Quotes

I didn't quit movies. They quit me.

The only thing I knew was MGM, where I had worked since I was 14. Unions were not even a part of my vocabulary. SAG meant a gravity problem. EQUITY meant owning a house.

[2017] I don't think about the past except now, when we're talking about it. I never felt I was really there anyway. I always pictured myself as a fly who was up in the corner looking down at myself. I never feel I was there. I'm not very sentimental when it comes to the past. I don't live there and I feel for people who do because it's never going to be the same as you remember it.

[on Fred Astaire, her co-star in Royal Wedding (1951)] He was wonderful to me. I rehearsed with a stand-in and didn't do anything with him until everything was fine. But he was a very private man. I was terrified dancing with him, but I was terrified all the time anyway, so it didn't make any difference.

[on Royal Wedding (1951)] It was June Allyson, then it was going to be Judy Garland. The choreography was in place so I had to learn all the dances in three weeks. I didn't meet Fred Astaire until I went to the set. I asked him, "When did you and your sister stop dancing together?" He said, "1929" and I answered, "Oh, the year I was born!" He thought that was funny.

[on Hedda Hopper] Hedda was wonderful to me.

[when asked if she had a favorite role] I never watch my films. But I guess I'd have to say the classics: Royal Wedding (1951) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). One of my favorites is Two Weeks with Love (1950) because I got to do a period piece and the cast was wonderful. It was just froth, but I loved it.

[on Ann Miller, her co-star in Hit the Deck (1955)] On her passport where it said, "occupation," she wrote, "Star." I loved Annie. One time we were both on the road in shows in Houston and the apartment building we were staying in was right across the parking lot from the theater and you could just walk across the street. Not Ann. She had to have a car pick her up. Ann could not boil water. Literally. She didn't know how to drive or if she did she didn't tell anybody. She was very smart lady.

[on Carmen Miranda, her co-star in A Date with Judy (1948)] I really loved her. She was like a little bird that fell out of the nest. She was so shy. Terribly shy.

[on Hedy Lamarr, her co-star in The Female Animal (1957)] Well, Hedy didn't like me too much because she had to play my mother and she didn't like having to play a mother. She was such a beautiful woman, but she was so wrapped up in her beauty and that was it.