Artist:Celeste Holm
Song:I Cain't Say No
Album:Oklahoma!: Original Broadway Cast 75th Anniversary
Celeste Holm was an award winning actress known for films and TV. But the role that made her a star was playing Ado Annie in the 1943 production of the landmark Broadway musical Oklahoma!. She was born Apr. 29, 1917 in New York City. Her father was a Norwegian businessman and her mother was a portrait artist. The family moved a lot because of her dad's business. But she attended high school in Chicago and studied drama at the University of Chicago. Her first major role on Broadway was in the 1940 drama The Time of Your Life. Gene Kelly was her co-star. Then she did Oklahoma!. It was the first of many musicals written by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Theresa Helburn of The Theater Guild wanted to turn an unsuccessful play called Green Grow the Lilacs into a musical. It was about settlers in Oklahoma. She contacted Richard Rodgers and he bought the rights. When his composing partner Lorenz Hart wasn't interested, Hammerstein agreed to do it. The cast included Alfred Drake, Joan Roberts, Howard Da Silva and Celeste Holm. The show was a big hit. It ran for five years. It was also the first ever Original Broadway Cast album. And it made Celeste Holm a star. The Oklahoma Broadway cast album is available in a 75th anniversary edition with bonus tracks. Celeste signed with 20th Century Fox in 1946. Her first film was Three Little Girls in Blue. Then she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 1947 film Gentlemen's Agreement. She also appeared in All About Eve (1950), The Tender Trap (1955) and High Society (1956). She returned to Broadway and started doing TV. She did mostly guest shots on TV. She played The Fairy Godmother in the 1965 CBS production of the musical Cinderella. Though Celeste continued to work in films, she seemed to prefer Broadway and TV. Her health started failing in 2002 and she died on July 13, 2012 at age 95. Here's Celeste Holm performing I Cain't Say No on the Mar. 27, 1955 episode of The Ed Sullivan Show.
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