Gower Champion

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Gower Champion (far left) with Harry S. Truman and wife Marge Champion (second from right) at the Carton Barron Amphitheater, May 1951

Gower Carlyle Champion (born June 22, 1919 in Geneva , Illinois , † August 25, 1980 in Manhattan , New York ) was an American musical and film director, choreographer, film and theater actor and dancer. The director of musicals like Hello, Dolly! , Bye Bye Birdie and 42nd Street was considered one of the "most outstanding and influential directors of American musical theater". In the course of his career he won a total of eight Tony Awards .

life and career

Gower Champion was born in Illinois to an advertising professional. After his parents divorced, he moved to Los Angeles with his mother . He took dance lessons at a young age, and from the mid-1930s he appeared as a dancer in nightclubs and hotels, including with a dance partner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City . In June 1939 he made his Broadway debut as a dancer in Streets of Paris . During the Second World War he served in the Coast Guard and also appeared in various shows here, including alongside the also still unknown Sid Caesar .

In 1947 he married the dancer Marjorie "Marge" Belcher , with whom he had two sons. The couple achieved fame through joint dance performances and were considered one of the most glamorous couples in American theater. Together with Marge he starred in several dance films produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . The studio considered establishing the two as the successor to the legendary dance couple Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire . Together, the Champion couple played supporting roles in a number of films such as Show Boat (1951), but they only got a leading role in Mervyn LeRoy's 1952 film Lovely To Look At . They also appeared together in several US television series and briefly owned theirs in 1957 own TV show The Marge and Gower Champion Show . In 1973 the couple divorced. In 1976 Gower married Karla Most, with whom he remained married until his death.

In addition to appearing with his wife, Champion also worked as a director and choreographer from an early age. He won his first Tony Award in the late 1940s for his work on the musical Lend An Ear . When interest in musicals in film and television waned, he increasingly turned to Broadway in the 1960s. In this decade he celebrated his greatest successes and won a total of six Tony Awards during this time: three times for Best Director, three times for Best Choreography. His first hit was Bye Bye Birdie in 1960 with Dick Van Dyke , who was still relatively unknown at the time, had over 600 performances and was later made into a film . Carnival! the following year ran even longer with a total of 719 performances. One of his greatest successes was Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing , which ran for almost seven years from 1964 and received ten Tony Awards, two for Gower. I do! I do! , a musical with Mary Martin and Robert Preston as a married couple over the years, also proved popular with a total of 560 performances. The 1968 Happy Time was less popular with audiences and broke Champions' lucky streak somewhat, but for that too it won two Tony Awards. In 1972 he achieved another notable success with Sugar , a musical version of the Billy Wilder classic Some Like It Hot .

Champion only tried twice as a film director: in the musical My Six Loves (1963) with Debbie Reynolds and Cliff Robertson , and in the gangster comedy We Steal the Whole Bank (1974) with George C. Scott and Joanna Cassidy . He has also directed several television productions and the 1969 Academy Awards .

After being involved in major flops with Mack & Mabel , Rockabye Hamlet and A Broadway Musical in the 1970s ( A Broadway Musical even closed after a performance), he attempted a comeback as director of the musical 42nd Street . However, during the rehearsals for the play based on the film of the same name, Champion's health deteriorated noticeably. The 61-year-old died of a rare form of blood cancer at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center on August 25, 1980, hours before the 42nd Street premiere . His death was only announced to the public after the premiere by the producer David Merrick , who is known for his PR campaigns . He interrupted the applause with the words:

This is tragic. You don't understand. Gower Champion died this morning.

Gower Champion's dramatic death hit the headlines around the world and the lights on Broadway were dimmed for a minute in his honor. His comeback only succeeded posthumously: his work on 42nd Street earned him the Drama Desk Award and his eighth Tony Award, the production also won the Tony Award for Best Musical and, with a total of 3,486 performances, developed into one of the big ones by 1989 Broadway history hits .

