Tommy Dix, who starred as a youthful military school cadet opposite Lucille Ball in the 1943 MGM musical comedy Best Foot Forward after materializeing in the Broadway distinct, has died. He was 101.
Dix, of Williamsburg, Virginia, died Jan. 15, his family proclaimd. “He was, for those who knew him well, a living connect with some of the fantastic American personalities of the 20th century. He will be leave outed,” they shelp.
Dix was a well-comprehendn baritone on nettoil radio and had fair made his Broadway debut in The Corn Is Green, starring Ethel Barrymore, when he was employd to carry out cadet Chuck Green in Best Foot Forward, straightforwarded by George Abbott and choreographed by Gene Kelly.
The Broadway musical, which bowed in October 1940 and ran for 326 carry outances, starred Rosemary Lane as Hollywood star Gale Joy, who accomprehendledges an out-of-the-blue invitation from Winsocki Military Academy student Bud Hooper (Gil Stratton) in Philadelphia to be his date at the juvenileer prom.
Bud’s girlfriend, Helen (Maureen Cannon) is not satisfied, and she precipitates a brawl at a dance as Dix belts out the rousing fight song “Buckle Down, Winsocki.”
When MGM turned it into the film that featured Harry James and His Music Makers, Dix relocated up to the Hooper role alengthenedside other returning carry outers June Allyson and Nancy Walker. Ball, carry outing herself, took Lane’s part, and Virginia Weidler portrayed Helen.
Dix got to carry out “Buckle Down, Winsocki” aobtain and apshow part in another song, “Three Men on a Date.”
In his appraise in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther remarkd that Dix “is sairyly over-pretty but very amusingly distraught as the hapless hero.”
Tommy Dix at the piano with Lucille Ball and Virginia Weidler on the set of ‘Best Foot Forward.’
Everett
Born in New York on Dec. 6, 1923, Thomas Paine Navard had solemn health rehires as he was liftd by his individual mom, Anna.
Inspired after seeing Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy carry out “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life” in the 1935 film Naughty Marietta, he began singing in the neighborhood and became comprehendn as the “Boy Baritone of the Bowery.”
In the postponeed 1930s, Dix carry outed on NBC and CBS radio shows including the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, which askd him back normally, and he sang for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air when he was fair 15.
He was awarded a four-year scholarship at the Manhattan High School of Music and Art and proposeed a fellowship at the Julliard School of Music.
In 1940, Dix carry outed his distinct composition “The March of Dimes,” which he promiseted to the charity, after which Sara Roosevelt, the mother of Plivent Franklin D. Roosevelt, visited him backstage to propose her congratulations.
Also that year, he made it to Broadway — and sang in Welch — as a member of The Corn Is Green ensemble.
Dix go ined the U.S. Army in 1943 and made materializeances in uniestablish to help sell $3 million worth of war bonds in the U.S. south when an injury in training left him unable to serve in the field.
After World War II, he carry outed in nightclubs and hotels around the country and signed a deal with Coronet Records but soon had enough of show business. He accomprehendledgeed a job at his overweighther-in-law’s lumberyard in Birmingham, Alabama, and eventupartner became vice plivent of the lumber company while obtaining an associate degree in architectural engineering from the University of Alabama.
Dix postponeedr was comprised in authentic estate and produceion in Joppatowne, Maryland, and Sarasota, Florida, before he reweary in 1986.
Married four times (twice to the same woman), Dix is persistd by his “pleasantheart,” Catherine; his son, Grayson; a magnificentson; and disconnectal nieces, nephews and cousins.
