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Ann Pennington (actress)

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Occupation
  
Actress

Siblings
  
Nellie Pennington

Role
  
Actress

Name
  
Ann Pennington

Height
  
4'10"


Ann Pennington (actress) Ann Pennington dancer actress Vintage Clothing Blue 17

Born
  
December 23, 1893 (
1893-12-23
)

Other names
  
"Penny", "Tiny" "Pipsy" "Duchess"

Died
  
November 4, 1971, New York City, New York, United States

Movies
  
Tanned Legs, Susie Snowflake, Night Parade

Similar People
  
Marshall Neilan, J Searle Dawley, Edward Dillon, Malcolm St Clair, James Kirkwood - Sr

Ann Pennington (December 23, 1893 – November 4, 1971) was an actress, dancer, and singer who starred on Broadway in the 1910s and 1920s, notably in the Ziegfeld Follies and George White's Scandals.

Contents

Ann Pennington (actress) Silence is Platinum December 2010

She became famous for what was, at the time, called a "Shake and Quiver Dancer", and was noted for her variation of the "Black Bottom". She was also noted as an accomplished tap dancer. Ray Henderson wrote the extant version of "Black Bottom" for Ann – she had already been performing the popular version of the dance for some time. Some years prior to this, she had also topped the bill on Broadway in her performance of the musically similar "Charleston".

Ann Pennington (actress) broadwaycasscedusitesdefaultfilesHesserAnn

Pennington also achieved fame as a star of both silent and sound motion pictures.

Ann Pennington (actress) Ann Pennington actress Wikiwand

Biography

Ann Pennington (actress) Ann Pennington dancer actress Blue 17 Vintage Fashion

Pennington was born in Wilmington, Delaware on December 23, 1893, and reputedly moved with her family to Camden, New Jersey around 1900. Her father worked for the Victor music company, they were Quakers, and she had at least one sibling, Nellie. She learned to dance with the Professor Wroe dance school, and her first performances in New York were as part of "Wroe's Buds". She wanted to be a classical actress, but her diminutive stature and talent as a dancer conspired against this ambition.

Ann Pennington (actress) ann pennington Google keress ACTORS Pinterest Actresses

She began her career on Broadway as a member of the chorus in The Red Widow (1911) starring Raymond Hitchcock. Her debut in the Ziegfeld Follies was in 1913, where she quickly established herself as one Ziegfeld's top attractions.

With dimpled knees and long dark red hair, the petite, pretty, charming, and often scantly-clad Pennington stood a mere 4' 10" tall and wore only a size 1½ shoe. Because of her diminutive stature, she was referred to as "Penny" by her friends and colleagues. Her nickname for herself was "Tiny".

During her years in the Ziegfeld Follies she appeared alongside the likes of Bert Williams, Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers, Fanny Brice (who became her closest friend), Marilyn Miller, and W. C. Fields. She switched back and forth between George White's Scandals and the Follies more than once, earning a salary of $1000 per week well before the 1920s, and continued to moonlight in the early New York film industry. She also frequented Harlem in its jazz heyday.

In the 1926 edition of George White's Scandals, Pennington introduced the African American-influenced Black Bottom dance to America at large with her partner, the eccentric dancer Tom Patricola. First popularized in New York by the African American show Dinaah that had been staged in Harlem in 1924, after Pennington performed the Black Bottom on Broadway, the dance became was a national phenomenon, overtaking The Charleston in popularity.

George Gershwin was her rehearsal pianist and wrote several songs for her. Cole Porter, Ray Henderson, Joe Burke, Oscar Levant and Edward Ward all wrote for her shows, The New Yorkers (1931) being her last great show for Porter. She could sing as well as dance, as evinced by her recording of "Believe Me" (1930).

No films of her signature dance routines have been preserved, with the possible exception of the "Snake-Hips" number which occurs in Happy Days (1929). Her key dances in Gold Diggers on Broadway (1929) remain lost. Some of her scenes from Tanned Legs still survive, but her role in The Great Ziegfeld, while still listed in some inventories, was in fact cut before release. She was also listed as a star in the 1929 Warner Brothers showcase movie "Show of Shows" but her routines were never filmed, perhaps because her main song and dance number "Believe Me" was commandeered by one of Warners' rising stars Irene Bordoni. Ann did however get to perform "Believe Me" in the 1930 movie "Hello Baby!", which is still in print, and sang and danced "You're responsible" in "Tanned Legs" (for which movie she features in uncredited cartoon form on the posters and sheet music).

The New York Times (November 5, 1971) noted:

She liked practical jokes. Once, when a man she didn't particularly like, telephoned, asking, "Is this Miss Pennington?" she replied, "This ain't me." Her dressing room door bore a sign, "For Men Only."

She was until the late 1920s chaperoned at performances by her mother. She was noted for a quick and witty personality, but was said to be shy off stage and easily embarrassed, and in her latter years was loath to discuss her early life.

