With the holiday season in mind, the song and film White Christmas is also ever-present. That and the fact that her nephew George is starring in a new film, the late Rosemary Clooney makes her presence know once again. In 1954, she starred, along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen, in that perennial hit.
Clooney became a pop star in the early ’50s with the song “Come On-a My House”, which was followed by hits such as “Botch-a-Me”, “Mambo Italiano”, “Tenderly”, “Half as Much”, “Hey There” and “This Ole House.” Although a successful jazz vocalist, Clooney’s career languished in the ’60s, partly due to depression and drug addiction, but in 1977, her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby had her appear with him in a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business reviving her career.
Clooney often appeared with Bing on television, such as in the 1957 special The Edsel Show, and the two friends made a concert tour of Ireland together. On November 21, 1957, she appeared on NBC’s The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, a frequent entry in the “Top 20” and featuring a musical group called “The Top Twenty.” In 1960, Clooney and Crosby co-starred in a 20-minute CBS radio program aired before the midday news each weekday.
Born in Maysville, Kentucky, the daughter of Marie Frances (née Guilfoyle) and Andrew Joseph Clooney, was one of five. Raised a Catholic, with an Irish and German father and mother of English and Irish ancestry, these roots were deeply embedded in her. When Clooney was 15, her mother and brother Nick moved to California. She and sister Betty remained with their father.
Rosemary and Betty became entertainers, whereas Nick became a newsman and television broadcaster (some of her children, including Miguel Ferrer and Rafael Ferrer, and her nephew, George, also became respected actors and entertainers).
In 1945, the Clooney sisters won a spot on Cincinnati, Ohio’s radio station WLW as singers. Her sister Betty sang in a duo with Rosemary for much of the latter’s early career.
She went on to star, in 1956, in her own half-hour syndicated television musical-variety series, The Rosemary Clooney Show. It featured The Hi-Lo’s singing group and Nelson Riddle‘s orchestra. The following year, the show moved to NBC prime time as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney, but lasted only one season. The new show featured the singing group The Modernaires and Frank DeVol’s orchestra.
A longtime smoker, Clooney was diagnosed with lung cancer at the end of 2001. Around that time, she gave one of her last concerts in Hawaii, backed by the Honolulu Symphony Pops; her last song was “God Bless America.” Her final show was at Red Bank, New Jersey’s Count Basie Theatre in December 2001. Despite surgery and a long period of care following, she died six months later on June 29th, 2002, at her Beverly Hills home. Nephew George was a pallbearer at her funeral, which was attended by numerous stars, including Al Pacino. She is buried at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery, Maysville.