Ray Bolger

He went on to perform in several revues in the 1920s and early 1930s, as well as Gus Edwards' variety show Ritz Carlton Nights (which ran from 1926 to 1929). In late 1938 he was chosen by MGM to play the Tin Woodman in The Wizard of Oz; unhappy with that part, he convinced MGM's executives to let him swap with Buddy Ebsen, who had been slated to play the Scarecrow. He starred in his own ABC sitcom The Ray Bolger Show, originally titled Where's Raymond?, from 1953 to 1955. In his later years he made frequent guest appearances in television shows, including The Jean Arthur Show, The Partridge Family, Little House on the Prairie and Diff'rent Strokes.

Ray Bolger studied at Dorchester High School. The recorded working language is English. Employment is recorded with Warner Bros. Works named in the authority record are The Wizard of Oz. Distinctions recorded are Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• Name — Ray Bolger • Birth Name — Raymond Wallace Bolger • Born — 10 January 1904 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — 15 January 1987 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Holy Cross Cemetery • Occupation — * Actor • dancer • singer • vaudevillian • Years Active — 1923–1985 • Political Party — Republican

Raymond Wallace Bolger was born, prematurely, on January 10, 1904 in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts, into a Catholic family of Irish descent. A misconception exists, however, that he was instead of Portuguese descent and named Raymond Bulcao. He was the son of James Edward Bolger, then a delivery wagon driver for a bakery, and Johannah Cecilia "Annie" Bolger (Wallace). James was born in Fall River, Massachusetts to parents from Ireland. Annie was born into a large Irish-American family in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. They had married in 1902, whereupon they moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 1909 a sister named Regina was born. Bolger grew up in the Codman Square section of the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and attended Dorchester High School, from which he graduated in 1920. He recounted that, in his high school years, he danced so poorly that nobody wanted to dance with him. He initially aspired toward being a banker instead of an entertainer, until he discovered that "to be a success in life, [he] had to learn how to dance", after his senior prom date abandoned him because the only dance he could do, at the time, was the waltz. His mother, whom he favored over his father, instilled in him a love of reading and introduced him to L. Frank Baum's Oz series of novels. He also liked Horatio Alger's novels. • Illustration — Bolger c. 1928 His parents separated, but did not divorce, by 1918. In 1918 a bout of pleurisy and bilateral pneumonia struck James, who was working as a ship painter for Hamburg America. With James out of work, the family fell into poverty, so for a period thereafter, Ray did menial work for the Kelly Peanut Company and for local grocers. That same year he went to see Fred Stone perform as the titular scarecrow in Jack O'Lantern, a musical loosely based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Stone became Bolger's idol because of his dancing prowess and competency at acting. After Annie's death, in July of 1919, of a cerebral hemorrhage, Ray clerked Boston's First National Bank each afternoon, which provided the family a weekly $18. He would, in his leisure time, participate in dancing contests held in Scollay Square, which was within walking distance of the bank, and attend musical performances in the area. Ray, who is speculated by his biographer Holly Van Leuven to have resented James for "[adding] to Annie's discomforts", rarely ever made public mention of his father. Bolger said in a 1940 interview that he once sold vacuums door-to-door in New England. Circa 1922 he joined the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company as an office boy and clerk. While delivering mail between offices he would "[dance] up and down the stairs", and he would also dance for the entertainment of his co-workers. The company once hosted an amateur theatrical show, in which Bolger participated. He became a student of O’Brien’s School for Social and Formal Dancing, during which time he met ballet master Senia Russakoff. In exchange for lessons, and a place to sleep (Bolger had been evicted from a room for not paying rent), at Russakoff's studio, Bolger did his accounting. In 1922 Bolger was fired from New England Mutual either for being late or for dancing by the water cooler.