Pennington was romantically linked to several men during her lifetime, and at one time or another was allegedly engaged to boxer Jack Dempsey, theatrical producer and early dance partner George White, actor Buster West, and musician Brooke Johns. None of these romances lasted and Pennington never married. She never spoke on record about any of her engagements, whether to confirm or deny them.

Ann Pennington never settled in one place for very long. She lived mostly in hotels in New York apart from some years in California as the constant companion of Fanny Brice, whom she had helped out at least once with loans and gifts of jewelry. Ann was noted for her generosity and many of her loans were never repaid; however most of her huge earnings were wiped out over the years by betting at the racetrack, decades of hotel bills, and gifts to charities and churches.

After her years on stage and screen ended, Pennington toured in vaudeville. She retired from performing in the 1940s. She last appeared on stage in a benefit show for the armed forces in 1946. She had a committed work ethic, and worked wherever the opportunity arose, although as she aged and tastes changed, she ended her stage days in shabby theaters with low ranked dance companies. Home movie footage of her "Snake Hips" dance at the 1939 World's Fair survive, but is more memorable for her enthusiasm than her star quality in her fading years.

Ann Pennington died of a stroke in New York City on November 4, 1971, aged 77. She had lived alone on welfare for many years in New York hotels overlooking 42nd Street. She was badly affected by arthritis. She was sometimes recognised shuffling along Broadway as a faded superstar of a world long past – but she was also mugged in her old age on one of her daily walks to a diner. She is buried in the Valhallia Cemetery in New York. No family were known to have attended her funeral, which was paid for by the Actors Benevolent guild.

A few years before her death, she was asked what had been the greatest reward from her years of stardom, and her reply was "in living, honey".

She was portrayed by actress Michelle Nicastro in the "Scandals of 1920" episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which dramatizes her role as the star of George White's Scandals of 1920.

Review

Of Ann Pennington's official film debut in Susie Snowflake, the New York Times stated on June 26, 1916:

Many of those who went to the Broadway yesterday for the first showing of Susie Snowflake will be inclined to endorse this particular nomination. Miss Pennington is obviously put forth as a diminutive star of the Marguerite Clark variety, a style enormously in vogue at the moment. She is little and cunning on Mr. Ziegfeld's stage and little and cunning on the screen. She has youth, a Mary Pickford like harum-scarum way with her and, except in the trying close-ups when her expression is somewhat adenoidal, she is pretty.

Of course she dances. As her frisky little dance is her sole claim to fame at the moment, it could no more be omitted from her first scenario than the "pump and washing tubs" in Mr. Crummles's theater. So as a child of the music halls adapted into a staid, old New England community, Susie Snowflake disrupts a church sociable by doing her Follies dance there in her terse Follies costume.

Motion picture credits

The following list contains all of Ann Pennington's known motion picture appearances.

Filmography

Actress
1942
China Girl as
Entertainer
1941
Unholy Partners as
Telephone Operator (uncredited)
1940
Texas Terrors as
Dancer
1930
Hello, Baby (Short) as
Ann
1929
Tanned Legs as
Tootie
1929
Night Parade as
Ann Pennington
1929
Is Everybody Happy? as
Lena Schmitt
1929
Happy Days as
Dancer - 'Snake Hips' Number
1929
Gold Diggers of Broadway as
Ann Collins
1925
The Golden Strain as
Lucy Sulter
1925
Madame Behave as
Gwen Townley
1925
The Lucky Horseshoe as
Dancer
1925
Pretty Ladies as
Ann Pennington
1925
The Mad Dancer as
Mimi
1925
A Kiss in the Dark as
Specialty Dancer
1924
Manhandled as
Ann Pennington
1918
Sunshine Nan as
Nance Molloy
1917
The Antics of Ann as
Ann Wharton
1917
The Little Boy Scout as
Justina Howland
1916
The Rainbow Princess as
Hope
1916
Susie Snowflake as
Susie
Soundtrack
1942
China Girl (performer: "Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey (I Never Knew Any Girl Like You)" - uncredited)
1942
Give This Little Girl a Great Big Hand (Short) (performer: "Give This Little Girl a Great Big Hand")
1940
Texas Terrors (performer: "Listen to the Rhythm of the Range" (1937) - uncredited)
1929
Tanned Legs (performer: "You're Responsible" (1929), "Tanned Legs" (1929) - uncredited)
1929
Happy Days (performer: "Snake Hips" - uncredited)
Self
1942
Give This Little Girl a Great Big Hand (Short) as
Self / Singer
1940
Medicus Film of New York World's Fair (Documentary) as
Self
1930
Fashion News (Documentary short) as
Self (1929)
1929
Night Club (Short) as
Self
1928
Champions (Short) as
Self - Actress
1917
Animated Weekly, No. 78 (Documentary short) as
Self
Archive Footage
2004
Broadway: The American Musical (TV Mini Series documentary) as
Self

References

Ann Pennington (actress) Wikipedia