HOLLYWOOD: The Ring -a- Ding Girl

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Then Shirley heard that Rodgers and Hammerstein were auditioning for a new show, Me and Juliet. She tried out for the chorus and was turned down. ("There were maybe ten million people, each expected to sing, dance, do cartwheels and manufacture their own fog.") Shirley was so sure that R. & H. had made a mistake that she borrowed a friend's Equity card and tried again. She was turned down once more. The third time, Dick Rodgers got a good look at her. "You with the legs," he called, and she was hired.

The Test. Next season, when Juliet's director, George Abbott, began work on Pajama Game, he brought Shirley. Shrewdly, she sized up the show, decided that she would be a better understudy for Carol Haney than the girl who had been chosen, chopped her hair off short like Carol's ("I stuffed a pillow with what I cut off") and asked for the job. She got it. Then, a clichés coming true, just three days after the show opened on Broadway, Carol Haney broke her ankle. Shirley was in. Just three days after that, Hollywood Producer Hal Wallis offered her a contract at $200 a week. Shirley got an agent who held out for $600. and Wallis countered with a demand for a screen test.

The test became a classic. Almost without makeup, dressed in a brief sweater, even briefer shorts and long black stockings, Shirley did a couple of bits from Pajama Game—minus music. For the rest of the time, the camera closed in on her mobile, expressive face, the fine, frank mouth that can play a thousand variations on a smile, the curious, inquisitive eyes at once disarming and discerning. Off-camera, the soft, insistent voice of Director Danny Mann conducted an interview. "Tell me about yourself. What do you really want to do?" That smile again, then a short, pert shrug of the lips as if any sensible character really should have known. "Comedy," said Shirley. "Comedy with real good acting."

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