Rose Marie Estate & Family Celebrates 100th Birthday of Stage/TV & Film Icon

The estate of Rose Marie is launching a centennial celebration honoring the star of stage, screen, radio and television whose career spanned 90 years from Baby Rose Marie in vaudeville, to Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show, to the top center square in The Hollywood Squares and the subject of the acclaimed documentary “Wait For Your Laugh.”

The celebration begins with the August 11, 2023 release of Rose Marie SINGS: THE COMPLETE MERCURY RECORDINGS & MORE from Sepia Records in association with the Rose Marie estate. Among the 29 classic recordings and rarities are favorite showtunes, standards and novelty songs – all available on compact disc for the first time. Some may only know Rose Marie as the comedienne from “The Dick Van Dyke Show” who occasionally sang, and not realize that she started in the business as a singer with her own radio show at the age of three. For decades prior to her television stardom she was primarily known as a singer opening Las Vegas, headlining the top nightclubs, and performing with the country’s best musicians.

Rose Marie’s daughter, Georgiana “Noopy” Guy Rodrigues, elaborates: “Just in time to celebrate her centennial year, we’re so happy to finally have a compilation of my mother’s music which her fans have been requesting for years.” In addition to her Mercury recordings dating to the 1940s and 1950s, there are many exciting and previously unreleased songs from her personal archives from her early career on radio and into the 1960s after she became a big television star. Mother accomplished so much in her long, amazing career in show business from childhood into her 90s. She loved her fans and would be thrilled to know that we’re still being responsive to them and continuing the conversations she started when she was three,” exclaims Rodrigues.

The new album also offers photographs and clippings from Rose Marie’s scrapbooks, including a compliment from composer George Gerwshin, who stated, “In my opinion, only five American female singers really comprehend modern rhythm. They are Baby Rose Marie, Mildred Bailey, Sophie Tucker, Ethel Merman and Aunt Jemima.  “I think the collection shows Mom’s phenomenal musicianship, her jazz sensibilities perfected during her days as Baby Rose Marie and the breadth of her versatility in being able to sing just about anything,” adds Rodrigues.

A virtual online release party for the album will take place on the official Rose Marie YouTube channel youtube.com/holdtheroses at 8:00 PM Eastern Time/5:00 PM Pacific Time on her August 15th birthday. It will be hosted by her daughter and feature rare video clips from her mother’s archives in addition to a discussion about the musical side of Rose Marie with friends, fans and famous faces.

August 15th will also begin the first of the 100 days of “Rose Marie Facts” which will be shared each day on her social media accounts. “We’ve been jotting down trivia for months about Mom that we will think fans will find interesting,” reports Rodrigues. More events and projects commemorating Rose Marie’s centennial will be follow.