Marge Champion

Champion was born in Los Angeles on September 2, 1919.{{cite news|title=Marge Champion, Dancer, Actor and Choreographer, Dies at 101|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/arts/dance/marge-champion-dead.html|first=Robert D.|last=McFadden|date=October 22, 2020|access-date=October 22, 2020|newspaper=The New York Times}} Her father, Ernest Belcher, was a dance director who taught Shirley Temple, Betty Grable, Ramon Novarro, Cyd Charisse, Fay Wray and Joan Crawford, as well as Champion's future husband Gower Champion;{{cite news|title=Marge Champion, Actress, Dancer and Model for Snow White, Dies at 101|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/marge-champion-dead-actress-dancer-model-snow-white-was-101|first=Mike|last=Barnes|date=October 21, 2020|access-date=October 22, 2020|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter}} her mother was Gladys Lee Baskette (née Rosenberg). Champion had an older half sister, Lina Basquette, who began acting in 1916 in silent films. Lina was the daughter of her mother's first husband, Frank Baskette, who died by suicide.{{cite news|title=Obituary: Lina Basquette|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lina-basquette-1441595.html|date=October 8, 1994|first=Kevin|last=Brownlow|access-date=October 22, 2020|newspaper=The Independent|location=London}} Champion and Basquette's maternal grandfather, Lazarus Rosenberg, was Jewish.{{Cite web|last=Thomas|first=Kevin|date=August 23, 1991|title=Lina Basquette: Her Life Is Screenplay Material: Movies: The Golden Era star who married a Warner, fended off Hitler's advances and became a champion dog breeder takes on her first role in 48 years at age 84.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-23-ca-949-story.html|access-date=October 23, 2020|website=Los Angeles Times}}{{cite book|last=Slide|first=Anthony|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalauto00slid/page/16|title=Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=2002|isbn=0-813-12249-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/biographicalauto00slid/page/16 16]}}

Champion began dancing at an early age as her sister had done. She started as a child under the instruction of her father.{{Cite web|url=https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/marge-champion/|title=Marge Champion|website=D23|access-date=January 24, 2020}} She studied exclusively with her father from age five until she left for New York.{{Cite journal|last=Prevots|first=Naima|date=January 1986|title=Ernest Belcher and American dance|journal=Dance Chronicle|volume=10|issue=2|pages=170–222|doi=10.1080/01472528608568944|issn=0147-2526}} She credited her good health and long career to her father's teaching principles: careful, strict progression of activity, emphasis on correct alignment, precise placement of body, attention to detail and to the totality of dynamics and phrasing. Her first dance partner was Louis Hightower."Marge Celeste Belcher", [https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~genbel/genealogy/mayjune2006/champion.html Marge Belcher and Gower Champion]. In 1930, she made her debut in the Hollywood Bowl at age 11 in the ballet "Carnival in Venice". By age twelve, she became a ballet instructor at her father's studio. Champion played Tina in the Hollywood High School operetta The Red Mill. She also sang in the Hollywood High School Girls' Senior Glee Club and graduated in 1936.{{cite book |title=Poinsettia Yearbook |date=1936 |publisher=Hollywood High School |location=Hollywood |pages=54, 57 |edition=31}}

She was hired in 1933 at age 14 by the Walt Disney Studio as a dance model for their animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2018/06/marge-champion-fairest-of-them-all-the-towering-talent-behind-disneys-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs/ "As a fourteen-year-old, Champion auditioned with two of her classmates from her father’s prestigious dance school to perform as a live-action model for the animators working on Disney’s first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Her movements were copied to enhance the realism of the animated Snow White character.King, Susan. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-sep-30-et-classic-hollywood30-story.html "Marge Champion Still Has the Dance Moves"] Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2009 For one scene Champion served as model while wrapped in a baggy overcoat for two dwarfs at once, when for the "Silly Song" dance, Dopey gets on Sneezy's shoulder to dance with Snow White.{{Cite journal|last=Nesbet|first=Anne|date=July 1997|title=Inanimations: "Snow White" and "Ivan the Terrible"|journal=Film Quarterly|volume=50|issue=4|pages=20–31|doi=10.1525/fq.1997.50.4.04a00040|issn=0015-1386}} Champion later modeled for characters in other animated films: the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (1940) and Hyacinth Hippo in the Dance of the Hours segment of Fantasia, a ballet parody that she also helped choreograph. She even recalled doing some modeling for Mr. Stork in Dumbo. When working with Disney on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Champion recalled, "the animators couldn't take a young girl out of themselves, they couldn't take the prince out of themselves".{{Cite web|url=http://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/marge-champion|title=Marge Champion|date=February 22, 2019|website=The Interviews}}

