Rose Marie

Very few actors can boast a 65-year career in show business like Rose Marie can. The legendary actress, best known for her role as Sally Rogers in The Dick Van Dyke Show, was on Hollywood Today with Brad Evans to discuss her amazing life as an entertainer that began at the tender age of five. In 1930’s New York City, the very young ‘Baby’ Rose Marie dazzled talent show audiences with her mature singing voice.  People were just amazed at how this little child was singing like a grown woman.  This success earned her a job on NBC’s Coast-to-Coast radio program. Soon, rumors of her being an adult midget sprang up. So ‘Baby’ Rose had to go on a national tour with the Vaudeville Shows to prove she was actually a kid.

After one of her performances, thrilled audience members would pelt the stage with roses, very often hitting the pint-sized crooner. She’d run off the stage for cover. But people in the roaring crowd began shouting “Bring the kid back! We want the Kid!” ‘Baby’ Rose would come back to the stage, but not before ordering them to hold the roses because she couldn’t take her bow.  This humorous story inspired the title of her latest book Hold The Roses. It details Rose Marie’s difficult life as a child star all the way to her iconic role as the wise-cracking Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

When she grew up she dropped ‘Baby’ off her name and became a night club singer with a stand up comic routine. It was in these clubs that she befriended many gangsters, the most famous being Al Capone. These connections helped her get her own performance acts in the major night clubs all over the country. One of her biggest shows was at the star-studded opening night of The Flamingo Hotel in 1946; the first Las Vegas hotel/casino of its kind. In the next decade, Rose Marie would showcase her talents in the Broadway production Top Banana. The play was eventually made into a film. Rose Marie was apart of the cast. And in 1961, she became a cast member of a new CBS show called The Dick Van Dyke Show.

The show was on the air for five years, picking up a whopping 18 Emmy Awards along the way.  Rose Marie, now 89 years old, has fond memories of her time with the show saying, “Those five years [on the show] was the most wonderful time of my life.” She describes the cast as a close bunch and still is to this day. “We were like a family. We cared and respected one another,” she says, reminiscing. “We couldn’t wait to go to work in the morning.” And speaking of the cast, 89-year-old Dick Van Dyke has made news recently when he became engaged in January to a 39-year-old woman. Also in January, Mary Tyler Moore became the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild for Lifetime Achievement.

Hold the Roses is available in book stores and online.

And don’t forget to check out the entire interview of ‘Hollywood Today,’ the audio podcast airs every Tuesday from 10:00-10:30 p.m. (PST) and Thursday from 10:00-10:30 p.m. (EST). Be sure to watch Hollywood Today on WCAN TV.