In 1923 Bolger joined the family theatre company of Bob Ott, who recruited him for his "funny-looking face", and performed song and dance with Ott's troupe. James Bolger, who saw in the show business an opportunity to turn a profit, became an advance man and publicist for the Otts, and took a portion of Ray's salary. A year later, under the Otts' management, Bolger formed the comedy act "Sanford and Bolger" with his dance partner Ralph Sanford, who was from Springfield, Massachusetts. They rebranded later on to "Sanford and Bolger: A Pair of Nifties". Despite popularity in New England, and support from vaudevillian Jimmy Duffy (of Duffy and Sweeney fame), Sanford and Bolger flopped in New York, and in 1925 their act was cancelled at Cohen's Theater in Newburgh. Sanford lost interest in performing the act but remained friends with Bolger. In 1926 Bolger befriended composer Harold Arlen during a four-month stint performing at Shea's Hippodrome Theater; for a time, they shared an apartment on West 57th Street. That same year he and Sanford performed, for a weekly $125 split between them, at the Rialto after Bolger improvised a dance for an audition before conductor Hugo Riesenfeld. Bolger was cast by Reisenfeld in a short film, "The Berth Mark", as a banker who joins a troupe of travelling vaudevillians (one of them played by Peggy Shaw) as a condition for paying their fare. He suffered gum and tooth infections from a paste used to shine his teeth for the film. He contracted with J. J. Shubert starting June 6, 1926 and appeared that evening in the revue The Merry World, at the Imperial Theatre, in the minor role of a "collegian with baggy pinstripe pants, a beanie, and an urge to chant fight songs". • Illustration — Members of Gus Edwards' revue, Ritz Carlton Nights, in 1928. Bolger is the tall man in the center rear. Bolger contracted with Gus Edwards, to be a member of Edwards's travelling troupe, on October 11, 1926. Edwards cast Bolger in the troupe's variety show, Ritz Carlton Nights, as a "quick-witted waiter" sidekick to Edwards. With regard to Ritz Carlton Nights, The Washington Post described Bolger as a "'nut' comedian, with emphasis on the 'nut'". Abe Lastfogel, who worked for the William Morris Agency, became Bolger's agent in 1928. Bolger performed in the New York Palace Theatre, which was the United States' "most important vaudeville theater", with the Ritz Carlton Nights troupe in 1929. Bolger danced in nightclubs in London while on his honeymoon with Rickard from July to August of that year. The British liked his sense of humor and energetic style of dancing. Because he had a passing resemblance to George VI (at the time Albert, Duke of York), people mistakenly curtsied toward him. Bolger was cast as Jerry, a "loose-jointed bootlegger", in Me for You, a musical by Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley which began its 1929-1930 run at the Detroit Opera House on September 10, 1929. The show was received poorly and did not sell well, so Aarons and Freedley rewrote it in October; it returned as Heads Up! in November, with the name of Bolger's character changed to Georgie. The stock market crash of October 30, 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression destroyed the vaudeville industry, which was supplanted by that of motion pictures. In the Midwest and New England, Bolger performed comedy routines at the Paramount-Publix theaters, where films were screened concurrently to live performances. Most other gigs for entertainers, including Bolger, disappeared; to avoid spending money at restaurants and hotels he rented rooms for cheap and Rickard, who traveled with him, cooked his meals. From September of 1931 to March of 1932, Bolger appeared in George White's yearly revue George White's Scandals, which began each autumn in Atlantic City and concluded at Broadway. Walter Winchell, Al Smith, Graham McNamee and the biblical Adam were subject to impersonation by Bolger for the Scandals. Bolger's performances in the Scandals were acclaimed by critics and brought fame to him in New York. In 1932 he was elected to the theater club The Lambs and performed on opening night at Radio City Music Hall on December 27, 1932. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited Bolger to his 1934 Birthday Ball as a performer. Bolger performed in The Earl Carroll Vanities in that same year but, after a wage dispute with Earl Carroll, quit. • Illustration — Bolger in the trailer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) Bolger played Boccaccio in the musical Life Begins at 8:40, which ran for 237 performances at the Winter Garden Theatre between August 27, 1934 and March 16, 1935. Lee Shubert had asked Bolger to play Balzac, the lead, but Bolger, believing he did not yet have the fame and experience to be a leading man, let Bert Lahr take that role. A contract for two films was made between Bolger and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on March 7, 1935. The first was the 1936 musical biopic The Great Ziegfeld, in which he played a minor role as himself and sang the number "She's a Follies Girl". Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart brought Bolger into the lead role, vaudevillian-turned-music teacher Phil "Junior" Dolan III, of their musical On Your Toes (which featured two ballet pieces, "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" and "Zenobia Ballet"); Fred Astaire had been offered the part but refused. The script was edited by writer George Abbott and producer Dwight Wiman at the behest of Bolger, who had told Rodgers and Hart that the musical needed wittier dialogue and a more cohesive storyline. For On Your Toes Bolger was coached in ballet dancing, with which he had hitherto been only slightly acquainted, by George Balanchine. On Your Toes ran on Broadway from April 11, 1936 to January 23, 1937. The dancing required for "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" went on for fifteen minutes and was so strenuous that Bolger passed out, in multiple incidents, after exiting the stage. Sidekick to Nelson Eddy's Dick Thorpe, Bolger played Bill Delroy in Rosalie (1937), which starred Eleanor Powell as the titular character. Bolger's tendency to improvise was difficult for Powell to work with; and, to Bolger's chagrin, the scenes in which he danced, with her and otherwise, did not appear in the final cut. He was brought on to dance in The Girl of the Golden West (1938), but his scene was deleted. His role in Sweethearts (1938) was an unimportant one of a "Dutch boy clog dancing in wooden shoes". • Illustration — Bolger as the Scarecrow in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1939 adaptation of The Wizard of Oz In late 1938 Bolger was selected to play the Tin Woodman for MGM's film adaptation of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Although the contract stipulated that he would play any character MGM wanted him to, he was unhappy with the role, as he feared that the metal costume would stiffen his movements, ruining the appeal of his dancing. With a dance, he convinced MGM's executives to let him swap roles with Buddy Ebsen, who had been cast as the Scarecrow. (Jack Haley ended up playing the Tin Woodman, after the aluminum powder used for the Tin Woodman's face caused a severe allergic reaction in Ebsen). The production of The Wizard of Oz was taxing, mentally and physically, for the cast. The costumes of the three male leads (Bolger, Haley and Bert Lahr, the latter of whom played the Cowardly Lion) overheated under the bright lighting needed to make the Technicolor work; and the mask used for Bolger's Scarecrow, which took an hour each to put on and to remove each day of filming, set permanent lines into his face. Bolger smoked and, after returning home each evening, drank to cope. During breaks he, Haley and Lahr played practical jokes upon one another and told stories lest they, in Bolger's words, go "mad". Bolger and Judy Garland (who played Dorothy Gale), according to Van Leuven, had in common a "sensitive, thoughtful nature" and adored each other: Bolger gifted her a copy of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and advised her to read about her interests in her own time, and Garland showed him affection whenever they met. Until Garland's death in 1969 they kept a close friendship. Bolger met Fred Stone at the film's premiere, on August 15, 1939, in Grauman's Chinese Theater. MGM gave Bolger $87,000 USD (in 2018 this would have been over $1,500,000) for his work with them. Starting in May of 1940 Bolger and Jimmy Durante led the revue Keep off the Grass. For the revue he, Durante and Ilka Chase sang the song Rhett, Scarlett, and Ashley, in parody of the 1939 film adaptation of Gone with the Wind. Keep off the Grass, which sold poorly and was panned by Billboard as "a Hollywood misconception of what a revue should be like", closed that July, having run for 44 performances. He subsequently performed with Xavier Cugat's and Charlie Barnet's bands in, respectively, the New York Paramount Theatre and the Michigan Theatre. Bolger, having signed a three-picture contract with RKO, was cast as Bunny Billings, opposite Anna Neagle's Sunny O'Sullivan, in Sunny (1941), in which he had three "dance spots" and made the introduction to the song "Who?" (all the song but its first three lines was performed by a chorus). Van Leuven opined that Bolger's first dancing scene, which, contra his usual style, was ballroom, had him "uncharacteristically stiff". Bolger was deferred from military service in World War II. From September to November 1941 he, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Chico Marx, John Garfield, Jane Pickens and Mitzi Mayfair entertained American troops in Puerto Rico, Trinidad, British Guinea and Saint Lucia as the United Service Organizations (USO)-sponsored company "Camp Show Unit #1". On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Bolger's performance was interrupted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's announcement of the news of the attack. Bolger appeared in the United Artists wartime film Stage Door Canteen (1943). In 1942 he starred as Nifty in the musical comedy Four Jacks and a Jill; here, one critic considered him to have "[outdone] himself". He minorly burned his wrist with an iron pan while filming the first scene. In 1942 Rodgers and Hart, deciding that a dancer should be the lead of their newest project, cast Bolger as Sapiens in the musical By Jupiter (originally titled All's Fair). Gwen Bolger helped Rodgers write the script, as Hart, stricken by alcoholism, was in hospital at the time the script was being drafted. The show premiered on June 3, 1942, to generally good reception. Planning to resume touring with the USO, Bolger, on the pretext of exhaustion, quit By Jupiter in May 1943, ending the show (nobody could adequately replace him). Bolger's decision angered both Rodgers (who later wrote to Ed Sullivan a jingle beginning, "By Jupiter is shuttered, so Bolger is a loafer") and the cast. Bolger and Jack Little, comprising Camp Show #89, became the first entertainers to tour the South Pacific, to which they departed on July 3, 1943. Camp Show #89, also of the USO, began in Hawaii; stopped at Fiji, New Caledonia, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Guadalcanal and Kiribati; and returned to the United States on November 25, 1943. Bolger, who had received $1800 from the USO, managed the logistics and his and Little's finances for the tour. Little, a pianist and accordionist, played accompaniment to Bolger's vocals and dancing. In her husband's absence, Gwen Bolger attempted to procure a film deal for him, in a supporting role opposite Rita Hayworth and Lee Bowman, in Tonight and Every Night, a film directed by Victor Saville. This never came to be, as Bolger returned home too late (filming began on November 1). • Illustration — Bolger in a publicity photo for The Bell Telephone Hour, 1963 Bolger contracted laryngitis in 1948 and suffered repeated episodes of it through to 1950. In Where's Charley, which ran on Broadway from 1948 to 1951, Bolger portrayed Charley and Charley's Aunt, making him the first actor to play both parts. In the play, Bolger introduced the song "Once in Love with Amy"; when performing "Once in Love with Amy" live he frequently encouraged the audience's participation. He suggested to Gretchen Patricia Wienecke, one of the show's chorines and also a fan of his, the stage name Gretchen Wyler; she adopted the moniker and would go by it for the rest of her career. Where's Charley earned Bolger critical acclaim and a place among what Van Leuven calls the "elite artists", including Alfred Hitchcock and Margo and Eddie Albert. Bolger appeared in his own ABC television sitcom with a variety show theme, Where's Raymond? (1953–1954), renamed the second year as The Ray Bolger Show (1954–55). To his surname's exclusion, his character's name in the show was Raymond Wallace. Bolger made frequent guest appearances on television, including the episode "Rich Man, Poor Man" of the short-lived The Jean Arthur Show in 1966. In the 1970s, he had a recurring role as Fred Renfrew, the father of Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones) on The Partridge Family, and appeared in Little House on the Prairie as Toby Noe and also guest-starred on other television series, such as Battlestar Galactica, Fantasy Island, and The Love Boat. He had unrealized plans to create "The Wizardland of Oz", which would have been both a theme park and a retirement village, in Palm Springs. Bolger was nominated for the Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in Comedy or Drama Special for his role as Billy Rice, opposite Jack Lemmon's Archie Rice, in a 1975 made-for-television film adaptation of The Entertainer. Bolger narrated "A Time for Living" (1975), the University of Connecticut's short film on how to get ready for retirement, and in 1977 was made a special consultant of its gerontology program as well as of its Center for Instructional Media and Technology. In 1976 Bolger performed the opening number for the 48th Academy Awards ceremony. Film critic Roger Ebert listed Bolger's opening as, in his opinion, one of the ceremony's few good parts. His last television appearance was on Diff'rent Strokes in 1984, three years before his death. Bolger retired from dancing in 1984; he had broken his right hip while leaving the stage after a one-man show and could not dance as well, after receiving a hip replacement, as he could before. He narrated a portion, containing footage from his dancing in The Wizard of Oz, of the 1985 documentary film That's Dancing. For his "contributions to the arts and...humanitarian efforts" the University of Connecticut awarded Bolger an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in 1986.

