Kaye Ballard
Encyclopedia
Kaye Ballard is an American musical theatre and television actress, comedienne, and singer.

Life and career

Ballard was born as Catherine Gloria Balotta in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, to an Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...

 family, the daughter of Lena (née Nacarato) and Vincent James Balotta.

Ballard established herself as a musical comedienne in the 1940s, joining the Spike Jones
Spike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...

 touring revue of entertainers. Capable of playing broad physical comedy as well as stand-up dialogue routines, she became familiar in television and stage productions. A phrase that her mother had used when Kaye was a child, "Good luck with your MOUTH!" became one of her catch phrases. The phrase has been uttered in her sketches, and on television. During 1954, she was the first person to record the song "In Other Words
Fly Me to the Moon
"Fly Me to the Moon" is a popular standard song written by Bart Howard in 1954. It was originally titled "In Other Words", and was introduced by Felicia Sanders in cabarets...

" (later renamed "Fly Me To The Moon").

In 1957, she and Alice Ghostley
Alice Ghostley
Alice Margaret Ghostley was an American actress. She was best known for her roles as housekeeper Esmeralda on Bewitched, as Cousin Alice on Mayberry R.F.D., and as Bernice Clifton on Designing Women, for which she received an Emmy Nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1992...

 played the two ugly stepsisters in the live telecast of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella
Cinderella (TV)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is a musical written for television, with music by Richard Rodgers and a book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based upon the fairy tale Cinderella, particularly the French version Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Vair, by Charles Perrault...

, starring Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...

 in the title role. From 1967–69, she co-starred as Kaye Buell, a woman whose son marries her next door neighbor's daughter, in the NBC sitcom The Mothers-in-Law
The Mothers-in-Law
The Mothers-in-Law is an American sitcom starring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard as two matriarchs who were friends and next-door neighbors whose children's elopement rendered them in-laws. The show aired on NBC from September 1967 to April 1969; it was produced by Desi Arnaz after the dissolutions...

, with Eve Arden
Eve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...

 playing her neighbor. She also appeared as a regular on The Doris Day Show
The Doris Day Show
The Doris Day Show is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 1968 until September 1973. In addition to showcasing Doris Day, the show is remembered for its many abrupt format changes over the course of its five-year run...

as restaurant owner and Doris's friend, Angie Pallucci from 1970–72. Ballard made appearances on the American television game show Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...

. In 1976, she was a guest star on The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...

. She also appeared on the TV series Alice
Alice (TV series)
Alice is an American sitcom television series that ran from August 31, 1976 to July 2, 1985 on CBS. The series was based on the 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. The show stars Linda Lavin in the title role, a widow who moves with her young son to start her life over again, and finds a job...

, in which she played Seama, a phony medium known for her kleptomania, who puts a hex on Alice.

For Broadway drama, Ballard starred as Helen in The Golden Apple
The Golden Apple (musical)
The Golden Apple is a musical adaptation of parts of each of the Iliad and Odyssey epics of Homer, with music by Jerome Moross and lyrics by John Treville Latouche...

, where she introduced the song "Lazy Afternoon". She also portrayed Rosalie in Carnival!
Carnival!
Carnival is a 1961 musical with the book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The musical is based on the 1953 film Lili.-Background:...

(with Jerry Orbach
Jerry Orbach
Jerome Bernard "Jerry" Orbach was an American actor and singer. He was well known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series and as the voice of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. As well, Orbach was a noted musical theatre star...

), Ruth in Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in downtown New York . "The Public," as it is known, has many small theatres within it...

's production of The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...

, and the title role in Molly
Molly (musical)
Molly is a musical with lyrics by Leonard Adelson and Mack David and music by Jerry Livingston. The musical book by Louis Garfinkle and Adelson is based on characters from Gertrude Berg's The Goldbergs. The musical premiered on Broadway on September 27, 1973 at the Alvin Theatre where it ran for a...

. She created the role of the Countess and closed out-of-town in Marc Blitzstein
Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...

's Reuben, Reuben
Reuben, Reuben (opera)
Reuben, Reuben is a 1955 "urban folk opera" by Marc Blitzstein. Set in New York's Little Italy and inspired by the Faust legend, it concerns Reuben, a suicidal veteran who has received a medical discharge because he cannot speak...

and played Hattie Walker in the Paper Mill Playhouse's 1998 revival of Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...

