Johnnie Lucille Collier Essay

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Johnnie Lucille Collier, professionally known as Ann Miller, was an American dancer, singer, and actress. She is mostly remembered for her work in the classical Hollywood musical films of 1940s and 1950s. Miller was born in Texas on April 12, 1923 to Clara Emma and John Allison Collier, a criminal lawyer who represented the Barrow Gang, Machine Gun Kelley, and Baby Face Nelson. Miller’s father insisted on the name Johnnie because he wanted a boy; Miller was often called Annie. She started taking dance classes at five years old after she suffered from a case of rickets. Her mother believed these dance classes would strengthen her daughter’s legs. She lived in Texas until she was nine years old, when her parents divorced, and moved with her mother …show more content…

Around this time is when she adopted the name Ann Miller, and she kept it her entire career. At the age of 13, Miller became a showgirl at Bal Tabarin. She was hired as a dancer in San Francisco at the “Black Cat Club.” She repeatedly told the club she was 18 years old, so that she was able to work there. She was discovered by Lucille Ball and talent scout Benny Rubin. She was given a contract at the age of 13 with RKO in 1936 and remained there until 1940. She apparently gave RKO a fake birth certificate that said she was 18 years old. It was produced by her father, with the name “Lucy Ann Collier.” She signed with Columbia Pictures in 1941. There she starred in 11 “B-movie musicals” from 1941-1945. Sheended her contract in 1946 with one “A” film. Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing. Studio publicists wrote in her press releases claiming she could tap 500 times per minute. However, the sound of ultra-fast “500” taps was looped in later. Since the stage floors were waxed and too slick for regular tap shoes, she hadto dance in shoes with rubber …show more content…

In 1979, she astounded audiences in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, which toured the United States extensively after its Broadway run. In 1983, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicagotheatre. She appeared in a special 1982 episode of The Love Boat. Her last stage performance was in 1998 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, which she played hardboiled Carlotta Campion and received rave reviews for her rendition of the song “I’m Still Here”. Miller also appeared as a dance instructor in Home Improvement episode “Dances with Tools”. In 2001 she took her last role, playing "Coco" in director David Lynch’s critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive. Miller married three times, to Reese Llewellyn Milner in 1946, to William Moss in 1958 and to Arthur Cameron in 1961, and in between marriages dated such well-known men as Howard Hughes, Conrad Hilton, and Louis B. Mayer. During her marriage to Reese Llewellyn Milner, while pregnant with daughter Mary in her last trimester, Miller fell and went into early

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