzi Gaynor), despite her friendship with Joshua Logan. Martin did not enjoy making films, and Logan claimed that by 1958, when South Pacific was filmed, she was too old for the part.
  • The Canadian band The New Pornographers pay tribute to Mary Martin in their song, The Mary Martin Show.
  • Martin dubbed Margaret Sullavan's singing voice in the 1938 film The Shopworn Angel.

[edit] Stage Appearances

  • Leave It to Me! (1938) (Broadway)
  • One Touch of Venus (1943) (Broadway)
  • Pacific 1860 (1946) (London)
  • Lute Song (1946) (Broadway)
  • Annie Get Your Gun (1947) (national tour)
  • South Pacific (1949) (Broadway)
  • Kind Sir (1953) (Broadway)
  • Peter Pan (1954) (Broadway)
  • The Skin of Our Teeth (1955) (Broadway, Washington DC, and Paris)
  • The Sound of Music (1959) (Broadway)
  • Jennie (1963) (Broadway)
  • Hello, Dolly! (1965) (world tour)
  • I Do! I Do! (1966) (Broadway and national tour)
  • Together on Broadway: Mary Martin & Ethel Merman (1977) (Broadway)
  • Do You Turn Somersaults? (1978) (Broadway and national tour)
  • Legends! (1986) (national tour)
Preceded by:
Nanette Fabray
for Love Life		 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical
1950
for South Pacific		 Succeeded by:
Ethel Merman
for Call Me Madam
Preceded by:
Dolores Gray
for Carnival in Flanders		 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical
1955
for Peter Pan		 Succeeded by:
Gwen Verdon
for Damn Yankees
Preceded by:
Gwen Verdon
for Redhead		 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical
1960
for The Sound of Music		 Succeeded by:
Elizabeth Seal
for Irma La Douce

[edit] Television Work

  • America Applauds: An Evening for Richard Rodgers (1951)
  • The Ford 50th Anniversary Show (1953)
  • The General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein (1954)
  • Producers' Showcase: Peter Pan (twice, in 1955 and 1956)
  • Annie Get Your Gun (1957)
  • Magic with Mary Martin (1959)
  • Peter Pan (1960)
  • Mary Martin: Hello, Dolly! Round the World (1966)
  • Mary Martin at Eastertime (1966)
  • Valentine (1979)
  • Over Easy (host from 1981-[[1983)

[edit] Filmography

  • The Great Victor Herbert (1939)
  • Fashion Horizons (1940) (short subject)
  • Rhythm on the River (1940)
  • Love Thy Neighbor (1940)
  • Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1941)
  • New York Town (1941)
  • Birth of the Blues (1941)
  • Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
  • Happy Go Lucky (1943)
  • True to Life (1943)
  • Night and Day (1946)
  • Main Street to Broadway (1953)

[edit] References

Martin, Mary (1976). My Heart Belongs. Morrow. (ISBN 0-688-03009-2).

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/a/r/Mary_Martin_ffc6.html"
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