Bolger was informed by the Celtic form of eccentric dance, which required the dancer to be able to flail his lower legs (for which Bolger's long shins and extraordinary flexibility suited him). According to Fritz Weaver he had a heavy dependence on improvisation and "couldn't stick to anything that was choreographed". He could not perform any given dance routine a second time, as he would make it up on the spot and forget it immediately afterward. For his unusually flexible legs he earned the nickname "rubber legs". On his shoes he wore maple taps, in lieu of the typical metal ones, to create a unique sound. He would start using elements of comedy only after demonstrating his physicality. In his routines he acted out the roles of both celebrities and imagined characters for comedic effect. Bolger had limited acting abilities and range, and often was he typecast as, in his words, a "small country boy".

In the 1920s, Bolger had a brief relationship with animator Max Fleischer's daughter, Ruth. Bolger met, and was asked out by, Gwendolyn "Gwen" Rickard (1909–1997) in 1926 in the backstage of the Los Angeles Orpheum Theater, after Bolger's performance in Ritz Carlton Nights; Rickard was looking for Gus Edwards, who had departed shortly after the show ended. They separated after Edwards' show went to New York but reunited in 1928 after Bolger returned to Los Angeles. They married in Port Chester, New York on July 9, 1929. James Bolger, who may have disapproved of Rickard's not being Catholic, did not go to the wedding. The newlyweds honeymooned in Europe from July to August. Rickard, who "wanted to live vicariously" through Bolger, was throughout his career his collaborator and supporter. She advised him on whether to accept roles and gigs, handled his finances, dictated his costuming, persuaded producers of his shows to make the changes she wanted and conceived of many of his creative decisions. In the early years of their marriage she wanted to become a songwriter and to write a novel, but decided to stick to helping her husband's career. They had no children, although they tried. It is unclear why they never conceived; either Bolger or Rickard could have been infertile, though Rickard consulted a gynecologist, in the 1930s, who found no problems with her. Bolger had closer relationships with his in-laws than with his biological relatives (to whom he behaved distantly, even during public appearances), and financially supported his brothers-in-law. Bolger possessed thousands of records of classical music and was fond of tap dancing to it. His other hobbies included horse race betting, fishing, gin rummy, golf and poker. Bolger was a Roman Catholic and a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California. He was a lifelong Republican who campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election, Richard Nixon in the 1968 election, and Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election. He supported the United States' escalation in the Vietnam War.

