#Comedian with tiny piano series

She called it вЂњFinding My Little Red HatвЂќ - because, as an itinerant child, she had worn a red felt hat for courage when she went to a new school and faced yet another classroom of strangers. She finally published it herself in September. Dennison wrote portions of her autobiography.

Over the last 45 years, while she was in and out of movies and television, in and out of Hollywood and New York, and in and out of two marriages, Ms.

#Comedian with tiny piano series

She appeared on television with Frank Sinatra and Ed Sullivan and in a few episodes of the series вЂњDick TracyвЂќ in 1950. Dennison landed small parts in numerous movies, notably in the war propaganda film вЂњWinged VictoryвЂќ (1944) and вЂњThe Jolson StoryвЂќ (1946), about the entertainer Al Jolson. According to Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, photos of her in Life magazine made her the G.I.sвЂ™ second most popular вЂњpinup girl,вЂќ after Betty Grable.ДЄnd Hollywood came calling. With World War II raging, she visited military bases on the home front, sang and danced for the troops and sold war bonds. And her life took off on an unexpected trajectory. She won and went on to win a string of contests that culminated with her being crowned Miss America. She hoped to become a secretary.Д«ut out of the blue one day in 1942, when she was 18 and walking down the street in Tyler, Texas, she was approached by a local banker who asked her to represent his bank in the townвЂ™s beauty contest. Jo-Carroll Dennison spent a rootless childhood in a traveling medicine show in the 1920s and вЂ™30s with little money or formal education.