'Dick Van Dyke' Star Rose Marie: What Happened When I Publicly Shamed My Harasser

[4now]

The trailblazing actress, who has a new documentary out about her 90 years in showbiz, reveals how a moment of standing up to a producer's sexual harassment impacted her career.

I started in this business when I was 3. From the beginning, I was co-starring or headlining with the major male and female acts of the day, and all of them treated me wonderfully and respected me and my talent. I believe because of how I began, I always walked into a job or an audition assured of my talent and expected to be treated like a lady and an equal.

With one exception, I always was.

That one exception taught me what was happening to other women in the business. It occurred when I was about to wrap filming on the 1954 musical Top Banana. The producer of the film came up to me after I'd run through the song called "I Fought Every Step of the Way," which had boxing references, and said that he could show me a few positions. He wasn't referring to boxing.

I laughed it off, but he said he was serious and that the picture could be mine. Well, in front of everyone onstage, I said, "You son of a bitch, you couldn't get it up if a flag went by." Needless to say, that didn't go over well with him, and all my musical numbers were cut from the film. I had no idea that his reaction to my refusal would be so bad.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dick-van-dyke-star-rose-marie-what-happened-i-publicly-shamed-my-harasser-guest-column-1063597?utm_source=twitter

Here is a link to her very active twitter feed.
https://twitter.com/RoseMarie4Real

[BeyondGeography]

1. Wow, Rose Marie is still around?

That’s awesome. Need to see that documentary.

[hlthe2b]

2. Some iconic figures still with us: Rose Marie, Betty White, Doris Day, Olivia de Havilland (101 yrs!

I'm sure others will add to the list, but I am in awe of them. I am convinced Doris and Betty are kept alive by their love of animals and support of animal rights.

[Tipperary]

3. Good for her. I was always a fan. I imagine many of the women of that generation dealt with that.

They called themselves “tough broads” and they were proud of their toughness. They did not suffer fools gladly and they did not tolerate that kind of crap. Bacall, Hepburn, Stanwyck just to name a few. I bet every one could tell stories that would curl our hair. Some of them have told those stories. I raise a toast to every single one of them. Then there were all the women who were not stars in Hollywood, but fought to be recognized as pilots, truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, astronauts, business women, plumbers, electricians, and on and on. Every one a fighter and every one a hero in my eyes.

[bettyellen]

4. It's usually more complicated than that... Hepburn had a world of hell taking. Care of Spencer Tracy

Who had a severe drinking problem. Often we are one person in public and another in private.

[Tipperary]

7. Yes this is true. I have been a big fan of Hepburn forever. Nothing is simple in this life. Nothing.

He was married too, was he not? That certainly was not an easy path either. Taking care of an alcoholic is a rough row to hoe, I think she was an intelligent woman who made her own choices. She may have made bad choices, as do we all. But she was no one’s victim. I think she was a strong person and I admire that.

[marybourg]

5. She was originally a child star named "Baby Rose Marie". nt

[smirkymonkey]

6. I always loved Rose Marie - I only watched the re-runs, but I thought she was great.

I think she used to be on Hollywood Squares as well.