Miriam Nelson

Choreographer to the stars who tap-danced into her 90s

Miriam Nelson, whose seven-decade career as a choreographer and dancer spanned the golden ages of Broadway, Hollywood and television, died Sunday at her home in Beverly Hills, California. She was 98.

When William Holden and Kim Novak slow-danced to Moonglow in the 1956 film Picnic, that was Nelson’s choreography. The Los Angeles Times later called the scene “one of the movie’s classic moments of sexual magnetism, the most graceful and sensual of mating dances”.

Much of Nelson’s movie work was for non-musicals. She choreographed the madcap party scene at Holly Golightly’s apartment in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), and also appeared in it as the glamorous party guest in gold brocade and pearls who argues with the man wearing a fake eye patch.

Behind the camera, Nelson taught Tuesday Weld to watusi in I’ll Take Sweden (1965), Ingrid Bergman to do disco moves in Cactus Flower (1969), Jerry Lewis to hoof it like a space alien in A Visit to a Small Planet (1960) and the whole cast of Cat Ballou (1965) – led by Jane Fonda, who she said was a balletically trained natural – to execute Old West dances for the hoedown scene.

In The Apartment (1960), Variety called an office-party faux striptease choreographed by Nelson “sexier than many in a strip joint,” although the actress in the scene removed only her necklace.

Once in a while, stars could be temperamental. Bette Davis, appearing as a woman travelling with dancers in a 1959 episode of the television series Wagon Train, wanted to do a slow-tempo cancan. Nelson sent word, through the producer, that such a performance would be unflattering. Davis relented. “That’s an old trick I use once in a while,” Nelson wrote in a memoir, My Life Dancing With the Stars, published in 2009. “If some stars think they won’t look good, they’ll listen.”

During much of Nelson’s career, choreography was a primarily male profession. Even Judy Garland had never worked with a female choreographer before when the two collaborated on a TV show.

“She was terribly worried about it,” Nelson recalled. “She thought I’d have her dance like some ‘damned ballerina.’” Things worked out fine.

Miriam Lois Frankel was born in Chicago on September 21, 1919, the only child of Daniel Frankel, a salesman who later produced nightclub shows, and Miriam Elizabeth (Bly) Frankel, a seamstress who went on to a showbusiness wardrobe department career.

The Frankels separated when their daughter was eight, but they remained friendly, eventually reconciled and moved to New York when Miriam was 15. She took tap lessons from a dance instructor who lived in their apartment building.

A high school dropout, Miriam was soon hired for a vaudeville act, recommended by a friend. She appeared in the New York version of Billy Rose’s Casa Mañana dinner theatre, where one of her dancing partners was Van Johnson. At 19 she made her Broadway debut in Sing Out the News (1938), a musical revue, with June Allyson, whose songs included Sing Ho for Private Enterprise.

As Miriam Franklyn (sometimes Franklin), she appeared in six broadway shows, including another revue, George White’s Scandals (1939), whose cast also included Ann Miller and the Three Stooges; and two Cole Porter musicals, Panama Hattie (1940), starring Ethel Merman, and Let’s Face It! (1941), with Danny Kaye.

Even in those days, she recalled, she would ask the shows’ choreographers about their work.

In 1941, two weeks after Pearl Harbour, she married Gene Nelson, a fellow dancer and actor. They moved to Los Angeles for his wartime work with the Signal Corps, and good luck followed. Having lunch at Paramount one day with a friend, she ran into a New York pal and came home with a seven-year acting-dancing contract.

Nelson’s on-screen appearances included Lady in the Dark (1944), a straight acting role as Edward G. Robinson’s secretary in Double Indemnity (1944) and versatile dance work in Duffy’s Tavern (1945).

After the Nelsons divorced in 1956, she took up choreography full time. Her television projects included The Red Skelton Hour, Father Knows Best, the lucy show, the love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.

Nelson’s first credited bigscreen choreography was on Blake Edwards’ He Laughed Last (1956), a crime comedy about a chorus girl. Her final screen credit was Out of the Cold, a romantic drama starring Keith Carradine, released on DVD in 2001.

She was married to Jack Meyers, a producer, from 1965 until his death in 1988. Her survivors include a son, Chris Nelson; three grandsons; and a great-granddaughter.

Nelson stayed busy in all aspects of the business — doing projects for Disneyland and the Oscar telecast, coaching a pre-cheers Ted Danson for Aramis commercials and even “feet-dubbing.”

A 2004 op-ed essay in The New York Times about lipsyncing mentioned the film industry’s practice of using dancers to overdub the sounds of tapping and called Nelson “one of the best of them”. She was sometimes referred to as the Marni Nixon of tap, a reference to the soprano who dubbed many film stars’ singing voices.

People often asked Nelson if she planned to retire fully. “Not as long as the phone keeps ringing,” she wrote in her memoir. She was still tap dancing, her friend Frank reported, the week before her death.

She choreographed the mad cap party scene in breakfast at tiffany’ s and also appeared in it as-a glamorous party guest