Filmography (selection)

As an actor

  • 1939: Projection Room (short film)
  • 1945: Rhapsody in Blue (Rhapsody in Blue)
  • 1946: Until the clouds pass (Till The Clouds Roll by)
  • 1948: Words and Music
  • 1950: Mr. Music
  • 1951: Mississippi Melody (Show Boat)
  • 1952: Men make fashion  (Lovely to Look At)
  • 1952: Everything I Have Is Yours
  • 1953: A Chance for Suzy  (Give a Girl a Break)
  • 1955: Jupiter's Darling
  • 1955: Love in a Quartet  (Three for the Show)
  • 1968: Star!
  • 1977: Sharon: Portrait of a Mistress (TV movie)

As a director

Broadway works

  • 1939: Streets of Paris (as an actor)
  • 1942: Count Me In (as an actor)
  • 1948: Lend an Ear (as choreographer)
  • 1948: Small Wonder (as a choreographer)
  • 1951: Make a Wish (as a choreographer)
  • 1955: 3 for Tonight (as director and actor)
  • 1960: Bye Bye Birdie (as director and choreographer)
  • 1961: Carnival! (as director and choreographer)
  • 1964: Hello, Dolly! (as director and choreographer)
  • 1966: I Do! I do! (as a director)
  • 1966: 3 Bags Full (as a director)
  • 1968: The Happy Time (as director and choreographer)
  • 1969: A Flea in Her Ear (as director)
  • 1971: Prettybelle (as director and choreographer)
  • 1972: Sugar (as director and choreographer)
  • 1973: Irene (as a director)
  • 1974: Mack & Mabel (as director and choreographer)
  • 1976: Rockabye Hamlet (as director and choreographer)
  • 1978: A Broadway Musical (as production supervisor)
  • 1980: 42nd Street (as director and choreographer)

Awards

Tony Award

  • 1948: Tony Award for Best Choreography for Lend An Ear
  • 1961: Tony Award for Best Musical Director for Bye Bye Birdie
  • 1961: Tony Award for Best Choreography for Bye Bye Birdie
  • 1964: Tony Award for Best Musical Director for Hello, Dolly!
  • 1964: Tony Award for Best Choreography for Hello, Dolly!
  • 1968: Tony Award for Best Musical Director for The Happy Time
  • 1968: Tony Award for Best Choreography for The Happy Time
  • 1981: Tony Award for Best Choreography for 42nd Street

He also received seven other Tony Award nominations.

Drama Desk Award

  • 1981: Drama Desk Award for Best Choreography for 42nd Street

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Web links

Commons : Gower Champion  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gower Champion | The Stars | Broadway: The American Musical | PBS . In: Broadway: The American Musical . ( pbs.org [accessed January 8, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Gower Champion: Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame ~ Celebrating Lives of Achievement. Retrieved January 8, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Gower Champion: Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame ~ Celebrating Lives of Achievement. Retrieved January 8, 2018 .
  4. ^ Marge Champion (IMDb). Retrieved January 8, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Gower Champion (1919-1980) - Find A Grave ... Accessed January 8, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Gower Champion (1919-1980) - Find A Grave ... Accessed January 8, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Gower Champion: Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame ~ Celebrating Lives of Achievement. Retrieved January 8, 2018 .
  8. ^ Martin Weil, Washington Post Staff Writer; Washington Post drama critic James Lardner, emeritus critic Richard L. Coe, who were in New York for: Gower Champion Dies as Show Opens . In: Washington Post . August 26, 1980, ISSN  0190-8286 ( washingtonpost.com [accessed January 8, 2018]).
  9. ↑ LIFE AND DEATH ON 42ND STREET . In: New York Post . November 16, 2001 ( nypost.com [accessed January 8, 2018]).
  10. ↑ Gower Champion (1919-1980) - Find A Grave ... Accessed January 8, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Champion, Gower
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Champion, Gower Carlyle (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American choreographer and director
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva , Illinois , United States
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1980
Place of death Manhattan , New York , United States