They were the most famous dance team since Astaire and Rogers. They were featured on magazine covers.
They were an extraordinarily popular terpsichorean couple in a raft of MGM musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, and duplicated their popular success on tv. But how much do you remember about them, Gower Carlisle Champion and his spouse, the former Marjorie Celeste Belcher?
Gower died in 1980, but Marge is still very much with us — at age 99. Ok, without further discussion, on to our Quiz. Answers tomorrow.
1) Question: In addition to their professional collaboration, the Champions enjoyed one of Hollywood’s longest and apparently happiest marriages. a) True; or b) False?
2) Question: Gower Champion won more director-choreographer Tony Awards than Bob Fosse. a) True; or b) False.
3) Question: Late in her career, Marge Champion appeared on tv in an unsympathetic role, notably of a politically incorrect character. What was the part? a) A ballet teacher with a bias against black students; b) A closeted gay who stridently pretends to be straight; c) A gun-toting speech instructor; or d) none of the above.
4) Question: Which one of the following titles did Marge and Gower Champion NOT appear in? a) 1950’s Mr. Music; b) 1953‘s Give A Girl A Break; c) 1952’s Lovely To Look At; or d) 1953’s The Band Wagon.
5) Question: In the summer of 1957, the Champions starred in their own tv series , a situation comedy with song and dance numbers. The cast included a fictional drummer named Cozy played by: a) Cozy Cole; b) Gene Krupa; c) Buddy Rich; or d) Elvin Jones.
CHAMPION ON CHAMPION…
Their marriage and popularity drew parallels to an earlier married dance pair, Irene and Vernon Castle, who–by the way–also wrote an instructional book on how to dance.
1) Is this the usual Joe & Frank ‘trick’ question, as the answer could be both…
Marge and Gower eventually divorced in 1973 – Marge cited living on different coasts as being one of the factors for the split, but she said he was the love of her life and they were true soul mates.
But I’d say A
2) A
3) A in TV’s FAME
4) D
5) C
When Gower Champion died at 1:00 pm. on August 25, 1980, it was six hours before the opening-night curtain of 42nd Street, the last Broadway musical he directed. It would be his greatest success, running nine years, but Hello Dolly will always be the first show that people think of when it comes to Gower Champion.
The tragedies for Marge continued… Nine months after that, her third husband, Boris Sagal, who directed television movies, was killed on location by a helicopter blade. Six years later almost to the day, her younger son, Blake Champion, 25, died in a car crash.
Marge Champion got her first taste of blending dance and acting as a teenager, when she was the model for Snow White in Walt Disney’s 1937 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS.
Champion also went on to model for the Blue Fairy in 1940’s PINOCCHIO and the Dancing Hippo in FANTASIA… And she even married one of the Disney animators, Art Babbitt, one month shy of her 18th birthday. “I was married to him for a very short time. When I went to New York with the Three Stooges in a vaudeville show in 1939, he said come back to Los Angeles and have babies. But that wasn’t what I had studied 15 years for.”
There’s so much more one could write about this iconic dance team, I was surprised there were only five questions!
So, let’s get some more ‘COMMENTS’ going…