vPARA nPAR@ ` ╛TEXT ` ░Martin, Mary1913╨1990actorBorn in Weatherford, Texas, on December 1, 1913, Mary Martin attended private schools and for a year the University of Texas. After a brief first marriage (1930╨1935) she opened a dance school in Weatherford that proved a remarkable success. At various times she took voice lessons, and at length she decided to seek a career in show business. A long and frustrating period followed as any number of auditions and screen tests in Hollywood came to nothing. Finally, however, on the strength of her singing in an amateur show at the Trocadero Club, she was advised to go to New York City. Martin was given a small part in Leave It to Me, a Cole Porter musical that opened at the Imperial Theatre in November 1938, and wowed the audience with her steamy rendition of ╥My Heart Belongs to Daddy.╙ A hit engagement at the Rainbow Room followed, and she then returned to Hollywood to appear in a series of movies: The Great Victor Herbert, 1939, Rhythm on the River, 1940, Love Thy Neighbor, 1940, New York Town, 1941, Birth of the Blues, 1941, Star-Spangled Rhythm, 1942, and others. In October 1943 she returned to Broadway in One Touch of Venus, a musical with book by S. J. Perelman and Ogden Nash, music by Kurt Weill, and choreography by Agnes de Mille. According to many critics, the show was a huge success largely owing to Mary Martin╒s performance, and the Broadway run and subsequent tour kept her busy into 1945. Her performance won her a New York Drama Critics╒ award. In 1946 she appeared in Night and Day, a film biography of Cole Porter. In the same year she appeared on Broadway in Lute Song and made her London debut in Noel Coward╒s Pacific 1860. During 1947╨1948 she toured in Annie Get Your Gun; her work in bringing that hit show to the country while Ethel Merman and the original cast were still on Broadway won her a special Tony award. In April 1949 Martin opened at the Majestic Theatre, New York, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. After some 900 performances as Nellie Forbush she left the Broadway cast in 1951 and in November opened in the London production of the show. South Pacific brought her another New York Drama Critics╒ award. Later shows in which she appeared included Kind Sir in 1953; Peter Pan, for which she won a Tony award, on tour in 1954; The Skin of Our Teeth in Paris and then on U.S. tour in 1955; Music with Mary Martin, a one-woman show in 1957; The Sound of Music, which opened at the Lunt╨Fontanne Theatre in New York in November 1959, ran for nearly two years, and brought her another Tony; Jennie in 1963; Hello, Dolly on world tour in 1965; 1 Do, I Do on Broadway and on tour in 1966╨1970, and Do You Turn Somersaults?, 1978. Martin also became a popular television star in such special programs as ╥America Applauds╤An Evening for Richard Rodgers,╙ 1951, the Ford Motor Company╒s 50th anniversary show (in which she sang a memorable duet with Ethel Merman), 1953, the ╥Rodgers and Hammerstein Cavalcade,╙ 1954, and especially her much admired Peter Pan, which was first broadcast in 1955, in which year it won her an Emmy award, and frequently repeated in later years. Mary Martin also recorded albums of Broadway show tunes and other music. She published an autobiography, My Heart Belongs, in 1976, and in 1987 toured briefly with Carol Channing in the comedy Legends. She was a Kennedy Center honoree in 1989. She died on November 3, 1990, in Rancho Mirage, California. ^styl ` D ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ !I p 5¬ q !I Æ !I á !I ┤ !I ╠ !I ╘ !I τ !I ∩ !I !I !I !I !I / !I 7 !I M !I î !I ₧ !I !I ▐ !I !I !I f !I o !I ¢ !I º !I ╔ !I █ !I !I ▐ ! !I o 5¬ p !I ╓ !I π !I u !I é !I Γ !I Ω !I ⌠ !I ² !I 0 !I E !I n !I ä !I á !I ▓ !I