Theatrical films • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1926 — "The Berth Mark" — Banker • 1936 — The Great Ziegfeld — Ray Bolger • 1937 — Rosalie — Bill Delroy • 1938 — The Girl of the Golden West — Happy Moore — (scenes deleted) • 1938 — Sweethearts — Hans • 1939 — The Wizard of Oz — Hunk / The Scarecrow • 1941 — Sunny — Bunny Billings • 1942 — Four Jacks and a Jill — Nifty Sullivan • 1943 — Forever and a Day — Sentry — (scenes deleted) • 1943 — Stage Door Canteen — Ray Bolger • 1946 — The Harvey Girls — Chris Maule • 1949 — Look for the Silver Lining — Jack Donahue • 1952 — Where's Charley? — Charley Wykeham • 1952 — April in Paris — S. Winthrop Putnam • 1961 — Babes in Toyland — Barnaby • 1966 — The Daydreamer — The Pieman • 1979 — Just You and Me, Kid — Tom • 1979 — The Runner Stumbles — Monsignor Nicholson • 1982 — Annie — Sound Effects Man — Uncredited • 1985 — That's Dancing! — Himself – Host — Documentary film Television • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1953–1955 — Where's Raymond? — Raymond 'Ray' Wallace — Lead role (61 episodes) • 1956–1957 — Washington Square — Host • 1958–1959 — General Electric Theater — Stan Maylor / Alfred Boggs — 2 episodes • 1962 — The Red Skelton Show — Mayor Threadbare III — Episode: "The Mayor of Central Park" • 1962 — The Little Sweep — Storyteller — Television film • 1963 — The Judy Garland Show — guest star — Garland's weekly tv series • 1966 — The Jean Arthur Show — Wealthy Man — Episode: "Rich Man, Poor Man" • 1970–1972 — The Partridge Family — Grandpa Renfrew — Recurring role (3 episodes) • 1971 — Nanny and the Professor — Uncle Horace — Episode: "South Sea Island Sweetheart" • 1976 — The Entertainer — Billy Rice — Television film • 1976 — Captains and the Kings — R.J. Squibbs — Television miniseries (Chapter I) • 1977–1979 — The Love Boat — Andy Hopkins / Horace McDonald — 2 episodes • 1978 — Baretta — Episode: "Just for Laughs" • 1978 — Three on a Date — Andrew — Television film • 1978–1982 — Fantasy Island — Gaylord Nelson / Spencer Randolph — 2 episodes • 1978–1979 — Little House on the Prairie — Toby Noe — 2 episodes • 1979 — Heaven Only Knows — Simon — Television pilot • 1979 — Battlestar Galactica — Vector — Episode: "Greetings from Earth" • 1981 — Aloha Paradise — Harry Carr — Episode: "Best of Friends/Success/Nine Karats" • 1981 — Peter and the Wolf — Narrator — Television film • 1983 — Peter and the Magic Egg — Uncle Amos — Voice, Television special • 1984 — Diff'rent Strokes — Clarence Markwell — Episode: "A Haunting We Will Go", (final appearance)

Broadway productions • Year — Title — Role — Theatre • 1926 — The Merry World — Performer — Imperial Theatre • 1926 — A Night in Paris — Performer — 44th Street Theatre • 1929 — Heads Up — Georgie — Alvin Theatre • 1931 — George White's Scandals of 1931 — Performer — Apollo Theatre • 1934 — Life Begins at 8:40 — Performer — Winter Garden Theatre • 1936 — On Your Toes — Phil Dolan III, Hoofer — Imperial Theatre • 1940 — Keep Off the Grass — Performer — Broadhurst Theatre • 1942 — By Jupiter — Sapiens — Shubert Theatre • 1946 — Three to Make Ready — Performer — Adelphi Theatre • 1948 — Where's Charley? — Charley Wykeham — St. James Theatre • 1951 — Where's Charley? (revival) — Charley Wykeham — Broadway Theatre • 1962 — All-American — Professor Fodorski — Winter Garden Theatre • 1969 — Come Summer — Phineas Sharp — Lunt-Fontanne Theatre Additional stage work • Year — Title — Role — Theatre — Ref. • 1932 — Radio City Music Hall Inaugural Program — performer — Radio City Music Hall • 1969 — Come Summer — Phineas Sharp — O'Keefe Centre • 1969 — The Happy Time — performer — Starlight Musicals

The authorities additionally record the heading Raymond Wallace Bolger. His recorded language was English. He married Gwendolyn Rickard.

Ray Bolger is recorded as having received Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.