Rose Marie’s career encapsulates the last century of American entertainment
WAIT FOR YOUR LAUGH (Jason Wise, 2017)
Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston St. at Mercer St., 212-995-2570
Landmark at 57 West, 657 West 57th St. at 12th Ave.
Opens Friday, November 3
www.rosemariemovie.com
To follow up his two Somm documentaries and Uncorked reality series, director Jason Wise decided his next film would be about how entertainment has changed over the last hundred years. But then he found “the kindest, toughest, hardest working, and most inspiring person I’ve ever met in my life” and was able to tell that same story from the point of view of one extraordinary figure. Wait for Your Laugh is the captivating, bittersweet tale of Rose Marie, who began her career at the age of three in 1926 and is still as feisty as ever at ninety-four. “Believe me when I tell you, she’s the history of show business,” longtime friend Peter Marshall, who is ninety-one himself, says of the actress, comedian, and singer, who was born Rose Marie Mazetta in New York City in 1923. She started out as Baby Rose Marie, having with her own radio show at the age of four; she went into vaudeville and performed on the cabaret circuit, appeared on Broadway, and was the first woman to host a TV game show. She fell in love with Bobby Guy, a trumpeter for Kay Kyser and Bing Crosby; was beloved and supported by Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel; opened the Flamingo in Vegas with Jimmy Durante; costarred in such television series as The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Doris Day Show and was a long-running favorite on The Hollywood Squares; and developed the successful touring show 4 Girls 4 with Margaret Whiting, Helen O’Connell, and Rosemary Clooney. All along the way, she fought fiercely for her independence, constantly expanding her repertoire, determined to always be working, preferably her way.
Baby Rose Marie stands in front of her poster in the late 1920s
“She had great respect for an audience, which is something that you don’t see anymore,” her childhood friend Ruthie Shapiro explains. “Because I loved to work for an audience, and I loved to hold them in the palm of my hand, which I do. That’s a secret,” Rose Marie adds with a sly look at the camera, and she does indeed have us in the palm of her hand. Wise and cinematographer Jackson Myers shoot Rose Marie close-up, her bright face shining over a dark interior, her enthusiasm for life and all it brings, the good and the bad, pouring through the screen. Wise, who edited the film with Bryan Rodner Carr and produced and wrote it with his wife, Christina Wise, also speaks with Carl Reiner, who is ninety-five, Dick Van Dyke, ninety-one, Tim Conway, eighty-three, and Community creator Dan Harmon, the kid at forty-four. The archival and behind-the-scenes footage of Rose Marie through the years, from singing as a little girl to traveling with her husband to appearing on television shows to doing voice-overs for animated films, is sensational; however, the reenactments of various moments from her life, particularly involving her connections with the mob, detract from what is otherwise a life-affirming film about one tough, talented lady. “I loved every bit of it. In fact, I still love it today,” she says. Wait for Your Laugh is now playing at the Angelika, where there will be Q&As all weekend long with such participants as Peter Marshall, Bebe Neuwirth, Jason & Christina Wise, Dick Van Dyke Show writer-producer Bill Persky, Dick Van Dyke Show expert David Van Deusen, Joe and Sal Scognamillo of Patsy’s, Georgiana “Noopy” Rodrigues (Rose Marie’s daughter), and Debbi Whiting (Margaret Whiting’s daughter).