Rose Marie

Rose Marie was a legend of show business, with a career stretching 90 years, since her debut as her self in a Vitaphone musical short that appeared on the bill with The Jazz Singer (1927) at its premiere in 1927. According to Rose Marie, when she approached Al Jolson at The Wintergarden Theater in New York on the night of the premiere that made movie history and told him, "You were wonderful, Mr. Jolson!", his reply was, "Get away, you little brat!" "He didn't like kids," Rose Marie explained. Her first credited appearance was in another musical short, Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder (1929) in 1929. The legendary performer was born Rose Marie Mazetta on August 15, 1923 in New York City, the daughter of an Italian-American father, Frank Mazetta (known as Frank Curley), and Polish-American mother, Stella (Gluszcak). Blessed with a remarkable singing voice for a child that allowed her to belt out jazz songs in the "coon shouter" style of the 1920s (as exemplified by Sophie Tucker), she