We wish a very Happy Birthday today to Rose Marie -- born on August 15, 1923 -- the brilliantly talented former child star who grew up to co-star on one of television's most innovative, smart and hilarious sitcoms ever. As quick-witted comedy writer Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Rose Marie showed us that ladies were as funny as gentlemen, and also how much fun working in an office with clever colleagues could be. These two principles have guided many of us on The Flaming Nose, and we salute Rose Marie for being such a tremendous and beautiful role model for independent women!
In case you weren't aware of her early show business triumphs, she was a popular singing star as "Baby Rose Marie" -- and boy, could she belt them out!
And of course we remember how she'd occasionally get to belt out a tune on The Dick Van Dyke Show, too!
In this clip from her interview at the Emmy Legends site, she discusses her role as Sally Rogers and what an important step it was for the portrayal of women on TV. (The whole interview is available on the above link.)
Here's a real piece of TV nostalgia: Rose Marie's The Dick Van Dyke Show co-star Morey Amsterdam and RM appearing on a 1964 episode of the variety show The Hollywood Palace, doing some old-fashioned comedy patter and looking wonderful! (The clip quality isn't great but it's worth it to watch this pair of show-biz pros at work).
Here's a clip from a little later, when she was a spokeswoman for Pledge furniture polish, in addition to all her other work including regular appearances on The Hollywood Squares.
We highly recommend making a visit to Rose Marie's terrific website which contains lots of great info on her prolific career. All fans of this wonderfully talented lady will really enjoy spending some time there!
Happy Birthday, Rose Marie! You're a true TV Treasure!
