Kaye Ballard dies at 93, remembered for immense multiple talents and complex personal life
She was not on the list.
Kaye Ballard had a contented smile on her face as she
watched herself, larger than life, at the Palm Springs International Film
Festival screening of her documentary, “Kaye Ballard: The Show Goes On,” this
month at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
She had been greeted in the lobby by mobs of fans, taking
pictures and congregating around her wheelchair like close personal friends. It
made her caregiver nervous, and she advised Ballard to leave the theater early more
than once. Her heart was weak. She needed to be in bed.
But Ballard waved her off as the audience broke into
spontaneous applause seven times during the film. Ballard stayed for about an
hour, until just before a scene depicting her conflict with her mother. Then
her caregiver wheeled her out of the theater one last time. When she was gone,
a reporter sitting across the aisle sensed she was really gone.
But there was one more celebration. A film festival official
called her Saturday night, Jan. 12, and said her documentary had been named one
of the Best of the Fest. Ballard was thrilled, said her closest friend, Myvanwy
Jenn. Then she began to fade away.
Ballard, 93, died Monday night at her home in Rancho Mirage
after lapsing into unconsciousness less than a week after being notified that
“Kaye Ballard: The Show Goes On” would go on to have another festival screening
as a Best of the Fest.
“I loved that she was at the theater the night the film
opened at the festival,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “She received a
serenade of applause from all the people who gathered from a sold-out
performance. I’m sure she loved that. I’m glad it was finished in time for her
to see it and enjoy it.”
“The irony of all this,” added actor Gavin MacLeod, “is, you
can go back a year, a year-and-a-half, and PBS did a movie on Rose Marie’s
life. And Rosie died I think three days later. Kaye said, ‘I want my movie to
be better than Rosie’s.’ Then Kaye’s movie is shown at the festival, and then
the award, and then she goes. It’s like these two dynamite personalities got a
chance to see their lives flash in front of them on screen before they said,
‘Bye-bye.’
“Kaye was my favorite leading lady, and my favorite friend,
and there is a vacancy in our lives because of her leaving that only God can
fulfill.”
Ballard had one of the most illustrious careers in show
business in the mid-20th century. She first exhibited her talents in Cleveland,
where she was born Catherine Gloria Balotta to Italian emigrant parents. She
was doing impressions of French entertainment legend Maurice Chevalier at age
5. She developed into a painter, singer, actor, musician and comic
impressionist.
Ballard was offered a scholarship to Cleveland Art College,
but chose to perform instead in vaudeville. A stage producer in Detroit was so
impressed by her multiple talents, he recommended her to Spike Jones, the most
popular comic big band leader of the Swing Era. Jones, who had novelty hits
like "Cocktails For Two" and "Yes, We Have No Bananas,"
invited her to look him up if she ever got out to Los Angeles. So Ballard
bought a one-way plane ticket to L.A. and landed a job as a singer and a comic
tuba player with his band.
She was performing with the Spike Jones Orchestra at the
posh Trocadero supper club in L.A. when Mel Torme came in to sing with Nat King
Cole in the lounge, Ballard said. Torme had written a new Christmas song that
started with, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ..."
When Jones' band stopped went on tour to New York, Ballard
got a chance to see Laurette Taylor in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass
Menagerie," which inspired her to get serious about acting, and Ethel
Merman in Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun," which convinced her
to go into musical theater.
Ballard made her Broadway debut in 1946 when she was invited
by someone who had seen her with Jones to join the cast of the musical,
"Three To Make Ready," with "The Wizard of Oz" star Ray
Bolger and such future legends as Arthur Godfrey, Julie Wilson and Gordon
McRae.
From there, she did such shows as "Touch and Go,"
which included a Royal Command Performance for King George VI, which got her an
introduction to the future Queen Elizabeth; "Top Banana" with Phil
Silvers, in which she replaced Rose Marie for the road tour, and "The
Golden Apple," which landed her on the cover of Life Magazine and enabled
her to introduce the standard, "Lazy Afternoon."
Throughout the rest of her life, with all of the other
endeavors she tried, including film, record albums and and a book, Ballard
always came back to the stage. Her list of theatrical credits in New York and
around the country is remarkable, including:
"Carnival," "Gypsie," "Annie Get
Your Gun," "Sheba," "High Spirits," a female version
of "The Odd Couple," "Funny Girl," "Chicago,"
"The Pirates of Penzance," "Royal Flush," "Reuben,
Reuben," "Follies," "Look Ma, I'm Dancin'," "Minnie's
Boys," "The Decline and Fall of the Entire World As Seen Through the
Eyes of Cole Porter Revisited," "Molly," "The Beast In
Me," "Wonderful Town," "She Stoops To Conquer,"
"The Pirates of Penzance," "No, No Nanette" and "Over
the River and Through the Woods."
Kaye Ballard did a tribute to early 20th century singer and
comic actress Fanny Brice, which she turned into the record album, "Kaye
Ballard Sings Fanny Brice" before Barbra Streisand starred as Brice in
"Funny Girl."
