A Clooney Looney (May 26, 2006)

Rosie at 70

Nola's last Rosemary Clooney event  (10/30/11)

My husband named me a Clooney Looney shortly after we met.  On my birthday one year he gave me a tee shirt with Rosemary Clooney pictured on the front; the backside proclaimed to the world that I was, in fact, a Clooney Looney.

As a preteen in the fifties, I (like my friends) spent many hours listening to music on my portable phonograph, which played 33 1/3, 45 and 72 speed records.  Everyone seemed to have a favorite singer.  My favorite was Rosemary Clooney.  Rosie, as she was known, started singing as a child, became a band singer with Tony Pasteur, and went on to Hollywood to record on Columbia records with Mitch Miller.  She became a star in 1951 when she recorded the hit song Come On-A My House.  She didn’t like the song and didn’t want to record it; but if she wanted to continue working with Mitch Miller, she had no choice.  She was always grateful to Mitch for insisting she record the song.

She made four movies.  The first was The Stars are Singing with the opera singer Lauritz Melchior, followed by Red Garters with Guy Mitchell.  Her third movie with Bob Hope was Here Come the Girls.  The movie for which she is best known is the classic White Christmas, in which she played opposite Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen.

After having five children with husband Jose Ferrer, and following the cancellation of her TV show, Rosie started touring in nightclubs. 

As with other star-stuck folks, I always hoped some day I would get to meet Rosie in person.  That dream came to fruition while I was in college in San Francisco.  Rosie was appearing at the Fairmont Hotel.  My brother, Michael, and my big sister from college, Bobbie Ira, joined me on this exciting adventure of seeing Rosie in person for the first time.  The show started at 9:00 pm and we were at least two hours early.

The show was fabulous; afterwards, we were standing in the lobby when Louie Nye, a comedian who was a regular on the Steven Allen TV show, walked right past us and headed into the elevator.  We followed him right in. He was talking to a friend and he said, “Let’s head up to Rosie’s room; they are having a party.” We followed them off the elevator and watched as they headed to a room at the end of the hall.

After they were safely inside, we headed to the door.  I rang the bell.  A maid answered the door and I asked, “Could I get Rosemary Clooney’s autograph?”  From somewhere in the room, I heard Jose Ferrer say, “Tell her to go away!”  Then, to my delight, I heard Rosie say, “That’s OK,” and she arrived at the door.  She flashed a big smile and signed my autograph book, which I had conveniently brought along with me.  After it was over, I couldn’t believe I had had the nerve to do such a thing; but I was delighted at the outcome.

Over the next thirty years my husband took me to see Rosemary perform every opportunity we got.  We saw her in Reno, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Oakland, Napa and Concord.  He gave me both of Rosie’s autobiographies, and he succeeded in getting the first one, This for Remembrance, signed by Rosie after we saw her in Reno.  My husband asked the waiter if he could get her to sign the book, and he gave him money to mail it back to us. I never really expected to see the book again, but it arrived, autograph and all! 

In the forty-two years we have been married, David has purchased every Rosemary Clooney song and every episode of her television show, as well as copies of her movies and presented them to me on both special occasions and as any day treats. What a lucky girl I am to have married such a caring, sensitive man.  He not only named me a Clooney Looney, but he nurtured my love of this talented singer.