The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-05-12
BY PAUL HARRISON
NEA Service Writer

- lust came natural" to Baby
Rose Marie. 5-year-old darling of
the radio, declares her mother.
1T just came natural 10 Rose
Marie" her mother said But it
was a long time before we ever
\ thought she'd be a professional
singer She always loved to go to
the movies. and especially vaude-
vile.
Then she'd beg me all day to play
| for her. and when daddy came home
at night we'd play show She'd
plant daddy across the room to be
/ the audience, and she'd dress up in
anything from my old clothes to
my new curtains and come out and
initiate the singers or movie stars
she'd seen that day"
Debut in NeighbOrhOod House
In a little neighborhood theater
near the Curley's apartment, Rose
Marie made her first public ap-
pearance. Many a performer has
been launched on the road to fame
by an Amateur Night" and she
was no exception.
Rose Marie was years old when
she stood before an audience of
hard-boiled east-siders and sang
the first song she ever learned:
What Can I Say. Dear, After I say
I'm Sorry?" The other amateurs
didn't have chance after that.
Little Miss Curley went home with
first prize.
How has she learned the verses
and choruses of more than seventy
five popular songs? Even her
parents don't know.
Credit Due Parents
But given her natural aptitude
for music, and a mentality de-
scribed by a Columbia university
psychologist as phenomenal"
there's still a lot of credit due the
parents who have brought her,
normal and virtually unspoiled,
through three years of such I'M
natural experiences.
In the first place." explained
Papa Curley, I'VE don't force any
thing on her. A song may sound
to us as though it might have
been written especially for her.
But if Rose Marie doesn't like it
when she hears it the first time
that's all there is to it.
'She gets a lot of her stuff right
off the radio, without any help
from us. Being in the sheet rnu-
sic business, I pick up quite lot
of numbers, and those she likes
we play for her over and over.
It's no trouble to get her to prac-
tice We have to stop her. lots of
times to keep her from overwork-A
ing"
Not Good for Kids
Most of this popular stuff now
adays is kinda suggestive, you
know, and not exactly appropriate
for a kid of s. So when we come
to these places I make up some
new lyrics, or take out some words
that wouldn't sound just right.
One ledInS-
over in the park, where we play"
broke in Rose Marie, Il teach some
of the kids how TO sing, too. But
they're not so hot.
There was a boy over there one
day. and he told me it wasn't nice
to try to sing these grown-up songs.
That's what he said: it wasn't nice.
I smacked him good!"
Pronounces Words Clearly
Much of Rose Marie's radio sue
cess has been due to the clarity
of her enunciation. The reason is
simple: her parents never spoke to
her in baby-talk, nor allowed her
to use it.
"She hasn't been sick day in
her life" said Mr.. Curley. weighs
f1fty-six pounds now, and is more
than three and a half feet tall.
I'VE give her very little meat,
plenty of vegetables and lots of
milk. No. no spinach. We see that
she totals twelve hours or more
sleep every day, but have to leave
the radio on when she goes to bed"
And sometimes" said Rose Ma
RE. they play some NV pieces,
and I get so hot and bothered that
1 want to get up again."
Shines as Swimmer
"Swims like a fish," continued
her father. Gets plenty of exer-
else with the kids, too. But she
keeps herself clean and will spend
an hour in the tub, all the time
warbling Singing in ne Bathtub.'"
Up the street is a parochial school
where Rose Marie started to kin
dergarten not long ago. They tell
how she came running home after
the first day.
Mother" she said. that teacher
amt so hot. She wanted us to sing,
and 1 found out she didn't know
a single one of my numbers!"