Marilyn Miller (born Mary Ellen Reynolds; September , â€" April , )
was one of the most popular Broadway musical stars of the s and early
s. She was an accomplished tap dancer, singer and actress, and it was
the combination of these talents that endeared her to audiences. On
stage, she usually played rags-to-riches Cinderella characters who
lived happily ever after. Her enormous popularity and famed image were
in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by
disappointment, tragedy, frequent illness, and ultimately her sudden
death due to complications of nasal surgery at age .Marilyn Miller was
born in in Evansville, Indiana, the youngest daughter of Edwin D.
Reynolds, a telephone lineman, and his first wife, the former Ada Lynn
Thompson. The tiny, delicately featured blonde was only four years old
when she debuted in the role of Mademoiselle Sugarlump at Lakeside
Park in Dayton, Ohio, performing as a member of her family's
vaudeville act, anamed The Columbian Trio. That act, which included
her stepfather Oscar Caro Miller and her older sisters Ruth and
Claire, was renamed the Five Columbians after she and her mother
joined the routine. From their home base in Findlay, Ohio, the five
toured the Midwest and Europe for years and managed during that time
to skirt the child labor authorities until Lee Shubert discovered
Miller at the Lotus Club in London in .Miller appeared in New York
City for the Shuberts in the and editions of The Passing Show, a
Broadway revue at the Winter Garden Theatre, as well as in The Show of
Wonders () and Fancy Free (). It was, however, Florenz Ziegfeld who
made her a star after she performed in his Ziegfeld Follies of in
Manhattan at the New Amsterdam Theatre on nd Street, with music by
Irving Berlin. Sharing billing with Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers and W.C.
Fields, she brought the house down with her impersonation of Billie
Burke, Ziegfeld's wife, in a number titled "Mine Was a Marriage of
Convenience".
was one of the most popular Broadway musical stars of the s and early
s. She was an accomplished tap dancer, singer and actress, and it was
the combination of these talents that endeared her to audiences. On
stage, she usually played rags-to-riches Cinderella characters who
lived happily ever after. Her enormous popularity and famed image were
in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by
disappointment, tragedy, frequent illness, and ultimately her sudden
death due to complications of nasal surgery at age .Marilyn Miller was
born in in Evansville, Indiana, the youngest daughter of Edwin D.
Reynolds, a telephone lineman, and his first wife, the former Ada Lynn
Thompson. The tiny, delicately featured blonde was only four years old
when she debuted in the role of Mademoiselle Sugarlump at Lakeside
Park in Dayton, Ohio, performing as a member of her family's
vaudeville act, anamed The Columbian Trio. That act, which included
her stepfather Oscar Caro Miller and her older sisters Ruth and
Claire, was renamed the Five Columbians after she and her mother
joined the routine. From their home base in Findlay, Ohio, the five
toured the Midwest and Europe for years and managed during that time
to skirt the child labor authorities until Lee Shubert discovered
Miller at the Lotus Club in London in .Miller appeared in New York
City for the Shuberts in the and editions of The Passing Show, a
Broadway revue at the Winter Garden Theatre, as well as in The Show of
Wonders () and Fancy Free (). It was, however, Florenz Ziegfeld who
made her a star after she performed in his Ziegfeld Follies of in
Manhattan at the New Amsterdam Theatre on nd Street, with music by
Irving Berlin. Sharing billing with Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers and W.C.
Fields, she brought the house down with her impersonation of Billie
Burke, Ziegfeld's wife, in a number titled "Mine Was a Marriage of
Convenience".
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