AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Nancy Walker

Artist:Nancy Walker w/Cris Alexander

Song:Come Up To My Place

Album:On the Town: Members of the Original Cast

Nancy Walker is best known as Rhoda Morganstern's mother on the 70s TV shows The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda. But she started out in Broadway musicals like the 1945 show On the Town. She spent over two decades on Broadway. She was born Anna Myrtle Swoyer May 10, 1922 in Philadelphia. Her father Dewey Barto was one half of the comedic acrobat act Barto and Mann. BTW, he was 4'11". Her mom was a dancer. So Nancy grew up in show business. As Nan Barto, 15 year old Nancy Walker appeared on the 1937 NBC radio shows Coast to Coast on a Bus and Our Barn. Nancy made her Broadway debut in the 1941 musical Best Foot Forward. This got her a contract with MGM and she appeared in the 1943 film of Best Foot Forward, with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in the 1943 film Girl Crazy and singing with Tommy Dorsey in the 1944 film Broadway Rhythm. When Nancy's MGM contract ended, she returned to Broadway as Hildy in the musical On the Town. Most folks are familiar with the 1949 film version. It's great. My parents went to see it on their first date. But you probably don't know that MGM changed most of the songs for the film version. How could they do that? They financed the play to get the film rights. So they could do what they want with it. So Nancy's big number I Can Cook, Too is not in the movie. Unfortunately, there is no video clip for that song. There is a video for Come Up to My Place. Cris Alexander was a Broadway actor who retired in the 60s to be a photographer. Of course there were no original cast albums in 1945. So in 1960, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, who wrote the songs and also appeared in the show, decided to record an album of the original songs from the 1945 version of On the Town and Nancy Walker and Cris Alexander appear on the album. It's available on CD. Nancy continued to appear on Broadway until the late 60s. Her biggest show was Wonderful Town in 1958 also written by Leonard Bernstein, Adolph Green and Betty Comden. She also made regular appearances on The Garry Moore Show. After Nancy moved to Hollywood, she was a regular on McMillan & Wife along with The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda. She starred in The Nancy Walker Show and Blansky's Beauties which only lasted one season each. She got into directing TV episodes. Her only film as a director was the 1980 Village People bomb Can't Stop the Music. Nancy Walker died on Mar. 25, 1992 at age 69. Here's Nancy Walker with Cris Alexander performing Come Up to My Place from On the Town. This film entertained soldiers in WWII.