's Follies
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...

.

Ballard also appeared as Molly Goldberg in an unsuccessful musical adaptation of the popular radio serial. In 2005, she appeared in a road-company production of Nunsense
Nunsense
Nunsense is a musical comedy with a book, music, and lyrics by Dan Goggin. Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a cabaret that ran for 38 weeks, and eventually into a full-length musical...

, which was written by Dan Goggin
Dan Goggin
Dan Goggin is an American writer, composer, and lyricist for musical theatre.Goggin began his career as a singer in the Broadway production of Luther, which starred Albert Finney...

. In 2006, she completed her autobiography, How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years.

Ballard also appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show as Madam AGoGo, a mysterious fortune teller who appears in the episode "Fortune Teller".

Personal life

A breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...

 survivor, Ballard has never married. She currently lives in Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal population can exceed 20,000. In between Cathedral City and Palm Desert, it is one of the eight cities of the Coachella...

, in the house she stayed in when she was working on The Mothers-in-Law
The Mothers-in-Law
The Mothers-in-Law is an American sitcom starring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard as two matriarchs who were friends and next-door neighbors whose children's elopement rendered them in-laws. The show aired on NBC from September 1967 to April 1969; it was produced by Desi Arnaz after the dissolutions...

, which was owned by her producer/friend Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...

.

Filmography

  • The Girl Most Likely
    The Girl Most Likely
    The Girl Most Likely is a musical about a young woman who ends up engaged to three men at the same time. The film, a remake of Tom, Dick and Harry , was directed by Mitchell Leisen, and stars Jane Powell, Cliff Robertson, and Keith Andes...

    (1957)
  • A House Is Not a Home
    A House Is Not a Home (film)
    A House Is Not a Home is a 1964 drama film loosely based on the 1953 autobiography by madam Polly Adler. The film stars Shelley Winters, Robert Taylor, Cesar Romero, and Kaye Ballard.Raquel Welch made her film debut in a small role as a prostitute.-Plot:...

    (1964)
  • Which Way to the Front?
    Which Way to the Front?
    Which Way to the Front? is a 1970 film starring Jerry Lewis. It would be Lewis' last released film for eleven years , until 1981's Hardly Working. The unreleased The Day the Clown Cried was filmed in the years between...

    (1970)
  • The Ritz
    The Ritz (film)
    The Ritz is a 1976 film directed by Richard Lester based on the play of the same name by Terrence McNally.Actress Rita Moreno who had won a Tony Award for her performance as Googie Gomez in the 1975 Broadway production, and many others of the original cast like Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, and F...

    (1976)
  • Freaky Friday
    Freaky Friday (1976 film)
    Freaky Friday is a 1976 American comedy film starring Jodie Foster as Annabel Andrews and Barbara Harris as her mother.The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, in which mother and daughter switch bodies and get a taste of each others' lives. The cause of the switch is left...

    (1976)
  • Falling in Love Again (1980)
  • Pandemonium
    Pandemonium (film)
    Pandemonium is a 1982 comedy film spoofing horror movies. It had an ensemble cast including Eileen Brennan, Phil Hartman, Tab Hunter, Carol Kane, David Lander, Eve Arden, Paul Reubens, and Tom Smothers....

    (1982)
  • The Perils of P.K. (1986)
  • Tiger Warsaw (1988)
  • Eternity (1989)
  • Modern Love (1990)
  • Fate (1990)
  • Joey Takes a Cab (1991)
  • Ava's Magical Adventure (1994)
  • The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1998)
  • Baby Geniuses
    Baby Geniuses
    Baby Geniuses is a 1999 family-oriented comedy film directed by Bob Clark, rated PG for "some rude behavior and dialogue". It stars Kathleen Turner and Christopher Lloyd....

    (1999)
  • Little Insects (2000) (voice)
  • The Million Dollar Kid (2000)
  • Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
    Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
    Broadway: The Golden Age is a 2004 documentary by Rick McKay, telling the story of the "golden age" of Broadway by the oral history of the legendary actors of the 40s and 50s, incorporating rare lost footage of actual performances and never-before-seen personal home movies and photos.-The Cast:The...

    (2003) (documentary)
  • The Pool of Desire (2004) (short subject)
  • Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2010) (documentary)

External links

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