The first picture Champion remembered being in was The Castles with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.{{Cite web | url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tom-Jones-to-Interview-Legendary-Dancer-Marge-Champion-at-NYPL-315-20100304 | title=Tom Jones to Interview Legendary Dancer Marge Champion at NYPL, 3/15 | author= | website=BroadwayWorld | access-date=January 24, 2020}} This gave her a feeling that she would really like to do movies but what she really wanted to do was go to New York and be in New York shows. Sadly, Champion wasn't tall enough for ballet, which is what she trained all her life for.

After her marriage to Gower Champion, the two performed together as a dance team in MGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s, including their first MGM musical Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), Show Boat (1951) and Everything I Have Is Yours (1952). Other films with Gower included Mr. Music (1950, with Bing Crosby), Give a Girl a Break (1953), Jupiter's Darling (1955), and Three for the Show (1955).[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/31852%7C105455/Marge-Champion/ "Marge Champion Films"] tcm.com, retrieved October 28, 2017 MGM wanted the couple to remake Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films, but only one, Lovely to Look At (1952), a remake of Roberta (1935), was completed.[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3260/lovely-to-look-at Lovely to Look At] tcm.com, retrieved October 28, 2017 The couple refused to remake any of the others, the rights to which were still owned by RKO.{{cite news|title=Dance Legend Lingers in a Technicolor Mist|url=https://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/dance-legend-lingers-in-a-technicolor-mist/10113/|first=Harry|last=Haun|date=March 4, 2005|access-date=October 22, 2020|newspaper=The New York Sun|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022231319/https://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/dance-legend-lingers-in-a-technicolor-mist/10113/|archive-date=October 22, 2020}}

Gower and Marge Champion appeared as the Mystery Guests on the May 15, 1955, airing of What's My Line. Mary Healy guessed who they were. They appeared again on the February 8, 1959, airing of the show, with panelist Martin Gabel guessing who they were.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WMcHAQAAMAAJ&q=%22marge+champion%22+%22What%27s+My+Line%22|title=What's My Line?: The Inside History of TV's Most Famous Panel Show|publisher=Prentice-Hall|year=1978|last=Fates|first=Gil|isbn=9780139551468}}

File:Marge and Gower Champion 1957.jpg (1957)]]

During the summer of 1957, the Champions had their own TV series, The Marge and Gower Champion Show, a situation comedy with song and dance numbers. Marge played a dancer and Gower a choreographer.Giordano, Ralph G. [https://books.google.com/books?id=u_skDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22The+Marge+and+Gower+Champion+Show%22&pg=PA57 "Television"] Pop Goes the Decade: The Fifties, ABC-CLIO, 2017, {{ISBN|1440844720}}, p. 57 Real-life drummer Buddy Rich was featured as a fictional drummer named Cozy.{{cite web|title=The Marge and Gower Champion Show|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/jots.200028016|access-date=October 22, 2020|publisher=Library of Congress}}

In the 1970s, Champion, actress Marilee Zdenek, and choreographer John West were part of a team at Bel Aire Presbyterian Church that created a number of creative worship services featuring dance and music. They later offered workshops and related liturgical arts programs throughout the country. She and Zdenek co-authored two books, Catch the New Wind and God Is a Verb, related to this work.

