Lillian Roth

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Lillian Roth bigraphy, stories - American actress, singer

Lillian Roth : biography

December 13, 1910 – May 12, 1980

Lillian Roth (December 13, 1910 — May 12, 1980) was an American singer and actress.

Career

In 1927, when Roth was seventeen years old, she made the first of three Earl Carroll Vanities, which was soon followed by Midnight Frolics, a Florenz Ziegfeld production.

Soon the young actress signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures. Among the films she made with Paramount were The Love Parade (1929) with Maurice Chevalier, The Vagabond King (1930), Paramount on Parade (1930), Honey (1930; in which she introduced "Sing, You Sinners"), Cecil B. DeMille’s Madam Satan (1930) with Reginald Denny and Kay Johnson, Sea Legs with Jack Oakie, and the Marx Brothers second film, Animal Crackers (1930). She took over Ethel Merman’s stage role in the film version of Take a Chance, singing "Eadie Was a Lady". After leaving Paramount, she had a supporting role in the women’s prison film Ladies They Talk About (Warner Brothers, 1933) with Barbara Stanwyck.

She headlined the Palace Theatre in New York City and performed in the Earl Carroll Vanities in 1928, 1931, and 1932. She continued to make strides as a singer in an era when so much was being set to music.

Unfortunately, her personal life was increasingly overshadowed by her addiction to alcohol. Although her parents were not stereotypical stage parents, as a response to their influence Roth came to rely too much on other people. In her books and interviews, she said she was too trusting of husbands who made key decisions concerning her money and contracts.

Roth was out of the limelight from the late 1930s. Roth’s personal and spiritual feelings led her to convert to Catholicism in 1948. Friends accused her of forsaking Judaism; however, in her autobiography, I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1954), Roth observed that although her parents had believed in God, she and her sister had not been brought up religiously. Roth declared that she was so inherently Jewish that she could not really forget her heritage and thought that she was “the richer” because of it. In 1953 she appeared on a special episode of the TV series This Is Your Life with Ralph Edwards. In response to her honesty in relating her story of alcoholism, she received more than forty thousand letters. Her theme song, which she began singing as a child performer, was "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along)".

In 1962, she was featured as Elliott Gould’s mother in the Broadway musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale, in which Barbra Streisand made her Broadway debut. Despite the acclaim for Streisand, producer David Merrick realized that Roth’s name still sold tickets, and he elevated her to above-title star billing after the show’s opening, with Gould, Streisand and Sheree North listed below. Roth remained with the show for its full run of 301 performances and recorded the cast album for Columbia Records.

She was also featured as Mrs. Brice in the national touring company of Funny Girl in 1964, again getting top billing, though a feud with co-star Marilyn Michaels led to her being brought up on charges by Actors Equity. She was signed for a non-singing role in Neil Simon’s comedy The Prisoner of Second Avenue, but was replaced prior to the opening.

Death

Roth died from a stroke in 1980, at the age of 69. The inscription on her marker in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Westchester County, New York, reads: "As bad as it was it was good."

Books

Roth’s autobiography, I’ll Cry Tomorrow, was written with author-collaborator Gerold Frank in 1954, and a toned-down version of it was made into a hit film the following year starring Susan Hayward, who was nominated for an Academy Award. The book became a bestseller worldwide and sold more than seven million copies in twenty languages, and the film renewed the public’s interest in Roth. She recorded four songs for the Coral label (the first commercial recordings of her career), which were followed by an LP for Epic and another for Tops. She also headlined a vaudeville revival at the Palace on Broadway. A highlight of her act was an imitation of Susan Hayward imitating her (Roth) singing "Red, Red Robin".