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Stage Name

Birth Name

Gower Champion Gower Champion
Marge Champion Marjorie Celeste (Margret Bell) Belcher
Jeanne Tyler Jeanne Tyler (Gene)

- Marge and Gower were very popular dancers in the 1940s and 50s. Gower would choreograph many musicals for Film, TV and Broadway. Ernest Belcher was Marge's father, a ballet teacher who started his daughter at an early age of five months.

-- Marge's first dance partner was Louis Hightower and her first screen appearance was in the film "Sorority House" in 1939. Gower was winning dance contests (Palladium) at the age of twelve way before he met Marge with his first dance partner Jeanne Tyler.

--Marge and Gower's first professional engagement together was credited as "Gower and Bell" at Montreal's "Normandie Roof" in April, 1947. Marge and Gower's first big show was in the "Persian Room" of the Plaza Hotel in New York. Their first movie together was in "$ Mr. Music" with Bing Crosby and their first starring picture was in "Everything I Have is Yours".

Marge Champion Autograph
Marge danced with Herb Ross and Paul Glodkin in the Broadway Play "Beggars Holiday" in 1946.

--Dick Pribor was the Champions musical director. Gower was in the U.S. Coast Guard for his stint in the service. Marge was used by Disney as the model for " Snow White" and the "Blue Fairy" in Pinnochio and the "Hippopotamus Ballerina" in FANTASIA. Marge and Gower were wed on October 5, 1947 and divorced in 1973. Actress, Lina Basquette was Marge's half sister.

Birth Place

Birth Date

Spouse

Offspring

Geneva, IL. (Gower) 6/21/1919 - 8/25/1980 ??Jeanne Tyler??, Marge Belcher Gregg Champion
Los Angeles (Marge) 9/2/1923 - 19?? Gower Champion, Boris Sagal      
 

Dance Types

Dance Partners

Music Titles

Ballroom Debbie Reynolds Let's Dance Album (Columbia B-1929)
Champion Strut (Swing) Ernest Belcher      
Doin' The Chamberlain Herb Ross      
Mambo Jeanne Tyler      
New Yorker (Swing) Louis Hightower      
Swing etc. Paul Glodkin      
Tango            
Waltz            
 

Night Clubs

Theaters

Stage

Mocombo Room (NY) 44th Street Theater (1942) 1939 - Streets of Paris (w/Jeanne)
Normandie Roof (Montreal) 46th Street Theater (1966) 1955 - Three For Tonight
Persian Roof (NY Plaza) Broadhurst Theater (1939) 1942 - Portrait of a Lady
The Sert Room Broadway Theater (1968) 1942 - The Lady Comes Across
      Coronet Theater (1948) 1944 - Count Me In
      Henry Miller's (1966) 1945 - Dark of the Moon
      Imperial Theater (1961) 1946 - Beggars Holiday
Awards Lunt-Fontaine ( 1978) 1954 - Something to Rave About
Antoinette Perry Awards National Theater (1949) 1964 & 1975 - Hello Dolly (chor)
Donaldson Awards Majestic Theater (1972) 1948 - Lend An Ear (chor)
Contests Martin Beck Theater (1960) 1948 - Small Wonder
Harvest Moon Ball (LA) Minskoff Theater (1973) 1951 - Make A Wish
1936 - L.A. Dance To Fame Contest Plymouth Theater (1955) 1960 - Bye Bye Birdie
Misc. St. James Theater (1964) 1961 - Carnival
1950s - Krohler Furniture Ad. Winter Graden (1951) 1963 - My Mother, Father & Me
            1966 - I Do, I Do
            1966 - Three Bags Full
            1968 - The Happy Time
            1969 - A Flea in her Ear
            1972 - Sugar
            1973 - Irene
            1974 - Mack and Mabel
            1977 - Rockabye Hamlet
            1977 - The Act
            1978 - A Broadway Musical
            1980 - 42nd Street
            Grover's Corners
            Lovely To Look At
            Showboat
            Stepping Out
            Three For The Show
 

Films

Television

1939 - Streets Of Paris 1949 - Admiral Broadway Revue
1939 - Sorority House (Marge) 1957 - Marge & Gower Show
$ 1939 - The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle 1958 - USO All Star Xmas
$ 1942 - Fantasia (Marge - Chor) 1975 - Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (Marge Choreog.)
$ 1947 - Till the Clouds Roll By [DVD]
$ 1950 - Mr. Music (Chor) Broadway Rhythms
$ 1951 - Show Boat [DVD]

Publications

$ 1952 - Lovely To Look At 3/7/1949 - Life Magazine (Cover)
1952 - Everything I Have Is Yours 1/7/1952 - Quick Magazine
$ 1953 - Give a Girl a Break 5/1952 - Motion Picture Magazine
$ 1954 - Three For The Show 6/23/1952 - Newsweek Magazine
$ 1955 - Three For the Show 10/27/1952 - Quick Mag
$ 1955 - Jupiter's Darling 2/1953 - Movie Star Parade
1957 - Girl Most Likely (Chor) 4/1953 - Photoplay Magazine
1961 - My Six Loves 7/1953 - Cosmopolitan Magazine (Cover)
1967 - The Summer 8/1953 - Redbook Magazine
$ 1967 - The Party [DVD] 8/24/1953 - Life Magazine
$ 1968 - The Swimmer [DVD] (Marge) 9/1953 - Screenland Magazine
$ 1974 - Bank Shot [DVD] 11/1953 - Modern Screen Mag
$ 1975 - The Day of the Locust 1954 - Let's Dance Book (Author)
1978 - Ike: The Awakening Years II (Marge- Chor) 1954 - Screen Stories
1978 - The Awakening Land (Marge- Chor ) 9/5/1954 - Lima News (New Dance Introduced)
$ 1981 - Who's Life Is It Anyway (Marge- Chor) 10/28/1954 - Oakland Tribune (Champion Tour)
$ 1985 - That's Dancing 4/1955 - Theater Arts Magazine
$ 1990 - Short Time (Gregg Champion) 1/1956 - TV People Magazine
  6/1957 - TV Star Parade
  7/1958 - Dance Magazine (Cover)
  4/10/1962 - CB Times & TV Guide
      $1999 - Gower Champion: Dance and Musical...
      $ Catch the New Wind (Marge: author)
      God is a Verb (Marge: author)
NOTE:
August 3, 2006
http://www.Streetswing.com/histmain/d5index.htm