Rosemary Clooney
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Rosemary Clooney
Background information
Born	May 23, 1928(1928-05-23), Maysville, Kentucky
Died	June 29, 2002 (aged 74) Beverly Hills, California
Years active	1946-2001
Label(s)	Columbia MGM Coral RCA Victor Reprise Dot United Artists Concord Jazz
Website	Rosemary Clooney Palladium website

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress whose warm, radiant voice placed her in the first rank of American popular singers for more than half a century. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers "Botcha-Me," "Mambo Italiano," and "This Old House," songs which tended to obscure her talents as a jazz vocalist.

Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1974, when Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. During the 1990s, she recorded a series of albums for the Concord jazz label with small ensembles which were warmly received by audiences and critics alike.

Biography

Early life

Clooney was born in Maysville, Kentucky, to Andrew Joseph Clooney and Frances Marie Guilfoyle, both of whom were Roman Catholics of Irish and German ancestry. Her father was an alcoholic and she and her brother and sister were constantly moving back and forth between her parents. When Rosemary was fifteen, her mother and brother, Nick, moved to California. She and her sister, Betty, remained with their father.

Career

Rosemary, Betty, and brother, Nick, all became entertainers. In the next generation, some of her own children, including Miguel and Rafael, and her nephew, George Clooney, also became respected entertainers. In 1945, the Clooney sisters won a spot on Cincinnati's radio station WLW as singers. Her sister Betty sang in a duo with Rosemary for much of her early career.

Clooney's first recordings, in May 1946, were for Columbia Records as a singer with the big band of Tony Pastor. She continued working with the Pastor band until 1949, making her last recording with the band in May of that year and her first as a solo artist a month later, still for Columbia. In 1951, her record of "Come On-a My House" became a hit, her first of many singles to hit the charts — despite the fact that Clooney hated the song passionately. She had been told by Columbia to record the song, and that she would be in violation of her contract if she did not do so.

Around 1952, Rosemary recorded several duets with Marlene Dietrich.

In 1954, she, along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen, starred in the movie White Christmas. In later years, Clooney would often appear with Crosby on television, such as in the 1957 special The Edsel Show, and the two friends made a concert tour of Ireland together. Crosby opined that Clooney was "the best in the business." In 1960 she and Crosby co-starred in a 20-minute CBS radio show that went to air before the midday news every weekday.

In 1956, she starred in a half hour syndicated television musical variety show The Rosemary Clooney Show. The show featured The Hi-Lo's singing group and Nelson Riddle's orchestra. The following year, the show moved to NBC prime time as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney but only lasted one season. The new show featured the The Modernaires singing group and Frank DeVol's orchestra.

In 1958, Clooney left Columbia, doing a number of recordings for MGM Records and then some for Coral Records. Finally, toward the end of 1958, she signed with RCA Victor Records, where she stayed until 1963. In 1964 she went to Reprise Records, and in 1965 to Dot Records. In 1966 she went to United Artists Records.

Beginning in 1977, she recorded an album a year for Concord Records, which continued until her death. This made her something of an anomaly, because most of her generation of singers had long since stopped recording regularly by then.

In the late-1970s and early-1980s, Clooney was also a pitch-person for Coronet paper towels, for which she sang a memorable jingle that goes, "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Coro-net." Jim Belushi later parodied Clooney and the commercial while as a cast member for NBC's Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s. She sang a duet with Wild Man Fischer on "It's a Hard Business" in 1986.

In 1994, Clooney guest starred in the NBC medical drama ER (starring her nephew George), for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award.

In 1999, Clooney founded the Rosemary Clooney Music Festival, held annually in her hometown of Maysville, Kentucky.^[1] She performed at the festival every year until her death. Proceeds benefit the restoration of the Russell Theater in Maysville, where Clooney's first film, The Stars are Singing, premiered in 1953.

Clooney received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

Personal life

Rosemary Clooney's Riverfront Home, Augusta, Kentucky

Clooney suffered much of her life from bipolar disorder. In 1968, she was present at the assassination of her close friend Robert F. Kennedy, an event which traumatized her for years afterward. Clooney subsequently had a nervous breakdown onstage in Reno, Nevada, caused in part by serious drug problems.

Clooney was married three times, twice to José Ferrer (from 1953 until 1961 and again from 1964 to 1967). They had five children: Miguel Ferrer (b. 1955), Maria (b. 1956), Gabriel Ferrer (b. 1957), who married Debby Boone, Monsita (b. 1958), and Rafael Ferrer, (b. 1960).

She married Dante DiPaolo in 1997.

In 1980, she purchased a second home on Riverside Drive in Augusta, Kentucky, near her childhood hometown of Maysville. Today, it houses collections of her personal items and memorabilia from many of her films and singing performances.

A longtime smoker, Clooney was diagnosed with lung cancer at the end of 2001. Around this time, she gave her last concert, in Hawaii, backed by the Honolulu Symphony Pops; her last song was "God Bless America". Despite surgery, she died six months later on June 29, 2002, at her home in Beverly Hills, California. George Clooney served as a pall bearer at her funeral, which was attended by numerous stars including Al Pacino. Clooney is buried at Saint Patricks Cemetery, Maysville, Kentucky.

Best-known songs

• "Botch-a-Me"
• "Come On-a My House" (#1 on the Billboard chart, 1951)
• "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)"
• "From This Moment On"
• "Half as Much" (#1 on the Billboard chart, 1952)
• "Hey There" (#1 on the Billboard chart, 1954)
• "Mambo Italiano"
• "Blue Skies"
• "You're Just in Love" (duet with Guy Mitchell)
• "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'"
• "Sophisticated Lady"
• "Sisters"
• "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"
• "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening"
• "Tenderly"
• "Mangos"
• "Memories of You"
• "This Ole House" (#1 on the Billboard chart, 1954)
• "You'll Never Know"
• "Sway"
• "Suzy Snowflake"

Filmography

• Tony Pastor and His Orchestra (1947) (short subject)
• Slaughter Trail (1951)
• The Stars Are Singing (1953)
• Here Come the Girls (1953)
• Red Garters (1954)
• White Christmas (1954)
• Deep in My Heart (1954; cameo appearance)
• Radioland Murders (1994)
• Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song (2001) (documentary)

See also

• Rosemary Clooney Museum; Augusta, Kentucky

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Rosemary Clooney

• Rosemary Clooney at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography on Allmusic site
• Rosemary Clooney Palladium page
• Rosemary Clooney: Chanteuse
• Clooney Discography
• Obituary on CNN.com
• Rosemary Clooney at Findagrave.com
• The Rosemary Clooney House site (in Augusta, Kentucky, where she maintained a home)
• Biography on musicianguide.com