“Silk Stockings” star of “The Pajama Game” was 101 years old

Janice Paige, the vivacious redhead who starred in the original Broadway production of Pajama game And in Hollywood musicals such as Silk stockings And romantic On the high seas, He died. It was 101.

Paige, who was discovered in the 1940s while performing at the legendary Hollywood Cantina, died Sunday of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, her friend Stuart Lambert announced.

Paige starred in her own network sitcom, playing a widowed nightclub singer struggling to raise her 10-year-old daughter, in the 1955-56 CBS series It’s always Januaryand had recurring roles as Dick Van Patten’s free-spirited sister on ABC’s hit show Eight is enough And as a hospital administrator on CBS Trapper John, MD

The actress also made two memorable guest-starring stints in 1976, playing an attractive waitress named Denise who tempts Archie (Carroll O’Connor) to cheat on Edith (Jean Stapleton). Everyone in the family and a former flame of Lou’s (Edward Asner). The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

In 1968, Page replaced Angela Lansbury at Mami on Broadway and played the title character for about two years.

After spending six years working on stage and television, Paige returned to the big screen to star alongside Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in Silk stockings (1957), an adaptation of a musical by Greta Garbo Ninochka In its roots.

She and Astaire collaborated on Cole Porter’s song-and-dance hit “Stereophonic Sound,” which culminated with the duo swinging on a chandelier above the heads of some reporters.

a job Silk stockings “It was hard work, believe me,” Page said in a 2016 interview. “I was one mass of bruises. I didn’t know how to fall. I didn’t know how to sit at the table — I didn’t know how to save myself because I was never a classical dancer. These are the tips you learn when you learn how to dance.”

“Fred never knew it, but he was so great. He would come in the morning and say, ‘I have a great idea for a move. Do you think you can do this?’ I never said no to him. I would never dare say no to Fred Astaire. Especially when we finished The thing is, when you have to grab the chandelier and swing over all these people, he showed me and said, ‘Do you think you can do it?’ And I said, ‘Sure, I can do it.’

in Pajama gamePage played Katherine “Babe” Williams, a garment worker at the Sleep Tight Pajama Factory and leader of the factory’s union grievance committee. She falls in love with new supervisor Sid Sorokin (John Wright, father of singer Bonnie Wright) despite the fact that he is her opponent in a labor dispute.

The musical premiered at the St. James Theater in May 1954, ran for more than 1,000 performances over 15 months and won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

“We were the happiest bunch of people you’d ever see,” she said in 1990, “because everyone said we were going to be losers.” Presentation about pajama factory? And we were crushed. “It was a special moment, and it will never happen again.”

Wright went on to appear in the 1957 big screen version of The Dark Knight Pajama game at Warner Bros., but the role of Paige was filled by Doris Day.

A few years earlier, Day, in her first film, had gone up to Paige Romance on the high seas (1948). In the screwball musical comedy, socialite Paige hires a singer (Day) to take her place on a cruise so she can spy on her cheating husband (Don DeFore). Meanwhile, Day and Detective (Jack Carson) fall in love on the boat.

Paige and Day will work together again Please do not eat the daisies (1960).

Paige’s third and final husband was Ray Gilbert, who won an Academy Award for writing the lyrics to the best song winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from the now-suspended Disney library. Song of the South (1946).

Born Donna Mae Tjaden in Tacoma, Washington, on September 16, 1922, Paige moved to Los Angeles with her sister after graduating from Stadium High School and was hired to sing at the Hollywood Canteen, the club on Cahuenga Avenue that the Studios had established to entertain military personnel during World War II.

It was signed by MGM and then Warner Bros., and in 1944 it hit the big screen Bathing beautystarring Esther Williams, Red Skelton and Basil Rathbone, and played a studio messenger in Hollywood canteen film.

In 1946, Paige landed her first leading role, as a nightclub singer Her type of manThey appeared opposite Carson—they made eight films together—in Two men from Milwaukee And Time, place and girl.

She starred in Cheyenne (1947), directed by Raoul Walsh, starring opposite Bette Davis Winter meeting (1948) and had prominent roles in One Sunday afternoon (1948), The house is across the street (1949), The runaway lady (1950), Master of the universe (1951) and Two girls and a guy (1951).

After being released by Warner Bros., Paige headed to Broadway and starred with Jackie Cooper in the 1951 crime comedy. That remains to be seenBut June Allyson played her in the 1953 MGM version.

Later, she portrayed Bob Hope’s married, love-starved neighbor Bachelor in Paradise (1961) and A Prostitute in Joan Crawford Caregivers (1963).

Her television resume is also included Wagon train, Burke’s law, The fugitive, Manix, Rockford Files, happy Days, Too close for comfort, Caroline is in town And series Capitol, Santa Barbara And Public Hospital.

They were a real live band on Hope’s USO tours and in 1956 released an album entitled let’s Fall in Love. In 2020 it was published Reading between the lines: a memoir.

Paige donated her papers to Emerson College and filmed episodes of her show It’s always January; Video clips for movies, television, and live music performances; Texts; musical compositions; Photographs and other memorabilia from her career.

For years, she still received fan letters, photo requests and autographs from all over the world.

Page was married to restaurateur Frank Martinelli Jr. from 1947 to 1951; By Arthur Stander, who wrote and produced It’s always January, from 1956 to 1957; and to Gilbert from 1962 until his death after open-heart surgery in 1976.

From Gilbert she inherited the Ipanema Music Company, which he founded with Brazilian musician Antonio Carlos Jobim, and several songs he wrote.