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Doris Day, The Pajama Game, 1956. Two swell singers with the same-sounding name were sought by Warner Bros for the musical about a strike at a pajama factory. (Honest). Could be that Head Bro Jack Warner didn’t know the difference between Janis Paige andf Patti Page… oten billed as: ads The Singing Rage.
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Ann Blyth, The Helen Morgan Story, 1956. For six months, Warner Bros scanned some 32 possible Morgans, including Dani Crayne, Susan Hayward, Jennifer Jones plus singers Page, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Helene Grayco, Peggy Lee, Jaye P Morgan, Keely Smith. And even fashion model Nancy Berg. Morgan’s friends and fans were aghast when director Michael Curtis chose Blyth, with Cogi Grant dubbing the songs, when neither looked or sounded like Morgan. Curtiz said Blyth was the best actress for the rôle and Grant’s voice was better than Morgan’s “kind of high-pitched, low-voiced torch singing… it’s outmoded.” So, tell some other sad story! Berg’s life, for example, was way heavier.
- Mitzi Gaynor, South Pacific, 1957. A Hollywood secret until the chanteuse’s autobiography revealed Patti had been wooed for Nellie Forebush. Stage-screen director Joshua Logan chose Mitzi after also considering Patti, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Elizabeth Taylor – because Mary Martin, the original Nellie Forbush, was thought too old at 45 to repeat her Broadway role in the Pulitzer Prize-winner.
Birth year: 1927Death year: 2013Other name: Casting Calls: 3