A weekly feature in which my four-year-old son is let loose on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles, and chooses a star from among the more than 2,500 honorees. His “random” picks sometimes reveal unexplained connections such as the summer day in 2012 when he sat down on the star of actress Celeste Holm and refused to budge. We later learned that the Oscar-winning actress had died only hours earlier.
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harlie and I braved the gridlock of Oscar Sunday yesterday and headed to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We couldn’t get anywhere near the cordoned-off street directly in front of the Dolby Theater where last night’s 86th Academy Awards presentation took place, but we were able to maneuver ourselves onto the part of Hollywood Boulevard that was just to the east of the area that had more security than the current crisis in Ukraine. As if on cue, sensing the excitement in the air, Charlie headed straight for the star of a bona fide Oscar winner, albeit one who is better known today for her work on television.
Shirley Jones was born on March 31, 1934 in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Named after child star Shirley Temple, Jones started singing at an early age. Longing to go on the stage, she convinced her parents to let her try her luck in New York when she was still a teenager. Her very first audition was an open call held by the casting director for Rodgers and Hammerstein who was looking for some good singers to fill in some slots in the famous pair’s musicals. When Shirley started singing, the casting director got so excited that he ran across the street to a different theater where he knew Richard Rodgers was in rehearsals for an upcoming show. Rodgers came to hear Jones sing and promptly called Oscar Hammerstein at home. In a turn of events that would not even seem plausible in a cheesy backstage musical, Jones became the only singer to be put under contract to Rodgers and Hammerstein. They put her in a small role in their musical South Pacific and later let her understudy the main role in Me and Juliet.
But Shirley’s real moment of glory came when Rodgers and Hammerstein decided to cast her in the lead role of Laurey in the movie version of their huge hit Oklahoma, to be directed by Fred Zinnemann. At the age of 21, Shirley Jones became a major movie star overnight, playing opposite Gordon MacRae, and getting to sing songs like “People Will Say We’re in Love” and “Many a New Day.” Jones followed up this film by playing Julie Jordan in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s next big-screen extravaganza, Carousel, again opposite Gordon MacRae (after Frank Sinatra dropped out) and getting to sing more classics such as “If I Loved You” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Unfortunately for Jones, the movie musical as an American art form was losing favor with audiences around this time. Shirley also started worrying about being typecast as the wholesome girl-next-door because of her initial movie outings.
But after a few more roles in some forgettable films, Shirley got another amazingly lucky break. Despite the initial objections of director Richard Brooks, she was cast as Lulu Bains, a girl from, shall we say, the wrong side of the tracks in the electrifying film Elmer Gantry, based on the controversial novel by Sinclair Lewis. Burt Lancaster played Elmer Gantry, a hard-drinking con man who hitches his star to a popular female evangelist (Jean Simmons) who is bringing her (very profitable) revivalist message to small towns all over the South. Lulu hears of Gantry’s newfound fame and tries to blackmail him. It was Gantry who had deflowered the preacher’s daughter years earlier which, when she was caught by her father, got her thrown out of the house which led to her current life of prostitution. As Lulu Bains, Shirley Jones uttered what is one of my favorite lines in the history of the movies. How it got past the 1960 censors still amazes me today. Explaining her connection to Gantry to one of her hooker friends, she said:
“Oh, he gave me special instructions back of the pulpit Christmas Eve. He got to howlin’ ‘Repent! Repent!’ and I got to moanin’ ‘Save me! Save me!’ and the first thing I know he rammed the fear of God into me so fast I never heard my old man’s footsteps!”
For her efforts in Elmer Gantry, Shirley Jones won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1960. Unfortunately, the recognition did not lead to a spate of other great movies. While she appeared in a few wonderful films such as The Music Man (playing Marian the Librarian opposite Robert Preston’s Harold Hill) and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father with Glenn Ford and Ron Howard, the movie offers began to dry up in the late 1960s.
When TV first beckoned, she turned down the role of Carol Brady in The Brady Bunch. Back then it was considered something of a step down for movie stars to appear on television. But in 1970, she was persuaded to take the role of Shirley Partridge in the sitcom The Partridge Family which co-starred her stepson, heartthrob David Cassidy. “The problem with Partridge,” she said later, “though it was great for me and gave me an opportunity to stay home and raise my kids — when my agents came to me and presented it to me, they said if you do a series and it becomes a hit show, you will be that character for the rest of your life and your film career will go into the toilet, which is what happened. But I have no regrets!”
The Partridge Family lasted for four successful seasons. Shirley’s 18-year-long marriage to actor Jack Cassidy ended in 1974. She had three sons with Cassidy: Shaun, Patrick and Ryan, two of whom had successful careers in show business. Jones has been married to comedian Marty Ingels since 1979. She still appears on the stage and television. She has a recurring role on the Fox sitcom Raising Hope and often appears in musicals with her son Patrick. The actress recently published a racy tell-all memoir. Next month, on April 10, just a few blocks from her star, Jones will be introducing a restored version of Oklahoma at Grauman’s Chinese Theater at the opening night gala of the TCM Classic Film Festival. See you then, Shirley!
Let’s take a listen to Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae singing one of the most beautiful songs in the history of the American musical: