Kaye Ballard

(1925-­2019), the boisterous comedienne and singer who appeared in Broadway musicals and nightclubs from New York to Las Vegas and co-starred with Eve Arden in the 1960s TV sitcom The Mothers-In-Law, was born in Cleveland to Italian immigrant parents from Calabria. While attending high school at West Tech, she sang at service clubs and appeared in a 1941 Cleveland USO show called Stage Door Canteen. After graduating, she worked at a burlesque theater, not as a stripper but as straight woman in comedy sketches before taking her act of songs, comedy and impressions of famous stars on the road.

One night in Detroit, where she was appearing at a nightclub called The Bowery, she was seen by comedy bandleader Spike Jones, who immediately drafted her into his troupe. For two years she toured with Jones, singing, playing the flute and tuba and engaging in the band’s antics. She also sang with the bands of Vaughn Monroe and Stan Kenton.

In 1954 Ballard conquered New York as a madcap Helen of Troy The Golden Apple, with her song “Lazy Afternoon,” a performance one critic called “a wonder of insinuation.” In 1957 she was cast as one of the wicked stepsisters in the live telecast of Rodgers and Hammerstein‘s Cinderella, starring Julie Andrews. She also won critical praise for her role as “The Incomparable Rosalie,” the magician’s assistant and mistress in the 1961 Broadway show Carnival! (a musicalized version of the movie Lili), in which she sang “Always, Always You” while stretched out in a box the jealous magician was piercing with swords.