Imogene Coca

Born Emogeane Coca in Philadelphia in 1908 of Spanish descent, the only child of Joseph F. Coca Jr. (his surname was originally Fernández y Coca), a violinist and vaudeville orchestra conductor, and Sarah "Sadie" Brady, a dancer and magician's assistant, she took lessons in piano, dance, and voice as a child and while still a teenager moved from Philadelphia to New York City to become a dancer. In 1925, still aged 16, she landed her first job in the chorus of the Broadway musical When You Smile. She became a headliner in Manhattan nightclubs with music arranged by her first husband, Bob Burton. She gained prominence when she combined music with comedy; her first critical success was in New Faces of 1934. A well-received part of her act was a comic striptease, during which Coca made sultry faces and gestures but would manage to remove only one glove. She committed this routine to film in the Educational Pictures comedy short The Bashful Ballerina (1937). She received excellent notices for her Educational short Dime a Dance. In a review headlined "Swell Comic Scores", Film Daily wrote: "A real comedienne who will wow the cash customers with her zany antics, Imogene Coca is in a class all by herself, and her style of comedy does not suggest that of any other funster on the screen". Three other newcomers to films — Danny Kaye, June Allyson, and Barry Sullivan — were featured in the short, filmed at Educational's New York studio. ==Television==

Imogene Coca was one of network television's first comics. She starred in an early ABC series, Buzzy Wuzzy, which lasted four episodes in 1948. She played opposite Sid Caesar on The Admiral Broadway Revue (January to June 1949), and then in the sketch comedy program Your Show of Shows (1950 to 1954), which was immensely popular, winning the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series in 1952 and 1953. The 90-minute show was aired live on NBC every Saturday night in prime time. In addition to performing with Caesar on this program, she frequently starred in parodies of classic ballets opposite dancer and choreographer James Starbuck. She won the second-ever Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress in 1952 (before genre-specific acting categories were created) and was nominated for four other Emmys for her work in the show. She won a 1953 Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. The Caesar-Coca partnership might have continued, but the network tried to generate more revenue by spinning off Coca into her own series. The Imogene Coca Show ran for one year (1954 to 1955). Coca appeared in a number of literary adaptations for children. In 1960, she was Miss Clavel in Sol Saks' adaptation of Ludwig Bemelmans' Madeline for ''Shirley Temple's Storybook. In 1972, she voiced the character of Princess Jane Klockenlocher in The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye'', a Rankin/Bass version of Hans Christian Andersen's ''The Emperor's New Clothes. In 1978, she appeared in A Special Sesame Street Christmas. In 1985, she played The Cook in Alice in Wonderland, an all-star TV miniseries adaptation of the book by Lewis Carroll. Among her final roles was voicing characters in Garfield and Friends''. In 1988, Coca appeared as the mother of Allyce Beasley's Agnes in the Moonlighting episode "Los Dos Dipestos", written by David Steinberg. She received her sixth Emmy nomination, as Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series, for the role. The same year she was the female recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy at the second annual American Comedy Awards, alongside male recipient George Burns. Coca appeared only sporadically in films such as The Incredible Incident at Independence Square, filmed in her hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), Nothing Lasts Forever, Papa Was a Preacher, Buy & Cell, and ''National Lampoon's Vacation'' (1983), as "Aunt Edna". ==Personal life and legacy==

at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park. Coca had no children, but was married twice: for 20 years to Bob Burton, from 1935 until his death in 1955, and later for 27 years to King Donovan, from 1960 until his death in 1987. Burton's death came only one month after her mother had died. Coca was a practicing Roman Catholic. Hours after Coca and Donovan completed their New Year's Eve 1972 performance of "Fourposter" at the Showboat Dinner Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida, they were involved in a serious auto accident. They had been driving in foggy weather to their home in Clearwater, Florida when Donovan collided with another car driven by 19-year-old Cheryl Lynn Rice. Rice was unharmed, but Donovan sustained a slight leg injury, and the rear-view mirror entered Coca's right eye, smashing her cheekbone. Transported to the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, Coca underwent plastic surgery and a cosmetic lens covered her blind eye for the rest of her career, which resumed with her long stint in Broadway's On the Twentieth Century beginning in 1978. Performers citing Coca as an influence include Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Tracey Ullman. Your Show of Shows is considered a television classic and was the basis for a well-received 1982 film, My Favorite Year. A 1992 musical version of the film ran on Broadway, in which comedic actress Andrea Martin won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Alice Miller. In 1995, Coca was honored with the second annual Women in Film Lucy Award, honoring women's achievements in television and named after Lucille Ball. ==Death==

