Their particular father try a violent attorney, and her mom, Clara Birdwell, good Cherokee
During the ages three, when the Colliers relocated to Houston, Tx, she is enrolled their in the dance college, partially to build up their own feet, that was impacted by rickets. Ballet wasn’t their subject, and you may immediately after seeing Expenses Robinson in your own physical appearance in Houston from the period of eight, she put their unique landscapes into tap dance. Robinson offered their unique a first tap lesson, and you may she in the future is actually creating in the nightclubs and you will local theaters. At years nine, she moved with her mom in order to Los angeles, in which she enrolled in the fresh Fanchon and Marco dance school. Contacting herself Annie and following stage label away from Ann Miller, she did dancing routines on conferences out of regional civic organizations, making $5 per night, together with resources. After enjoying Eleanor Powell for the Broadway Melody regarding 1936 she turned into her attention to honing their unique tap dance skills. Appearances in vaudeville theaters resulted in dance club bookings and good sixteen-times engagement during the Bal Tabarin in Bay area, in which she try saw because of the an enthusiastic RKO ability scout. The guy establish a movie audition, and therefore triggered their first motion picture, a non-speaking region within the The newest Confronts of 1937. Along with her vibrant identification, higher foot, and dazzling sorts of tap-dancing, RKO awarded their unique an effective seven-12 months package whenever she was just 13 (she advertised to-be to get); and you will perform afterwards ensure their unique feet for starters billion bucks.
Miller is actually an amazing, self-powered younger ability. At the age 14, she played Ginger Rogers’s dance lover from the motion picture Phase Doorway (1937). The following year, she was borrowed from the Columbia Images to look because the Essie Carmichael, the latest fudge-and then make ballet-dance child, throughout the Academy Prize-effective You simply can’t Take it With you (1938), brought by the Frank Capra. Back at the RKO, she starred Hilda regarding Marx Brothers’ Space Provider (1938). From inside the 1939, she made a crushing Broadway debut into the George White’s Scandals, starting a phenomenon moving “The new Mexiconga.” She after that signed yet another seven-year deal having Columbia and you may are appeared in a sequence from wartime B-ranked musicals, particularly Genuine towards Military (1944), in which their particular solo routines was in fact the latest highpoint. Their unique private rodent-a-tattoo, mile-a-moment, tap style rationalized that she choreograph most of the her very own solamente practices.
Ann Miller, the fresh new raven-haired, long-legged, sexy performer to the machine-gun taps, was created Johnnie Lucille Collier for the Chireno, Texas, for the 1923
Their notoriety since the “King of the B’s” originated her sounds versatility in working with loads of Large Ring, Swing and you can Latin orchestras. They provided Rudy Vallee and you can Edwardo Durant as time passes Away to possess Beat (1941); Freddie Martin and Band into the What’s Buzzin’ Relative? (1943); the brand new orchestras from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Alvin Rey, Charlie Barnet, Glen Gray, and you can Teddy Powell for the Jam Lesson (1944); the Kay Kaiser Orchestra for the Carolina Organization (1944); along with new songs Reveille That have Beverly, followed by the orchestras from Duke Ellington, Number Basie, Bob Crosby, and you may Freddie Pile, that have singing by the Honest Sinatra and the Mills Brothers.
Into the 1948 Miller leftover Columbia and you may is signed because of the MGM so you’re able to superstar inside the Easter Procession (1948), to try out the fresh character regarding Nadine Hale-the former dancing mate and another exactly who likes Don Hewes, played because of the Fred Astaire, whom wants Judy Garland, which wants Peter Lawford, whom wants Judy Garland
She danced with a dreamlike grace with Astaire when you look at the “They Simply Is when I Dance along with you,” inspite of the 5′ seven” dancer needing to wear ballet slippers. Nevertheless try because the a great soloist in one scene-from the motion picture, featuring Nadine Hale regarding “Ziegfeld Follies out of 1912” number-she done “Trembling the fresh Organization Out,” providing new snazziest song-and-dance in 1940s sounds movie.