Other notable productions included "Nunsense,"
which won a Carbonell Award for South Florida theater, "4 Girls 4,"
which she performed at the McCallum Theatre," "Crazy Words, Crazy
Tunes," which she performed for most of a season at the Springs Theater in
the Palm Springs Convention Center, "From Broadway with Love," with
Donna McKcKechnie and Liliane Montevecchi, and "The Fabulous Palm Springs
Follies," where she appeared as a guest artist as an opportunity to sell
copies of her book, "How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years: Kaye Ballard, A
Memoir," in the lobby in 2004.
She toured with two critically acclaimed one-woman shows,
"Kaye Ballard — Working 42nd St., At Least," and "Hey Ma... Kaye
Ballard," which she also brought to the McCallum. She did her last touring
production in 2012 at age 86, "Doin' It For Love," a tribute to
Broadway standards and performers, and the stories behind them with Montevecchi
and Lee Roy Reams.
She said she was proud of having always been a working
entertainer, without ever having to take a job outside of show biz.
"I’m very happy because I’m doing the things I’ve done
for 60 years," she said in 2012. "I’m just doing the best of the
things, like Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante (material), and telling things
that were in my book. It’s really wonderful."
After her first Broadway show, Ballard next went into
cabaret, headlining New York's finest supper clubs, such as the Blue Angel and
Bon Soir. She had a voice that rivaled Judy Garland's and, with her comedy and
acting skills, she became a magnet for New York music publishers and their
"song pluggers." In 1954, she introduced a Bart Howard song called
"In Other Words" for Hampshire House Publishing, led by her future
Rancho Mirage neighbor, Howie Richmond. It became known as "Fly Me To the
Moon" after Frank Sinatra recorded it.
Gretchen Reinhagen, a New York singer-actress whose family
has long been part of the Coachella Valley theater community, did her own New
York cabaret show saluting Ballard, called “Special Kaye: A Tribute to the
Incomparable Kaye Ballard,” and performed it at the Annenberg Theater with
Ballard in attendance.
“There is a huge fan base for her and deservedly so,”
Reinhagen said at the time. “I saw her a couple of years ago with 'The
(Fabulous Palm Springs) Follies' and it was like seeing a master class. I don’t
think people know her as the incredible musician she is. I think people in the
theater world or cabaret are very familiar with her cabaret work, as well as
her Broadway career. I think some of the broader population that know her from
‘The Mothers-In-Law’ don’t know about ‘Working 42nd Street At Last.’”
In 1957, she and Alice Ghostley played the two wicked
stepsisters in the live telecast of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella,
starring Julie Andrews in the title role. During the 1961–1963 television
seasons, Ballard was a regular on NBC's The Perry Como Show, as part of the
Kraft Music Hall Players, along with Don Adams, Paul Lynde and Sandy Stewart.
In 1962, she released an LP record, Peanuts Album, on which she
played Lucy van Pelt from the comic strip namesake of the album (with Arthur
Siegel playing Charlie Brown), and dramatizing a series of vignettes drawn from
the strip's archive. In 1964 she had a guest role on The Patty Duke Show,
playing a teacher for would-be models. From 1967 to 1969, she co-starred as
Kaye Buell, a woman whose son marries her next door neighbor's daughter, in the
NBC sitcom The Mothers-in-Law, with Eve Arden playing her neighbor. From 1970
to 1972, she also appeared as a regular on The Doris Day Show, playing
restaurant owner Angie Pallucci . She made appearances on the American
television game show Match Game. In 1977, she was a guest star on The Muppet
Show. She also appeared on the television series Alice, in which she played a
kleptomaniac phony medium, as well as Daddy Dearest, where she guest-starred
opposite Richard Lewis and Don Rickles as a DMV clerk.
In 1995, she was awarded a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs
Walk of Stars.
She played Coach Betsy in the Disney film Freaky Friday. She
appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! as "Madam A-Go-Go," a
mysterious fortune teller who appears in the episode "Fortune
Teller". She also performed with The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies at the
Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs, California.
Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1958 The Girl Most
Likely Marge
1964 A House Is
Not a Home Sidonia
1970 Which Way to
the Front? Senora Messina
1976 The Ritz Vivian Proclo
1976 Freaky Friday
Coach Betsy
1980 Falling in
Love Again Mrs. Lewis
1981 Irene Dotty Busmill TV movie
1982 Pandemonium Glenn's Mom
1988 Tiger Warsaw Aunt Thelma
1990 Modern Love Receptionist
1990 Eternity Sabrina / Selma
1990 Fate Judy
1994 Ava's Magical
Adventure Leona
1998 The Modern
Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mrs.
