page_title: Julie Andrews
section_title: Early career in the United States
hierarchical_section_title: Julie Andrews / Career / Early career in the United States
caption_attribution_description: Scene from the original Broadway production of the musical Camelot. Pictured are Julie Andrews as Guenevere and Richard Burton as Arthur.
context_page_description: Dame Julie Andrews DBE is an English actress, singer and author. Andrews, a child actress and singer, appeared in the West End in 1948 and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, and in 1952 she voiced Princess Zeila in the Italian animated film The Singing Princess. Billed as "Britain's youngest prima donna", she rose to prominence starring in Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady playing Eliza Doolittle and Camelot playing Queen Guinevere. In 1957 Andrews starred in the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's written-for-television musical Cinderella, a live, network broadcast seen by over 100 million viewers. Andrews made her feature film debut in Mary Poppins and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role. She starred in The Sound of Music, playing Maria von Trapp and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
  Between 1964 and 1986 she starred in The Americanization of Emily, Hawaii, Torn Curtain, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Star!, The Tamarind Seed, 10, S.O.B., Victor/Victoria, That's Life! and Duet for One. After 1986 her workload decreased, appearing in two films in 1991 and not again until 2000.
context_section_description: On 30 September 1954, on the eve of her 19th birthday, Julie Andrews made her Broadway debut portraying Polly Browne in the already highly successful London musical The Boy Friend. To the critics, Andrews was the stand-out performer in the show. Near the end of her Boy Friend contract, as a Londoner Andrews was asked to audition for the role of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway and got the part. In November 1955, Andrews was signed to appear with Bing Crosby in what one source calls the first made-for-television film, High Tor, which aired on the Ford Star Jubilee in March 1956.
  Andrews auditioned for a part in the Richard Rodgers musical Pipe Dream. Although Rodgers wanted her for Pipe Dream, he advised her to take the part in the Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner musical My Fair Lady if it were offered to her. In 1956, she appeared on stage in My Fair Lady as Eliza Doolittle to Rex Harrison's Henry Higgins. Rodgers was so impressed with Andrews' talent that concurrent with her run in My Fair Lady she was featured in the Rodgers and Hammerstein television musical, Cinderella.
  Cinderella was broadcast live on CBS on 31 March 1957 under the musical direction of Alfredo Antonini and had an estimated 107 million viewers. The show was broadcast in colour from CBS Studio 72, at 2248 Broadway in New York City. Only a black-and-white kinescope remains, which has been released on DVD. Andrews was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance.
  In 1957, Andrews released her debut solo album, The Lass with the Delicate Air, which harked back to her British music hall days. The album includes performances of English folk songs as well as the World War II anthem, "London Pride", a patriotic song written by Noël Coward in 1941 during the Blitz, which Andrews herself had survived.
  Between 1956 and 1962, Andrews guest-starred on The Ed Sullivan Show (15 July 1956), and also appeared on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, What's My Line?, The Jack Benny Program, The Bell Telephone Hour and The Garry Moore Show. In June 1962, Andrews co-starred in Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall, a CBS special with Carol Burnett.
  In 1960, Lerner and Loewe again cast her in a period musical as Queen Guinevere in Camelot, along with Richard Burton (as King Arthur) and newcomer Robert Goulet. However, because film studio head Jack L. Warner decided Andrews lacked sufficient name recognition for her casting in the film version of My Fair Lady, Eliza was instead played by the established film actress Audrey Hepburn. As Warner later recalled, the decision was easy, "In my business, I have to know who brings people and their money to a cinema box office. Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop."
caption: Andrews as Queen Guinevere with Richard Burton as King Arthur in the musical Camelot
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