[go: up one dir, main page]
Wikipedia

Marge Champion: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→External links: added AFI
GreenC bot (talk | contribs)
Bots
2,423,489 edits
Reformat 1 archive link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:USURPURL and JUDI batch #18
 
(3 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 33:
 
==Early life==
Champion was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 2, 1919.<ref name="NYT obit">{{cite news|title=Marge Champion, Dancer, Actor and Choreographer, Dies at 101|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/arts/dance/marge-champion-dead.html|first=Robert D.|last=McFadden|date=October 22, 2020|access-date=October 22, 2020|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> Her father, Ernest Belcher, was a [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] dance director who taught [[Shirley Temple]], [[Betty Grable]], [[Ramon Novarro]], [[Cyd Charisse]], [[Fay Wray]] and [[Joan Crawford]], as well as Champion's future husband [[Gower Champion]];<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref name=Barnes>{{cite news|title=Marge Champion, Actress, Dancer and Model for Snow White, Dies at 101|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/marge-champion-dead-actress-dancer-model-snow-white-was-101|first=Mike|last=Barnes|date=October 21, 2020|access-date=October 22, 2020|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter}}</ref> her mother was Gladys Lee Baskette (née Rosenberg).<ref name="NYT obit"/> Champion had an older half sister, [[Lina Basquette]],<ref name=Barnes/> who began acting in 1916 in silent films. Lina was the daughter of her mother's first husband, Frank Baskette, who died by suicide.<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary: Lina Basquette|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lina-basquette-1441595.html|date=October 8, 1994|first=Kevin|last=Brownlow|access-date=October 22, 2020|newspaper=The Independent|location=London}}</ref> Champion and Basquette's maternal grandfather, Lazarus Rosenberg, waswere [[Jewish]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Thomas|first=Kevin|date=August 23, 1991|title=Lina Basquette: Her Life Is Screenplay Material: Movies: The Golden Era star who married a Warner, fended off Hitler's advances and became a champion dog breeder takes on her first role in 48 years at age 84.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-23-ca-949-story.html|access-date=October 23, 2020|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Slide|first=Anthony|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalauto00slid/page/16|title=Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=2002|isbn=0-813-12249-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/biographicalauto00slid/page/16 16]}}</ref>
 
Champion began dancing at an early age as her sister had done. She started as a child under the instruction of her father.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/marge-champion/|title=Marge Champion|website=D23|access-date=January 24, 2020}}</ref> She studied exclusively with her father from age five until she left for New York.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Prevots|first=Naima|date=January 1986|title=Ernest Belcher and American dance|journal=Dance Chronicle|volume=10|issue=2|pages=170–222|doi=10.1080/01472528608568944|issn=0147-2526}}</ref> She credited her good health and long career to her father's teaching principles: careful, strict progression of activity, emphasis on correct alignment, precise placement of body, attention to detail and to the totality of dynamics and phrasing.<ref name=":1" /> Her first dance partner was Louis Hightower.<ref>"Marge Celeste Belcher", [https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~genbel/genealogy/mayjune2006/champion.html Marge Belcher and Gower Champion].</ref> In 1930, she made her debut in the Hollywood Bowl at age 11 in the ballet "Carnival in Venice".<ref name="moves" /> By age twelve, she became a ballet instructor at her father's studio. Champion played Tina in the [[Hollywood High School]] operetta [[The Red Mill]]. She also sang in the Hollywood High School Girls' Senior Glee Club and graduated in 1936.<ref>{{cite book |title=Poinsettia Yearbook |date=1936 |publisher=Hollywood High School |location=Hollywood |pages=54, 57 |edition=31}}</ref>
 
She was hired by Thethe Walt Disney Studio as a dance model for their animated film ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]'' (1937). Her movements were copied to enhance the realism of the animated Snow White figurecharacter.<ref name=moves>King, Susan. [https://articleswww.latimes.com/2009archives/la-xpm-2009-sep/-30/entertainment/-et-classic-hollywood30-story.html "Marge Champion Still Has the Dance Moves"] ''Los Angeles Times'', September 30, 2009</ref> For one scene Champion served as model while wrapped in a baggy overcoat for two dwarfs at once, when for the "Silly Song" dance, Dopey gets on Sneezy's shoulder to dance with Snow White.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nesbet|first=Anne|date=July 1997|title=Inanimations: "Snow White" and "Ivan the Terrible"|journal=Film Quarterly|volume=50|issue=4|pages=20–31|doi=10.1525/fq.1997.50.4.04a00040|issn=0015-1386}}</ref> Champion later modeled for characters in other animated films: the Blue Fairy in ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'' (1940) and Hyacinth Hippo in the ''Dance of the Hours'' segment of ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]],'' a ballet parody that she also helped choreograph. She even recalled doing some modeling for Mr. Stork in Dumbo.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=moves/> When working with Disney on ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', Champion recalled, "the animators couldn't take a young girl out of themselves, they couldn't take the prince out of themselves".<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/marge-champion|title=Marge Champion|date=February 22, 2019|website=The Interviews}}</ref>
 
==Career==
Line 150:
* http://www.valyermodancers.org/DanceCompany.html
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120324054935/http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/dance/marge-champion-and-blake-champion?ref=artist&refcar=%2Fartist%2Fc-d Marge Champion performing Dancing in 1986 at Jacob's Pillow]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903171349/http://fora.tv/2010/08/28/Hippo_in_a_Tutu_Dancing_in_Disney_Animation Archival footage from Jacob's Pillow PillowTalk: Hippo in a Tutu featuring Marge Champion, 8/28/2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903171349/http://fora.tv/2010/08/28/Hippo_in_a_Tutu_Dancing_in_Disney_Animation |date=September 3, 2014 }}
* {{EmmyTVLegends name|marge-champion|Marge Champion}}
* [https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/entertainment/2019/09/03/woman-who-served-model-disneys-snow-white-turns-100/2199361001/ Marge Champion remembered on 100th birthday in Mansfield News Journal, accessed September 3, 2019]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_Champion"