Aggressively sparkling musical-comedy star Mitzi Gaynor, 93, died on Oct. 17. Starting her career as a ballet dancer, Gaynor was signed by Twentieth Century-Fox at 17, and by the ’50s she was starring in such lightweight fare as Golden Girl, The I Don’t Care Girl (as Lotta Crabtree and Eva Tanguay, respectively), There’s No Business Like Show Business, Les Girls (Taina Elg told this writer that Gaynor snubbed her and Kay Kendall for not being “real dancers”), Anything Goes, and her best showcase, South Pacific. As movie musicals died off, she took to the remunerative nightclub and Vegas circuit, and TV variety shows. “Dancing is still the hardest profession,” Gaynor once said. “Gene Kelly said dancing is a man’s game. Women have to do the same thing in heels, and have to sing and smile at the same time. Professional athletes don’t even have to do that—and they get to wear sneakers.”
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