Herald & Review (Decatur, IL)
September 24, 1993
Section: Life
Page: B5
Song and Dance
Rita Moreno, winner of all five major entertainment awards, showcases her talents Saturday in Decatur
DAVID BURKE
H&R Staff Writer
Think those fancy-schmanzy awards the stars win go right onto their mantles? Guess again. Until recently, Rita Moreno -the only person to win all five major entertainment awards kept hers in storage.
“I finally took them out of a carton,” she said in an interview from her California home. “I don’t know why, but it always seemed too self-serving to display them.
“Finally my husband (cardiologist Dr. Leonard Gordon) said, ‘This is ridiculous. Where’s the carton?’
And I said I didn’t remember, and finally we found the carton in a closet under the steps in the living room.”
The awards -an Oscar and Golden Globe for “West Side Story,” a Tony for “The Ritz,” a Grammy for “The Electric Company” and Emmys for “The Muppet Show” and “The Rockford Files” -were polished and put in a game room alongside movie and Broadway show posters.
“Poor Oscar was pock-marked. He had a terminal case of acne. So we had to send him back to the Academy to have him replaced. They’re not made of the best material, these awards.”
But Moreno -who made her Broadway debut 48 years ago -is still made of hearty stuff. And she’ll display that Saturday for the opening of the 1993-94 season of the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra.
Billed as “Moreno, Marvin, Machines and More,” the show includes medleys from the musicals “Show Boat” and “They’re Playing My Song,” Strauss’ “Tales from the Vienna Woods Waltz” and “A Short Ride in a Fast Machine.”
Moreno’s daughter, Fernanda Luisa, will dance with her.
Moreno, who has performed with more than 40 symphonies, said the act was “a real wide palette.”
“That’s what makes my act different from anyone else’s; there’s a great variety of music and styles, which very often makes it very enjoyable,” she
said. “There’s pop, there’s swing, there’s theater -just about everything but country and rock ‘n’ roll.”
More of Moreno can be seen in the 1994 calendar “Thirty-nine and Holding,” a glamorous collection of a dozen female celebrities age 40-plus, which features Moreno lounging atop a piano, showing off her famous legs.
“Isn’t it a great picture?” said Miss August, who turns 62 in December. “I called up the photographer (Mario Cassilli), who was a guy who used to do the really incredible Playboy centerfolds. He knows how to make women look gorgeous.
“I called him up with an idea, and said, ‘What about a white grand piano and a bloodred gown,’ and he said, ‘Yay!’
Sales of the calendar, the brainchild of Loni Anderson, benefit Elizabeth Taylor’s AIDS foundation, Moreno said. The calendar also includes Anderson, Taylor, Joan Collins, Linda Evans, Katharine Ross, Angie Dickinson, Carol Burnett, Suzanne Somers, Diahann Carroll, Annette Funicello and Moreno’s favorite, Linda Gray.
“I think she is just the sexiest creature that ever walked,” Moreno said.
Moreno will be seen next year in a movie called “Blackout,” a comedy drama set in the Puerto Rican ghetto. It’s being produced by the same people who produced “Boyz N the Hood,” and written and directed by first-time filmmaker Darnell Martin.
“It turns out Darnell Martin is a big fan of mine and wanted me in the movie.
It was so wonderful working for her,” Moreno said. “It’s so nice to be loved.”
SHOW INFO
WHO:
Rita Moreno, with the Millikin-Decatur Symphony
WHERE:
Kirkland Fine Arts Center at Millikin University
WHEN:
8 p.m. Saturday
TICKETS:
$18, available from the Kirkland box office, phone 424-6318; about one-third of the seats remained as of Thursday, according to box office personnel
September 24, 1993
Section: Life
Page: B5
Song and Dance
Rita Moreno, winner of all five major entertainment awards, showcases her talents Saturday in Decatur
DAVID BURKE
H&R Staff Writer
Think those fancy-schmanzy awards the stars win go right onto their mantles? Guess again. Until recently, Rita Moreno -the only person to win all five major entertainment awards kept hers in storage.
“I finally took them out of a carton,” she said in an interview from her California home. “I don’t know why, but it always seemed too self-serving to display them.
“Finally my husband (cardiologist Dr. Leonard Gordon) said, ‘This is ridiculous. Where’s the carton?’
And I said I didn’t remember, and finally we found the carton in a closet under the steps in the living room.”
The awards -an Oscar and Golden Globe for “West Side Story,” a Tony for “The Ritz,” a Grammy for “The Electric Company” and Emmys for “The Muppet Show” and “The Rockford Files” -were polished and put in a game room alongside movie and Broadway show posters.
“Poor Oscar was pock-marked. He had a terminal case of acne. So we had to send him back to the Academy to have him replaced. They’re not made of the best material, these awards.”
But Moreno -who made her Broadway debut 48 years ago -is still made of hearty stuff. And she’ll display that Saturday for the opening of the 1993-94 season of the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra.
Billed as “Moreno, Marvin, Machines and More,” the show includes medleys from the musicals “Show Boat” and “They’re Playing My Song,” Strauss’ “Tales from the Vienna Woods Waltz” and “A Short Ride in a Fast Machine.”
Moreno’s daughter, Fernanda Luisa, will dance with her.
Moreno, who has performed with more than 40 symphonies, said the act was “a real wide palette.”
“That’s what makes my act different from anyone else’s; there’s a great variety of music and styles, which very often makes it very enjoyable,” she
said. “There’s pop, there’s swing, there’s theater -just about everything but country and rock ‘n’ roll.”
More of Moreno can be seen in the 1994 calendar “Thirty-nine and Holding,” a glamorous collection of a dozen female celebrities age 40-plus, which features Moreno lounging atop a piano, showing off her famous legs.
“Isn’t it a great picture?” said Miss August, who turns 62 in December. “I called up the photographer (Mario Cassilli), who was a guy who used to do the really incredible Playboy centerfolds. He knows how to make women look gorgeous.
“I called him up with an idea, and said, ‘What about a white grand piano and a bloodred gown,’ and he said, ‘Yay!’
Sales of the calendar, the brainchild of Loni Anderson, benefit Elizabeth Taylor’s AIDS foundation, Moreno said. The calendar also includes Anderson, Taylor, Joan Collins, Linda Evans, Katharine Ross, Angie Dickinson, Carol Burnett, Suzanne Somers, Diahann Carroll, Annette Funicello and Moreno’s favorite, Linda Gray.
“I think she is just the sexiest creature that ever walked,” Moreno said.
Moreno will be seen next year in a movie called “Blackout,” a comedy drama set in the Puerto Rican ghetto. It’s being produced by the same people who produced “Boyz N the Hood,” and written and directed by first-time filmmaker Darnell Martin.
“It turns out Darnell Martin is a big fan of mine and wanted me in the movie.
It was so wonderful working for her,” Moreno said. “It’s so nice to be loved.”
SHOW INFO
WHO:
Rita Moreno, with the Millikin-Decatur Symphony
WHERE:
Kirkland Fine Arts Center at Millikin University
WHEN:
8 p.m. Saturday
TICKETS:
$18, available from the Kirkland box office, phone 424-6318; about one-third of the seats remained as of Thursday, according to box office personnel
Copyright, 1993, Herald & Review, Decatur, IL