Miriam Nelson
The following Biography is from Larry Billman's book: Film Choreographers and Dance Directors An Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia With a History and Filmographies 1893 Through 1995 MIRIAM NELSON (née Franklin, later Meyers) b. Chicago, Illinois, September 21, 1922
Miriam began dance studies in her native Chicago and when her family moved to New York, she studied tap with Ernest Carlos at the age of 14. In a borrowed pair of toe shoes, she auditioned for Billy Rose's Casa Mañana, but instead made her professional debut with an act playing Troy and Schnectady. She eventually played the Casa Mañana and next, the Mayfair Club in Boston. After making her Broadway debut in 1938 in Sing Out the News, she went on to appear in Yokel Boy and Very Warm For May ('39), Higher and Higher and Panama Hattie ('40) and Let's Face It ('41), working with choreographers Robert Alton, Billy Daniel and Charles Walters and often selected to be line-captain. When her husband, Gene Nelson, joined the Signal Corps, Miriam went to Hollywood, where she signed an acting-dancing contract with Paramount and was featured in Double Indemnity and Here Come the Waves ('44), Duffy's Tavern and Incendiary Blonde ('45) and Naughty Nanette (a '46 short) and in Cover Girl ('44) and The Jolson Story ('46) for Columbia. First assisting Paramount dance director Danny Dare, she began choreographing and when Gene was signed by Warner Bros. to star in a series of musical films, she co-created many of his solo routines and coached Doris Day and his other female costars. Divorced from Nelson, she continued as one of Hollywood's busiest TV and film choreographers (along with her tap expertise, she specialized in staging party sequences), as well as being one of the pioneers of spectacular Arena show staging with Disney on Parade in 1969. As one of the founders of SHARE, she has staged and produced their annual fund-raising Boomtown shows for decades and, as a member of the Professional Dancer's Society (PDS) Board of Directors, she also co-produces and stages their annual tributes to dancers and choreographers. Widowed after her second husband's, producer Jack Meyers, death, she returned to the stage in longtime-friend Marge Champion's production of Ballroom at the Long Beach CLO in 1992. Juggling the roles of choreographer, tap instructor and lecturer, director and producer (as well as mother and grandmother), she is in the process of writing her autobiography.
Stage:
Wildcat (OOT '62)
Festival Polynesia (Hollywood Bowl, '66)
Anything Goes (St. Louis Muny '72 rev)
Oklahoma! (Bdwy '79 rev, "Kansas City" number)
Hoagy
Bix and Monk (LA)
TV (Partial listing):
"The Red Skelton Show" ('54)
"Make Believe Ballroom"
"Shower of Stars" ('54)
Playhouse 90: "The Dingaling Girl" ('59)
"The Bob Hope Show"
"The Don Knotts Show"
"Oh, Susanna" ('60)
"Wagontrain"
"The Farmer's Daughter"
"The Hollywood Palace"
"My Three Sons"
"The Lucy Show"
"Away We Go" ('67, with The Miriam Nelson Dancers)
42nd Annual Academy Awards Show ('69)
"Ike" ('79 mini series with Marge Champion)
Commercials (Partial listing):
Chevron
K-Mart
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Kinney Shoes
McDonald's
Wendy's
Nightclubs / Concerts:
Acts for Gene Barry
William Bendix
Janet Blair
Carol Channing
Gary Crosby
Barbara Eden
Gogi Grant
Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme
Howard Keel
Gordon & Sheila MacRae
Ann Miller
Anthony Newley
Donald O'Connor and Jane Russell
La Parisienne (Dunes Hotel, LV '60)
The Playmates
The Flamingoettes (Flamingo Hotel, LV)
Miscellaneous:
Wives for Kennedy - Fundraising revue, ('60)
Onstage U.S.A. and Golden Horseshoe Revue (Disneyland '69)
Disney on Parade (touring arena show '69)
SHARE Annual Boomtown parties ('53-'95)
Radio City Music Hall ('71)
Opening of Madison Square Gardens
Honor America ('76)
Ice (Radio City Music Hall)
Sesame Street Live (touring arena show)
Thalians Ball ('94)
Film:
1945 - Duffy's Tavern - Par (assistant to Billy Daniel, Danny Dare, also appeared in a featured number with Johnny Coy)
Incendiary Blonde - Par (assistant to Daniel)
Masquerade in Mexico - Par (assistant to Daniel)
1946 - The Jolson Story - Col (with Jack Cole, also appeared, ghosting for Evelyn Keyes in "Liza")
1950 - The Daughter of Rosie O' Grady - WB (with Gene Nelson, LeRoy Prinz, also appeared)
Tea for Two - WB (with Gene, Eddie and LeRoy Prinz, Al White, Jr.)
1951 - Lullaby of Broadway - WB (with Gene, Eddie and LeRoy Prinz, White, Jr.)
Painting the Clouds with Sunshine - WB (with Gene, LeRoy Prinz)
1952 - She's Working Her Way Through College - WB (with Gene, LeRoy Prinz)
1953 - She's Back on Broadway - WB (with Steve Condos, Gene, LeRoy Prinz)
1955 - Bring Your Smile Along - Col (assisted by Ward Ellis)
Picnic - Col
1956 - He Laughed Last - Col (assisted by Bob Street)
1957 - Public Pigeon Number One - Univ
1960 - The Apartment - UA
High Time - Fox
Visit to a Small Planet - Par
1961 - Breakfast at Tiffany's - Par
Love in a Goldfish Bowl - Par
1962 - The Interns - Col
1963 - A New Kind of Love - Par
Soldier in the Rain - Par
1964 - Good Neighbor Sam - Col
Honeymoon Hotel - MGM (assisted by Michelle Barton)
I'd Rather Be Rich - Univ (with Hal Belfer)
The New Interns - Col
Young Lovers - MGM
1965 - Cat Ballou - Col
I'll Take Sweden - UA
In Harm's Way - Par
1966 - Hawaii - UA
Murderer's Row - Col (assisted by Bob Street)
Walk, Don't Run - Col
1967 - Easy Come, Easy Go - Par (with David Winters)
1969 - Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice - Col
Cactus Flower - Col (assisted by Toni Kaye)
The Great Bank Robbery - WB (assisted by Larry Billman)
1973 - The Third Girl from the Left (made-for-TV-movie) - Playboy Films
1974 - Remember When (made-for-TV-movie) - Danny Thomas Prod./NBC
1975 - The Day of the Locust - Par (with Marge Champion)
1978 - Ziegfeld, the Man and His Women (made-for-TV-movie) - Frankovich/Col (assisted by Tad Tadlock, Emmy nom)
1979 - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - Univ
10 - Orion ("Dream Ballet" deleted)
1981 - Only When I Laugh - UA
1982 - Yes, Giorgio - MGM
1985 - Alice in Wonderland (made-for-TV-movie) - CBS/Irwin Allen
1988 - Sunset - TriStar (with Miranda Garrison)
1999 - Out of the Cold (US/Estonian/Russian co-production) - Old Town Pictures/Maksla Prod/Norah Films
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Miriam Nelson on the Internet:
www.IMDb.com - Internet Movie Database