When I got the call to audition for the upcoming Broadway show "Gypsy" starring Ethel Merman and Jack Klugman, my mind was still into "serious theatre." I was a kid and I had just recently finished a run of the double-bill of Sophocles' "Electra" and Terence Rattigan's "Harlequinade" at the Rita Allen Theatre, off-Broadway. That was my very first professional show, and I was thrilled to have been in it. I thought I was very highbrow and was still trying to keep the British accent that I had used in "Harlequinade."

Ah, but this was Broadway and a story about strippers, burlesque comics, show girls and Gypsy Rose Lee. What did I know about that world? The audition was arranged and I was told to wear rehearsal clothes, and that I was auditioning for the part of a showgirl in the chorus. At that point, I wasn't really sure what "rehearsal clothes" were, so I wore a bathing suit. It worked. If you've ever seen "A Chorus Line," you know how the audition process evolves. The director kept eliminating performers until there were eight or ten of us left on stage. At that point, he told us all to do the "showgirl walk." What was that?? I looked around real fast and saw the most flamboyant of all the girls, got behind her, and did a real good imitation of her. In fact, I went overboard and exaggerated all her movements. Again, it worked, and I got myself my first Broadway contract.

What an experience that was! Almost two years of learning, just by being around all that talent and absorbing everything. Lots of craziness, fun, parties, bonding, learning to paint backstage, forming a softball team and playing against other gypsies AND the Playboy Bunnies every Thursday afternoon, canoe races, publicity pictures--petting animals, feeding lions, falling out of canoes, always smiling our biggest smiles--whatever the publicist thought would make a good picture and stir more interest in the show. At the time, they always followed the principle of the three B's of publicity -- Babies, Beauties, and Beasts --and we fell somewhere into that category.

"Gypsy" had its pre-Broadway try-out in Philadelphia where we played for six weeks and then opened in New York a day before my birthday, May 18th, and ran for a year and a half. Believe me, I wasn't sorry that I gave up my British accent for that first taste of Broadway.

Note: To read more about Marie's life in the theatre and on television, look for "Marie Wallace's Scrapbook," which will be published soon.