We had our first sold out house tonight, including Betsy and the boys. I was showing them around the sets (which are huge by any standard) and Jay Pevney, our Max, was out there setting props, and pointed to a lovely vintage photo on Max's office wall and said, "That's a picture of my mom from the cover of Life." Now I knew his dad was famed director Joseph Pevney and kind of knew his Mom had done some acting, but I had no idea who she was. It turns out she was Mitzi Green, child star at Paramount and RKO and (and this is the Life magazine cover) the woman who introduced "The Lady is a Tramp" in Babes in Arms on Broadway. Jay told a charming story about Rodgers and Hart writing the song for her because his Grandmother, who was herself a famous vaudevillian, complained that Mitzi had no belting songs and that the show was full of ballads. (But what ballads, eh?). So color me impressed.
