Vivian Blaine

Vivian Blaine entered the world as Vivian Stapleton on 21 November 1921 in Newark, New Jersey, and departed on 9 December 1995 in New York City. An energetic performer who excelled in both acting and singing, she originated the indelible Miss Adelaide for Frank Loesser’s Guys And Dolls, one of the most cherished figures in American musical theatre. Early stage appearances in her hometown preceded formal training at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, after which she joined touring dance bands. Between 1942 and 1946 she held a studio contract with 20th Century-Fox, headlining musical features including Greenwich Village Follies, Something For The Boys, Nob Hill, State Fair—where she premiered “That’s For Me” and shared “Isn’t It Kinda Fun?” with Dick Haymes—and Three Little Girls In Blue, introducing “Somewhere In The Night.” Additional road engagements in musicals and vaudeville followed until her Broadway bow in Guys And Dolls in 1950, where she portrayed the patient nightclub dancer who had endured a fourteen-year engagement to Nathan Detroit while he clung to his floating crap game. Her mounting exasperation fueled “Sue Me,” while she shone in the ensemble turns “Take Back Your Mink” and “A Bushel And A Peck” alongside the Hot Box girls; the signature solo “Adelaide’s Lament” captured her discovery, drawn from a medical text, that prolonged waiting for “that plain little band of gold” could literally produce a cold. The same role transferred successfully to London’s Coliseum in 1953. Five years later she returned to Broadway in Say, Darling, sharing the stage with Robert Morse, David Wayne, and Johnny Desmond. Subsequent straight-play credits encompassed A Hatful Of Rain and Enter Laughing, and she toured extensively in revivals of Zorba, Follies, Hello, Dolly!, Gypsy, and I Do! I Do!. She later assumed the role of Joanne in Company after Jane Russell had succeeded Elaine Stritch in the part. Cabaret appearances punctuated this period, though her later career centered on non-musical work in theatre, film, and television, notably the serial parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Blaine married three times; among her spouses was Milton Rackmil, president of Decca Records and Universal Pictures.