Grumpy Old Man
1999 Baby Geniuses
Mayor
2000 The Million
Dollar Kid Mrs. Crabby
2000 Little
Insects Queen Palooma (voice)
2003 Broadway: The
Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There Herself
Documentary
2017 Senior Moment
Maria
2019 Kaye Ballard
- The Show Goes On Herself
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1951–1955 The
Arthur Murray Party Herself 2 episodes
1954 The Steve
Allen Show Herself 1 episode
1954-1955 The
Colgate Comedy Hour Herself 7 episodes
1956–1963 The
Ed Sullivan Show Herself 4 episodes
1957 Cinderella Portia TV special
1957–1962 Tonight
Starring Jack Paar Herself 27 episodes
1958 Make Me Laugh
Herself 3 episodes
1958–1960 The
Garry Moore Show Herself 3 episodes
1960–1963 The
Perry Como Show Herself 52 episodes
1962 Play Your
Hunch Herself 2 episodes
1962 The Tonight
Show Herself 2 episodes
1963 Candid Camera
Herself 2
episodes
1963–1975 The
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Herself
55 episodes
1963–1978 The
Merv Griffin Show Herself 10 episodes
1963–1979 The
Mike Douglas Show Herself 34 episodes
1964 The Patty
Duke Show Mrs. Selby "The Perfect Teenager"
1967–1968 The
Hollywood Palace Herself 2 episodes
1967–1969 The
Mothers-in-Law Kaye Buell Main role: 56 episodes
1967–1975 Hollywood
Squares Herself 168 episodes
1968 Rowan &
Martin's Laugh-In Guest "1.5"
1968-1969 Kraft
Music Hall Herself 2 episodes
1968–1969 The
Jerry Lewis Show Herself 4 episodes
1969 The Red
Skelton Show DMV Clerk "Willie Lump Lump's
Birthday"
1969 Storybook
Squares Herself 1 episode
1969 Della Herself 2
episodes
1969 The Leslie
Uggams Show Herself 2 episodes
1969–1970 Kraft
Music Hall Herself 3 episodes
1970 The Doris Day
Show Flossie Moore "Kidnapped"
1970 All My
Children Mrs. Remo TV series
1970 Love,
American Style Sally "Love and the V.I.P. Restaurant"
1970 The Bob Hope
Show Herself 1 episode
1970-1971 It's
Your Bet Herself 2 episodes
1970–1972 The
Doris Day Show Angie Pallucci Recurring role: 10 episodes
1971 The Dick
Cavett Show Herself 1 episode
1971 Here's Lucy Donna "Lucy
and Harry's Italian Bombshell"
1971 Love,
American Style Helen "Love and the Dream Burglar"
1972 The David
Frost Show Herself 1 episode
1972–1973 The
Carol Burnett Show Herself
2 episodes
1973–1974 Match
Game Herself 10 episodes
1973 Pyramid Herself 5 episodes
1974 Celebrity
Sweepstakes Herself 1 episode
1974 Celebrity
Bowling Herself 1 episode
1974 The Bob Braun
Show Herself 1 episode
1974-1976 Dinah!
Herself 1
episode
1975 The
Montefuscos Filomena "Filomena's Visit"
1976 Police Story Nurse Ladue "Officer Dooly"
1977 Alice Seama "The
Hex"
1977 The Muppet
Show Guest 1 episode
1978–1981 The
Love Boat Cora Bass / Joan Redmond /
Babe 3 episodes
1979 Fantasy
Island Elvira Wilson 'Hit Man/The Swimmer"
1980 The Dream
Merchants Esther Kessler TV miniseries
1980 Broadway on
Showtime Salome "The Robber Bridegroom"
1980 The Steve
Allen Comedy Hour Herself 3 episode
1980–1981 Trapper
John, M.D. Beulah Krakowsky /
Mother 2 episodes
1981 Irene Dotty Busmill TV film
1981 Here's Boomer
Sophia "Make
'Em Laugh"
1983 Great
Performances Duchess "Alice in Wonderland"
1984 Young
People's Specials Mrs.
Deluca "That Funny Fat
Kid"
1985 Doris Day's
Best Friends' Herself 1 episode
1986 The Lee
Phillip Show Herself 1 episode
1987 The Law &
Harry McGraw Angela Calucci "Angela's Secret"
1989 The Super
Mario Bros. Super Show! Madame
Agogo 1 episode
1989 Monsters Faye Ingram "Rerun"
1989–1991 The
Munsters Today Mother Earth / Mother
Nature 2 episodes
1990–91 What
a Dummy Mrs. Treva
Travalony Main role: 24 episodes
1991 The Munsters
Today Mother Earth "A-Camping We Will Go"
1991 Doris Day: A
Sentimental Journey Herself TV Documentary
1993 Daddy Dearest
Mrs. Lento "Al vs. DMV"
1994–95 Due
South Mrs. Vecchio 3 episodes
1996–1999 The
Rosie O'Donnell Show Herself 3 episodes
1998–2001 Biography
Herself 2 episodes
1999–2001 Mysteries
and Scandals Herself 4 episodes
2002 The Hollywood
Greats Herself Season 8, Episode 8: "Doris Day"
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