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2
Shirley Jones
Meredith Wilson’s fun story of “The Music Man” had electrified Broadway for four and a half years. Now, Hollywood was preparing to make the movie with Robert Preston and everyone knew there was only one real “Marion” the librarian. The picture stands to this day as one of Columbia’s biggest moneymakers and one of Shirley’s proudest achievements.
Television gave the world the four-year hit “The Partridge Family” ABC series with Shirley as America’s number one rockin’ mom Shirley Partridge and hit after hit. Shirley’s significant TV movies came one after another. “Silent Night, Lonely Night”, a very daring Christmas story costarring Lloyd Bridges, earned Shirley a well-deserved Emmy nomination. She grabbed another Emmy nomination in 1985 for her work in the acclaimed PBS movie “There were Times, Dear” about the tragedy of living with a victim of Alzheimer’s disease. Later Shirley starred in a weekly television series “Shirley” for NBC and Proctor and Gamble, which introduced full- sponsorship to television for the first time in fourteen years.
Shirley was in constant demand by every TV variety show, having already
guested with Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Bob Hope, Carol Burnett, Dean Martin, Andy
Williams, Perry Como, Danny Thomas, Danny Kaye, Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, Dinah and two stints as hostess of NBC’s variety series “The Big Show”. Shirley headlined at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and even traveled to Russia to host the incredible Moscow Circus for two CBS specials.
In legit theater Shirley made numerous summer tours starring in favorite musicals such as “The Sound of Music” and “Show Boat”. Shirley returned to the Broadway stage with first husband Jack Cassidy to perform in the musical “Maggie Flynn” and toured the nation with the thriller/ drama play “Wait Until Dark”.
One fateful day Shirley Jones met TV producer Marty Ingels at an art exhibit
on the lawn of actor Michael Landon’s house. Shirley married the kinetic former comedian three years later after a frantic courtship so outrageous and romantic the entire story has been told in their autobiography, “Shirley and Marty, An Unlikely Love Story”. Shirley and Marty live in Beverly Hills.