On June 2, 2001, Coca died at her home in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 92 from natural causes incidental to Alzheimer's disease. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered. ==Filmography==

Television • Buzzy Wuzzy (1948; ran for four weeks) • The Admiral Broadway Revue (1949–1950) • Your Show of Shows (139 episodes 1950–1954) • The Imogene Coca Show (1954–1955) • Playhouse 90 ("Made in Heaven" 1956) • General Electric Theater ("Cab Driver" 1957) • Sid Caesar Invites You (1958, U.S.) • Sid Caesar Invites You (1958, UK [BBC]) • The George Gobel Show (4 episodes 1959–1960) • ''Shirley Temple's Storybook: Madeline'' (1960) • Grindl (32 episodes 1963–1964) • ''It's About Time'' (18 episodes 1966–1967) • The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special (1967) • The Carol Burnett Show (4 episodes 1967–1969) • Love, American Style (2 episodes 1970, 1972) • Bewitched (2 episodes 1971) • ''Rod Serling's Night Gallery (The Merciful)- with husband, King Donovan''. • ''The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes'' (1972) • The Brady Bunch ("Aunt Jenny" - 1972) • The Incredible Incident at Independence Square • Trapper John, M.D. ("Quarantine" 1980) • ''Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner'' (1981) • Return of the Beverly Hillbillies (1981) • Fantasy Island ("Curtain Call" 1983) • ''Mama's Family'' ("Aunt Gert Rides Again" 1983) • One Life to Live (cast member from 1983–1984) • As the World Turns (cast member in 1983) • Alice in Wonderland (1985) • Moonlighting ("Los Dos Dipestos" 1988) • Monsters ("The Face" 1989) • Garfield and Friends (Voice, 14 episodes 1994) • Comic Relief VI (1994) Film • Bashful Ballerina (1937) • Dime a Dance (1937) • They Meet Again (1941) • Promises! Promises! (1963) • Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963) • 10 from Your Show of Shows (1973) • Rabbit Test (1978) • ''National Lampoon's Vacation'' (1983) • Nothing Lasts Forever (1984) • Papa Was a Preacher (1985) • Buy & Cell (1987) • Hollywood: The Movie (1996) • Her Alibi (1989) uncredited in court room Broadway • When You Smile (1925) Imogene • Garrick Gaieties (1930) • Shoot the Works (1931) • Flying Colors (1932–1933) Jo-Jo, Miss Maris • New Faces of 1934 (1934, with Henry Fonda) • Fools Rush In (1934–1935) • New Faces of 1936 (1936) • ''Who's Who'' (1938) • The Straw Hat Revue (1939, with Danny Kaye, Jerome Robbins) • All In Fun (1940) Dancer, Esther, Mrs. Burton, Nymph, The Derelict • Concert Varieties (1945) • Janus (1955–1956) Jessica • The Girls in 509 (1958–1959) Mimsy • On The Twentieth Century (1978–1979) Letitia Primrose Music video • Bag Lady (1984 EBN-OZN)) The Bag Lady Selected regional theater, national tours • Bubbling Over (1926) • Queen High (1928) • Up to the Stars (1935) • Calling All Men (1937) • A Night at the Folies Bergere (1940) • Happy Birthday (1948) • Wonderful Town (1954) Ruth • The Great Sebastians (1957) • Once Upon a Mattress (1960–61) • A Thurber Carnival (1961–62) • Caesar-Coca Revue (1961–62) • Bells Are Ringing (1962) • Luv (1967) • ''You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running'' (1968–69) • Why I Went Crazy (1969) • A Girl Could Get Lucky (1970) • The Rivals (1972) Mrs. Malaprop • The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1973–74, with husband King Donovan) • "Plaza Suite" ( c. 1976 Tidewater Dinner Theatre of The Stars, with King Donovan) • ''Makin' Whoopee'' (1981, with Mamie Van Doren) • The Gin Game (1984) • My Old Friends (1985) • On the Twentieth Century (1986–87) Letitia Primrose ==References==