Recently, we bid farewell to Janis Paige, after an extraordinary 101-year run. Her career may have spanned only 60 of those years (“only” 60, she says), but a life of many experiences and accomplishments, as we know, is not left on the soundstage or the stage door. One suspects she made the centenarian club because she finally did everything she wanted to do and wasn't leaving the party before she was finished.
A
native of the state of Washington, she moved to Los Angeles after high school,
did some modeling, and was discovered as a singer at the famed Hollywood
Canteen during World War II. Warner
Bros., snapped her up (she had a brief role as a studio guide in the movie,
Hollywood Canteen—see this previous post), and she appeared in a number of
musicals with Dennis Morgan or Jack Carson, but left in 1951, dissatisfied with
Hollywood, to work in theatre. She came
back for a bit in the 1950s, but enjoyed a long and varied career on stage, and
television, where she had her own sitcom for one season, and appeared as a guest
in many shows over many decades.
Here below is one of my favorite clips. I never tire of it. Janis holds her old with Fred Astaire and despite the workout she’s getting, seems to get a kick out of it.
Here's Janis and Fred Astaire from Silk Stockings (1957) "Stereophonic Sound."
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