Remembering Marge Champion
A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE DANCER’S LIFE AND TIME IN THE BERKSHIRES
By Norton Owen
Both the origins and the ongoing story of Marge Champion’s connections with the Berkshires are intertwined with her late son, Blake. It was because of Blake’s enrollment at the DeSisto School in Stockbridge that Champion first established a home here in the early 1980s, and it is largely through the continued prominence of Blake’s Barn at Jacob’s Pillow that Blake Champion’s name lives on.
Choreographer and dancer Marge Champion and her husband Gower were successors to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and the first dance team to achieve national popularity through television.
Blake was the son of Marge and her second husband and dance partner, Gower Champion. Together, the Champions were the golden dance couple of the 1950s, following in the footsteps of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a succession of MGM musicals (including their best-known film, Show Boat) and later on TV variety shows culminating in their own weekly series, The Marge and Gower Champion Show, a situation comedy with song and dance numbers. (Marge played a dancer and Gower a choreographer.) By the time their son enrolled at DeSisto, Gower had moved on to become one of Broadway’s hottest choreographer-directors (notably for Hello, Dolly!), and his partnership with Marge had broken up both personally and professionally.
It was Liz Thompson, then the director of Jacob’s Pillow, who first connected Marge with the Pillow in 1983, recognizing the great serendipity of a world-famous dance personality living in our midst. Marge soon joined the Pillow Board, a post she would retain for more than 20 years until she became one of the Pillow’s first board emeriti. And she remained connected as a trustee emerita until her death in October 2020 at age 101. Over the nearly four decades of her involvement with the Pillow, she held court at countless performances, classes, and events of all kinds, and she was the focus of more than a few special occasions—some truly unforgettable.
Detail of Marge and Gower from Al Hirschfeld’s drawing of “Three For Tonight,” published in The New York Times on April 3, 1955. ©The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. AlHirschfeldFoundation.org.
One of the first was a 1986 Pillow Gala that was planned to honor the life of Gower Champion, who had died six years earlier on the opening night of his final Broadway show, 42nd Street. This performance would later be noteworthy as the only time that Marge danced onstage with her son Blake, a promising actor/dancer who had studied for two summers in The School at Jacob’s Pillow and was active on various stages in Berkshire County. The memory of that Gala performance would become particularly precious after Blake’s death in a car accident in Lee the following year at the age of 25, and the fact that their Gala dance was captured on video allows it to be enjoyed to this day—with an excerpt posted online on Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive (danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org) and the entire dance accessible in Blake’s Barn, home to the Pillow Archives.
The barn originated as a 19th-century structure on Marge’s Stockbridge property, and Blake had hoped to convert it into a studio. After his death, the building was disassembled and re-erected at the Pillow as a living memorial. Not only is it the headquarters for the Archives, but it also provides a home for PillowTalks and houses the festival’s largest exhibition space. This space played host to one of the most successful Pillow exhibits ever in 2014, a knockout show of colorful dance movie posters entitled “Gotta Dance.”
Scheduled as a celebration of Marge’s 95th birthday, “Gotta Dance” featured a wide range of original artwork in the barn from the collection of poster expert Mike Kaplan, including a section dedicated to the movies of Marge and Gower. Dance numbers from their films together played on a loop, and the popular Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne conducted a public interview with Marge, along with a screening of film excerpts.
That talk was just one of many Champion-related events over the years in Blake’s Barn. One year, we promoted the publication of Hippo in a Tutu: Dancing in Disney Animation with a talk and book-signing, saluting Marge’s early years as a Disney model for both Snow White and Fantasia. At that event, she was seated in the teaching chair that had belonged to her father, Hollywood dance director Ernest Belcher. This custom-made chair featured a ballet barre on either side, and she reminisced about taking her father’s class as a youngster with Shirley Temple on the opposite side. Marge also participated in several other talks, the screening of a documentary about her partnership with Donald Saddler as they both neared 90, and a big birthday Gala celebration entitled “Champion Dances.”
Of course, Jacob’s Pillow wasn’t her only focus in the Berkshires, and she was a frequent presence at other venues throughout the county. She served on the board of the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Berkshire Theatre Festival (now the Berkshire Theatre Group), and was a longtime fixture at the Dream Away Lodge in Becket. After Marge finally gave up her Stockbridge residence in 2014 when health issues precipitated a move to Los Angeles where she could be near her surviving son, Gregg, she remained in touch with friends in the Berkshires by phone and mail.
Among the most meaningful Marge-related happenings over the years was a 2012 PillowTalk called “Remembering Blake Champion.” Scheduled in the year that would have marked Blake’s 50th birthday, this event brought together many of his friends, fellow dancers, and family members in Blake’s Barn to tell stories, share videos, and keep his memory alive.