Champion served as a dialogue and movement coach for the TV miniseries, The Awakening Land (1978), adapted from Conrad Richter's trilogy of the same name.[https://web.archive.org/web/20071013202926/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/123811/The-Awakening-Land/overview Hal Erickson, Overview: The Awakening Land], The New York Times[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/415839/the-awakening-land The Awakening Land] tcm.com, retrieved October 30, 2017 It was set in the late 18th-century Ohio Valley. She has also worked as a dance instructor and choreographer in New York City. She made a rare television acting appearance in 1982 on the dramatic TV series Fame, playing a ballet teacher with a racial bias against African-American students.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SHIxAQAAIAAJ&q=%22marge+champion%22+fame+racist|title=TV Guide|volume=31|publisher=Triangle Publications|year=1983}}

Champion appeared in several stage musicals and plays on Broadway as a performer. She made her New York debut in What's Up (1943). She also performed in the Dark of the Moon (1945) as the Fair Witch, and Beggar's Holiday (1946) having multiple roles. She made her last Broadway appearance in 3 for Tonight in 1955.{{Cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/24/archives/marge-champion-takes-stage-role-first-part-since-1955-will-get-her.html | title=MARGE CHAMPION TAKES STAGE ROLE; First Part Since 1955 Will Get Her Out of Kitchen." | date=November 24, 1964 | website=The New York Times}} She also worked as a choreographer or Assistant, including Lend an Ear in 1948 as assistant to the Choreographer; Make a Wish in 1951, as assistant to Gower Champion; Hello, Dolly! in 1964 as special assistant; and Stepping Out (1987) as choreographic associate.[https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/marge-champion-51404 "Marge Champion Broadway"] ibdb.com, retrieved October 28, 2017Rich, Frank. [https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/12/theater/theater-stepping-out-staged-by-tommy-tune.html?pagewanted= "Theater: 'Stepping Out,' Staged by Tommy Tune"] The New York Times, January 12, 1987 She appeared as Emily Whitman in the 2001 Broadway stage revival of Follies.Barnes, Clive. [https://nypost.com/2001/04/06/revivals-a-bit-of-a-folly/?_ga=2.185905899.353358042.1509194639-168709587.1509194639 "Revivals a Bit of a Folly"] New York Post, April 6, 2001 She stated how "as a dancer, by the time you're 40 you're done. If I ever come back, I want to be an actress – it lasts long. But I was 81 when I was in "Follies".{{Cite journal | last=Kaufman | first=Joanne | date=May 27, 2013 | title=Her Animated Life | url=http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324659404578501521984344536 | website=The Wall Street Journal}}

Champion married Art Babbitt, an animator at Disney and creator of Goofy, in 1937, when she was 18 and he was 30. They divorced three years later. She married dancer Gower Champion in 1947, and they had two sons (Blake and Gregg). The two met when she was 12 years old in the ninth grade at Bancroft Junior High, and that was when their romance started. Although performances often took them away from California, Los Angeles remained their home base. They divorced in January 1973.Hoffman, Jan. [https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/14/nyregion/public-lives-a-dancer-s-8-decade-arc-to-top-banana.html "Public Lives. A Dancer's 8-Decade Arc to Top Banana"] The New York Times, July 14, 1999Payne-Carter, David. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3hJOmDGWn8oC&pg=PA125 "Fall and Rise"] Gower Champion: Dance and American Musical Theatre, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, {{ISBN|0313304513}}, pp. 119-120

Champion married director Boris Sagal in 1977. He died four years later on May 22, 1981, in a helicopter accident during the production of the miniseries World War III.Kennedy, Shawn G. [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/24/obituaries/boris-sagal-58-movie-director-dies-after-a-helicopter-accident.html?pagewanted= "Boris Sagal, 58, Movie Director, Dies After a Helicopter Accident"] The New York Times, May 24, 1981 She became stepmother to Boris' five children including Katey, Jean, Liz, and Joey.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pkA5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|title=Grace Notes: My Recollections|publisher=Simon and Schuster|date=October 17, 2017|last=Sagal|first=Katey|page=88|isbn=9781476796727}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cuk4AAAAIAAJ&q=Their+older+sister+Katie,+and+their+stepmother,+Marge+Champion,+have+provided+emotional+support|title=TV Guide|volume=33|publisher=Triangle Publications|year=1985}} Her son Blake died at the age of 25 in a car accident in 1987.

