Virginia mayo actress1/16/2024 In New York City in 1941, the act joined Eddie Cantor in his Broadway musical “Banjo Eyes.” She worked as the duo’s beautifully attired foil for five years, touring the country and taking her stage name, Mayo, from one of the comics. When a vaudeville act called “Pansy the Horse” came to town, the two comics who wore the horse costume asked Mayo to join them as the girl in the act. “I fell in love with the whole idea of being up there on stage, of wearing all those wonderful, beautiful costumes,” she told The Times in 1981.Īfter graduating from high school in 1937, Mayo broke into show business as a dancer with the St. She showed an early interest in show business and took drama, dance and elocution lessons at her aunt’s acting school. 30, 1920, Mayo was the daughter of a newspaper reporter and his wife. “She played with all the big names of her era, in both comedies and dramas.”īasinger, author of the 1993 book “A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women,” said Mayo appeared in “films that guarantee her place in film history,” including “White Heat” and “The Best Years of Our Lives.” But she also “was a great foil for comedians, and that’s a difficult role to play, and she did it well,” Basinger said.īorn Virginia Clara Jones in St. “Virginia Mayo was one of the truly great beauties of her era, and I think that people forget what a big star she really was,” said Jeanine Basinger, head of the film studies program at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. In 1941 Jones, now known by the stage name Virginia Mayo, got another career break as she appeared on Broadway with Eddie Cantor in Banjo Eyes.During the 1940s and ‘50s, Mayo appeared in more than 40 films, including “The Girl From Jones Beach” with Ronald Reagan, “Captain Horatio Hornblower” with Gregory Peck, “The Silver Chalice” with Paul Newman, “The Flame and the Arrow” with Burt Lancaster, “Along the Great Divide” with Kirk Douglas and “Colorado Territory” with Joel McCrea. Jones toured the American vaudeville circuit for three years, serving as ringmaster and comedic foil for "Pansy the Horse", as Mayo and his partner, Nonnie Morton, performed in a horse suit. Impressed with her ability, her brother-in-law, vaudeville performer, Andy Mayo, recruited her to appear in his act "Morton and Mayo". Louis Municipal Opera Theatre (more commonly known as The Muny) and in an act with six other girls at the Hotel Jefferson. She also was tutored by a series of dancing instructors engaged by her aunt.įollowing her graduation from Soldan High School in 1937, Jones landed her first professional acting and dancing jobs at the St. Young Virginia's aunt operated an acting school in the St Louis area, which Virginia began attending at age six. Her family had roots back to the earliest days of St Louis, including great-great-great grandfather Captain James Piggott, who founded East St. Louis, Missouri, she was the daughter of newspaper reporter Luke and wife, Martha Henrietta (née Rautenstrauch) Jones. She also co-starred in the 1946 Oscar-winning movie The Best Years of Our Lives.īorn Virginia Clara Jones in St. Best known for a series of comedy films with Danny Kaye, Mayo was Warner Brothers' biggest box-office money-maker in the late 1940s. Virginia Mayo (born Virginia Clara Jones Novem– January 17, 2005) was an American actress and dancer.
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