IN MEMORY Marge Champion and Norton Owen beside a memorial plaque showing her and her son Blake in 1986. This was taken in 2009 in Blake’s Barn.
It was at this event that she exclaimed to me, “You make the barn live!” And that’s exactly what we intend to keep on doing for years to come, in recognition of all that Marge Champion gave to the world during more than a century in the limelight.
PHOTO ©NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Fairest of Them All:
To mark the June 7, 2013, opening of Norman Rockwell Museum’s exhibition, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic, Marge Champion talked about being a live reference model beginning in 1934 for Disney’s first full-length animated feature. Marge (then Marjorie Belcher) was just 13 when she was among some 200 girls auditioning for the part of Snow White. (Opposite page, Marge as Snow White from Hippo in a Tutu.) Champion, who was 93 at the Rockwell’s exhibition opening night, remembered improvising many scenes on the Disney Studio soundstage, such as running through a “forest” of ropes hanging from clotheslines and fetching water from a prop wishing well. The animators then studied her filmed performance to understand how a young girl realistically moved, and how her dress moved around her, especially when dancing with the dwarves. “The animators weren’t dancers,” Champion told the museum during an April 2013 interview. “They could do all the funny, silly things like Goofy…they took those out of their own personalities, but they didn’t know exactly how a young girl moved…how the dress would swing, how heads would turn....” Marge began dividing her time between the Berkshires and New York City in 1979, which made it all the more special when she was honored at the museum’s Enchanted Evening Gala to celebrate the Snow White exhibition opening. ―ANASTASIA STANMEYER
In Step With Marge
Marge Champion made her last Broadway appearance at age 81 in the 2001 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. She was inducted into the National Museum of Dance’s Hall of Fame in 2009 and took part a year later in the finale in Career Transitions for Dancers’ 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee. Choreographer and four-time Tony Award® nominee Randy Skinner escorted her on stage, they did a “dance flourish,” and Marge “did a wonderful fan kick,” as Randy fondly recalls. In 2013, Marge received the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award at the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards ceremonies in New York. Randy was there again for the special occasion, performing and speaking on her behalf.
How did you know and how do you remember Marge? I first crossed paths with her 40 years ago, when she was no longer married to Gower. He and Marge stayed close with their two boys. She was such a special lady, very spiritually based. She dealt with a lot, with her third husband who died in a helicopter accident [Boris Sagal, in Portland, Oregon, in 1981], and she and Gower lost their son, Blake [in a car crash in Lee, Massachusetts, in 1987]. When you go through life’s tragedies, you become empathetic.
What struck you about her? She might be small, but she had a strong personality. She had that side to her that you don’t really see in show business. When you meet people, when they’re well-rounded and all sides to them, it reflects in their work. They self-examine and live their lives beyond a me-me-me world.
How did you meet her second husband, Gower? I was in my mid-20s, and I got a call one snowy evening in February and Gower said he was looking for someone to join his team on 42nd Street. A year before that, I choreographed Jolson: The Musical. Jolson dance arranger Don Johnston was also the arranger on 42nd Street, and he gave Gower my name. I was in my mid-20s, and I got a call one snowy evening in February and Gower said he was looking for someone to join his team on 42nd Street. A year before that, I choreographed Jolson: The Musical. Jolson dance arranger Don Johnston was also the arranger on 42nd Street, and he gave Gower my name.
Then what happened? We met one afternoon, and I spent the day dancing with him. He hired me. Gower often said his favorite time was with pre-production with two dance assistants, dancing and exploring. He died on opening night. The show was a huge hit, he was gone, and my life went from being a dancer to heading a national show.
Where does Marge come in? Somewhere around that time, I crossed paths with Marge, and I got to know her son Gregg. I ran into Marge at dancer events. The last time I saw her was when she was honored by The Career Transitions for Dancers 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee. At the time, she had an apartment in New York and a home in the Berkshires.
How do people in the industry view her? She was very well thought of and beloved in the industry by people who knew her. She was also a great dancer on film—her technique, her look, her body type. The more technique you have, the more it frees you. She was a very well-trained dancer. Her personality came through. It’s a strong presence on film.
What can people learn from Marge? If you really want a career, it’s all on your hands. Seeing Marge dance is an inspiration in itself; she was bigger than life. She sang and acted well and danced well. It gives people encouragement to keep working. I still tell people to watch clips of her. You really can’t teach it.
—Anastasia Stanmeyer
Norton Owen has been associated with the Pillow since 1976. As Director of Preservation, Owen oversees all programs concerning dance documentation, exhibitions, and archival resources. He also coordinates PillowTalks, pre- and post-show lectures, and film programs. Learn more about Marge Champion in a new podcast as part of the PillowVoices series (pillowvoices.org). This half hour focuses on Norton’s remembrances of Marge, with excerpts of interviews with Marge herself.