Champion died on October 21, 2020, at her son's home in Los Angeles. She was 101.

Champion choreographed Whose Life Is It Anyway?, The Day of the Locust, and Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, for which she received an Emmy Award. She was honored with the Disney Legends Award in 2007. Two years later, she was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame{{cite web|title=Hall of Fame|url=https://www.nationalmuseumofdance.org/hall-of-fame|access-date=October 22, 2020|publisher=National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame|location=Saratoga Springs, New York}} In 2013, Champion received The Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award at the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards ceremonies.{{cite web | author=Harry Haun | title=Still Lovely to Look At: A Lifetime Achievement Award for Dancing Diva Marge Champion From 'Walt's Folly' to 'Follies'—at 93, she has all the right moves | url=http://observer.com/2013/05/still-lovely-to-look-at-a-lifetime-achievement-award-for-dancing-diva-marge-champion/ | work=The New York Observer | year= 2013 | access-date=July 14, 2013}}

Champion was interviewed in numerous documentaries, including for the behind-the-scenes documentary directed by Oscar-winner Chris Innis, The Story of the Swimmer, which was featured on the 2014 Grindhouse Releasing/Box Office Spectaculars Blu-ray/DVD restoration of The Swimmer. She was also interviewed at a screening of The Swimmer by filmmaker Allison Anders for the same release.[http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/daily/article.cfm/articleID/7067/Aisle-Seat-3-25--The-Swimmer-Wolf-of-Wall-Street/ Film Score Monthly "Aisle Seat 3-25: The Swimmer, Wolf of Wall Street" by Andy Dursin, March 24, 2014] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713151526/http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/daily/article.cfm/articleID/7067/Aisle-Seat-3-25--The-Swimmer-Wolf-of-Wall-Street/ |date=July 13, 2015 }} Champion and Donald Saddler, who met while performing together in the Follies in 2001, are the subjects of a short film about the two dancers leading meaningful lives at age 90.Gans, Andrew. [http://www.playbill.com/news/article/keep-dancing-film-about-marge-champion-and-donald-saddler-available-for-free-streaming-382918 "Keep Dancing Film, About Marge Champion and Donald Saddler, Available for Free Streaming"], Playbill, January 29, 2016 She still danced twice a week with choreographer, actor, and an original member of American Ballet Theatre, Donald Saddler, who first performed at Jacob's Pillow in 1941. The still-spry dance partners were making a documentary "Still Dancing," which chronicles their biweekly dance sessions.{{Cite web | url=http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2chmpn1.htm | title=Street Swing's Dancer History Archives | website=Sonny Watson's StreetSwing.com | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111014035419/http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2chmpn1.htm | archive-date=October 14, 2011 | url-status=dead}}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category}}{{Archival records|title=Marge Champion collection, 1897-2014|location= Library of Congress|description_URL=https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu012020}}

• {{AFI person | 105455-Marge-Champion}}
• {{IMDb name|150718}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{Tcmdb name}}
• {{Discogs artist|Marge Champion}}
• http://www.valyermodancers.org/DanceCompany.html
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120324054935/http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/dance/marge-champion-and-blake-champion?ref=artist&refcar=/artist/c-d Marge Champion performing Dancing in 1986 at Jacob's Pillow]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903171349/http://fora.tv/2010/08/28/Hippo_in_a_Tutu_Dancing_in_Disney_Animation Archival footage from Jacob's Pillow PillowTalk: Hippo in a Tutu featuring Marge Champion, 8/28/2010]}}
• {{EmmyTVLegends name|marge-champion|Marge Champion}}
• [https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/entertainment/2019/09/03/woman-who-served-model-disneys-snow-white-turns-100/2199361001/ Marge Champion remembered on 100th birthday in Mansfield News Journal, accessed September 3, 2019]

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