Rose Marie 1923-2017

Performer frequented Nevada

Rose Marie, one of the few survivors of vaudeville whose career also included film, radio, records, theater, night clubs and television, has died at 94. She’s familiar as a performer on TV sitcoms and quiz shows.

She had a place in Nevada history, performing opening night at Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingo in Las Vegas and appearing in Reno in the 1980s in the supergroup called Four Girls Four with Helen O’Connell, Rosemary Clooney and Margaret Whiting.

She candidly conceded her organized crime in Nevada’s early casino days. She once told how, after the close of one of her appearances, she was at New York’s Copacabana and Joe Fischetti, a.k.a. Fisher, a cousin of Al Capone, asked her, “Where are you going next?” She replied, “I’m not working.” He told her, “You’re going to Reno or Tahoe. These are some of the other places that we have clubs.” She answered, “Whatever you say.”

She recalled, “And believe me, they kept me working all year, because every place I went, somebody owned it, you know. And I was looked after with kid gloves. It was absolutely wonderful. They’d always asked, ‘Where are you working next?’ God forbid I’d say, ‘I don’t know,’ because they’d say, ‘You’ll be working in Tahoe, Reno or a country club in Kentucky. I was busy working. And then I went back to the Flamingo. I played the Flamingo four to five times a year.”