Marge Champion
Marge Champion was born September 2, in Los Angeles, CA. The daughter of ballet master Ernest Belcher, Marge grew up studying ballet under her father&#;s tutelage and began teaching ballet at his studio at age In she performed in several productions with the LA Opera, and in she worked with Disney. She was the human figure model for the character Snow White and later modeled for the Blue Fairy in &#;Pinocchio&#; () and the Dancing Hippo in &#;Fantasia.&#;
She made her live action film debut in &#;The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle&#; (). After a short marriage to a Disney animator, Champion began dancing with Gower Champion in a duo called the &#;Champion & Bell&#; team. After marrying in , they became known as Marge and Gower Champion. Together they appeared in several films and television shows. Film producers wanted to recreate Ginger & Rogers films with the duet, but they refused. In they hosted their own television show, &#;The Marge & Gower Champion Show&#;. Marge and Gower eventually separated, divorcing in
On her own, Marge took on some acting only roles in films such as &#;The Party&#; and &#;The Swimmer&#;, both released in She als
Marge Champion: The young woman who became Disney's Snow White
Marge Champion was one of the most accomplished female dancers of the 20th century. But even if you are too young to remember her performances in Showboat or Everything I Have is Yours or her dozens of TV appearances, you inevitably have seen her work: she was the model for Walt Disney’s Snow White.
Champion, née Belcher, was 14 years old when she auditioned for Disney animators so they could capture the character’s elegance and graceful motion. Her father was revered Hollywood dance choreographer Ernest Belcher, who’d worked with Charlie Chaplin, Max Sennett, and Cecil B. DeMille. He taught his daughter not only how to dance, but how to be lady — the latter may have won her the job. “My father was British and he had trained me to curtsy and do things that were like Snow White would be doing,” says Champion, now “At the dinner table, I had to say, ‘I’ve had an elegance sufficiency, could I be excused, please?’ and I would pick up my skirt and curtsy. And because that, I not only was trained as a dancer but I had a lot of those easy things to do that Snow White had to do.”
Back in , Max Fleischer had r
Gower Champion
Not counting the years he danced as a boy, Gower Champion was a distinguished and influential dancer, director, and choreographer in the American musical theatre for 41 years, from to Born in Geneva, Illinois, on June 22, , Gower was the son of Beatrice Carlisle and John W. Champion, an advertising executive. Gower was named after his uncle, Gower N. Carlisle, using his grandmother’s maiden surname, Sbella Gower. Beatrice Carlisle was a descendent of Alfred L. Carlisle, a well-known Fox Valley realtor and one-time Kane County deputy sheriff.
When Beatrice and John divorced, she moved to California with the couple’s two sons, Gower and his brother, John, who was two years older. There she resettled near her sister and other relatives and made a living as a dressmaker. According to columnist Hedda Hopper, the Champions’ Hollywood home was originally built by Ronald Reagan. When not in school or delivering newspapers, Gower could be found singing for 50 cents and his dinner at the Pig’n Whistle, a popular family restaurant next door to Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.
At age twelve, Gower entered Lawlor’s School for
Marge Champion
| American actress, dancer and choreographer Date of Birth: Country: USA |
Content:
- Early Life and Dance Career
- Walt Disney Studios
- Marriage to Gower Champion
- Later Career and Honors
- Awards
Early Life and Dance Career
Marjorie Celeste Belcher was born in Los Angeles to dance director Ernest Belcher and Gladys Lee Baskett (née Rosenberg). From her mother's previous marriage, she had a half-sister, Lina Baskett, who became Champion's stepsister. She began dancing at a young age and became a ballet instructor at her father's school at the age of
Walt Disney Studios
Soon after, Walt Disney Studios hired her as a dance model for the title character in their animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (). Her dance moves were sketched to enhance Snow White's realism. She later modeled for the Blue Fairy in "Pinocchio" () and a character in "Fantasia" ().
Marriage to Gower Champion
In , after divorcing her first husband, Walt Disney animator Art Babbitt, Marge Belcher married choreographer and dancer Gower Champion, taking on his surname. Together, they starred in several popular MGM musicals, including "Show Boat" (), "Everything I Have
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