Ann Miller ,The Amazing Taping Gal!

I was introduced to Ann Miller when i saw "Kiss me Kate" some years ago.I was mesmerized by her exotic and unsuall beauty and her taping skills!She was very different than the typical Hollywood actresses of her time and that made me notice her.She was not the typical skinny blonde dancer like Ginger Rodgers,neither she was the the cute perky girl like Debbie Reynolds.She had that something ...she was "Too Darn Hot " if you ask me!!!!

Miller was born in Chireno, Texas and her real name was Johnnie Lucille Collier.Her maternal grandmother was Cherokee.
She began taking tap lessons to strengthen her legs after suffering from rickets. One of the side effects of rickets is bow legs.
 At the age of 13 Miller had been hired as a dancer in the "Black Cat Club" in San Francisco (she reportedly told them she was 18). It was there she was discovered by Lucille Ball and talent scout/comic Benny Rubin.

She was so remarkable that by age fourteen, she played Ginger Roger's dancing partner in "Stage Door", which started a Motion Picture Career that spanned 20 years.

She was known, especially later in her career, for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamor: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a slash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs.

She appeared in several films between 1934 and 1956,some of my favourite are "Kiss me Kate",""On the town","Easter Parade",Stage Door" & Jam Session" along famous band leaders as Glen Gray,Louis Armstrong,Alvino Ray and many more!

                                     

She's literally too darn hot in this scene from "Kiss Me Kate" & her costume is spectucular!!!I read somewhere that Bianca was her favorite role !

                                 
Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing. Studio publicists concocted press releases claiming she could tap 500 times per minute, but in truth, the sound of ultra-fast "500" taps was looped in later. Because the stage floors were slick and slippery, she actually danced in shoes with rubber soles. Later she would loop the sound of the taps while watching the film and actually dancing on a "tap board" to match her steps in the film!!!Woooowww...

“At MGM, I always played the second feminine lead; I was never the star in films, I was the brassy, good-hearted showgirl. I never really had my big moment on the screen.Broadway gave me the stardom that my soul kind of yearned for.”

Another interesting thing about Ann Miller is the fact that she is credited for... you won't believe this... the invention of pantyhose. This came about in a very practical manner. For her routines her stocking would have to be sewn to her costume. This could be troublesome because the process would need to be repeated whenever there was a run or a hole. So she approached the man who supplied the stockings and suggested that a top be added. And so... pantyhose. 

She donated this pair of gold colored tap shoes to the National Museum of American History in the Smithsonian Institute.

 Refusing to do movies for years because disliked nudity and sex, she finally relented and returned to films after nearly four decades playing Coco at  David Lynch's Mulholland Dr. (2001), which contained nudity and explicit sex.This was her last role!