--Wait for the Laugh
This is a very recent documentary about the life of Rose Marie, who most people know from her
character Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
The film is fantastically entertaining, featuring many of the most influential people involved in her life,
like Carl Reiner, Peter Marshall, Tim Conway and Dick Van Dyke.
She was a radio star by the time she was 4 years old. People didn't know she was 4 years old because
her voice was like that of an adult! Known as Baby Rose Marie, her father got involved with gangsters
like Al Capone, who wanted to meet her. She worked in vaudeville where she met Evelyn Nesbitt!
In the nightclub days it seems many entertainers were involved with gangsters. Over time when the
entertainers talked of them they were very complimentary. Because they were treated so well and
weren't aware, or didn't want to be aware, of the deeds they were doing behind the scenes. When Rose
Marie was older and living on the west coast, she was involved with gangster Bugsy Siegel who hired her
to perform in one of the first Las Vegas hotels in the late 40's, the Flamingo.
She, of course, gravitated to television and performed on stage into the 90's.
The film is highly entertaining. Rose Marie tells her story throughout herself and the film stays on course
with narration from her friend Peter Marshall. There was never a time it seemed that Rose Marie didn't have
a color home movie camera with her and there are many fascinating films of her life in the 1940's, including
footage of what the Las Vegas strip looked like during that era.
When she started working in television she took a home movie camera to practically every job she had and
there are color films of the behind the scenes of the programs she worked on which included Gunsmoke, The
Dick Van Dyke Show, The Monkees, The Doris Day Show and The Hollywood Squares.
I watched a NetFlix rental of it and on the DVD were extras, such as the entire 40 minute Q&A they had when
the film was showcased at the Cinematheque's Aero Theatre in West Los Angeles. Besides the director and his
wife, the assembled participants were Rose Marie, Peter Marshall, Dick Van Dyke, Tim Conway and Carl Reiner.
There are some additional home movie segments, an appearance with Groucho Marx on The Hollywood Palace,
though the DVD incorrectly says it's from The Groucho Marx Show. There is a making of documentary on it which
is also fascinating and some deleted segments from the film, one of which is a phone call Rose Marie makes to
Doris Day and they chat a few minutes. Not about anything really important, but it is still quite fascinating. The
director also does a commentary track on the whole thing.
