One of the most prolific Broadway stars lives right in the neighborhood, I drove up to one of the Park La Brea Towers to meet with the accomplished stage and motion picture actress, Patricia Morison. She is 95 years young and has the mind of a 40 year old.

A portrait of Patricia Morison shows the stricking beauty of the former Broadway star. (photo courtesy of Patricia Morison)

“I’m terrific from the waist up,” she replied when I greeted her “but it’s a bloody bore with these bum legs.”

Ten years ago, Morison when she was struck by a car that sent her flying. The right side of her body from head to toe was crushed.

“Can you believe a nurse hit me while I was in the cross walk?” Morison said.  She was hospitalized for three weeks and endured months of physical therapy and two hip replacements that don’t allow her to move as gracefully as she did on Broadway starring in “Kiss Me, Kate” or dance as elegantly as she did with Yul Brenner in “The King and I”.

In 1948, Morison landed the role of the original Lilli Vanessi in “Kiss Me, Kate”, after her manager took her to Cole Porter’s home in Brentwood to sing.

“I purposely chose a Rogers and Hammerstein song, just in case I messed up on one of Porter’s songs,” Morison added.

Porter was so enchanted with Morison that he handed her the script.  It was difficult to find financing for the show, because no one thought a Shakespeare musical would work, but it became an overnight sensation when it opened in Philadelphia.  She performed in almost 1,500 performances on Broadway and in London.

Richard Rogers offered Morison the role of Anna Leonowens in the original Broadway production of “The King and I” with Yul Brynner, shortly after Gertrude Lawrence passed away in 1952 while performing the lead character. Morison idolized Gertrude Lawrence. She fondly remembers paying a quarter to stand in the back of the theater to watch her perform in other Broadway productions.

“Yul Brynner was an interesting man,” Morison said. “He spoke four languages and was a true professional on stage.”

The first day she met with the actor, he was in his dressing room. She knocked on the door and opened it to find Brynner sitting naked, in a Buddha style position, waiting to get his skin stained with a special juice to look like the King of Siam.  He later told her that it was a pleasure working with her on eight shows a week. He said that he had been doing the show for so long that barnacles had grown on him, but she revived his “creative juices”.

“My dress in the ‘Shall We Dance’ scene weighed over 60 pounds,” Morison said. It took three women to help her get dressed in her costume. “I wore a towel around my waist, then a corset, and then the dress.  When I took the costume off, I would wring the towel out.  It was so wet from perspiration.”

Her costume couldn’t fit in her dressing room because it was so grand. Instead, it was hung with the backstage scenery.

“The hoop skirt was made of bamboo and not flexible like the ones today,” Morison said.

However, because it was so rigid, she said it helped her walk like a lady of that period.

Growing up in Manhattan, Morison was a very talented artist and painter. At the age of 16 she won a scholarship to study art in Paris.  However, she told her mother that she wanted to stay in New York and become an actress.  Her mother got her into the Neighborhood Playhouse with Edmond O’Brien and Martha Graham.  She performed in her first Broadway production when she was 19 in the operetta “The Two Bouquets” with Alfred Drake.  Talent scouts noticed her beauty and talent and approached her to test for Metro and Paramount Studios. Drake told her “Don’t go out to California, they won’t know what to do with you,” Morison added. She signed with Paramount and made her first feature film in 1939.

“I usually played the dark-haired, glamorous ‘bitch’ roles,” said Morison with a laugh.  Years later when she returned to stage, Drake co-starred with her in “Kiss Me, Kate”.

In 1942, she was one of the first performers, along with Al Jolson, Merle Oberon and Allen Jenkins, to entertain troops on the USO tour in Britain.

“We flew from New York to England on a Seaplane and met with President Eisenhower,” Morison said.

After “The King and I”, Morison continued to make movies and appeared on television.  At the age of 95, Morison said she doesn’t really know the key to longevity.

“I really don’t have a secret. I loved to run and walk.  I practiced yoga for the breathing training long before it was fashionable,” Morison added.  “I used to adore waking up at 5:30 a.m. and run to the Original Farmer’s Market for a cup of coffee at Charlie’s Coffee stand and then run home.”

Looking out at the Hollywood sights and landmarks from her 9th floor apartment, she wished she could go for a run today.  While not as physically active, she still has star quality.  She now wakes up at 6:30 a.m. every morning and reads The New York Times and Los Angeles Times from cover-to-cover.  On Thursdays she enjoys reading the Park LaBrea News. She still meets friends for lunch.

“I enjoy my interesting friends.  They all have a lust and joy for life,” Morison remarked.

Maybe that’s her secret – surrounding herself with happy and positive people. In the afternoon and early evening she likes to work in her art studio and paint. Pictures of Cole Porter, Yul Brynner, Vincent Price and other friends and family members hang on the wall.  I was drawn to a photo of Morison waiting in the wings on the stage of “The King and I”.

“Yul took that photo and entered it in a contest.  He won and gave me this copy that I cherish,” she said. “I’m a fortunate woman.”

This fiercely independent almost 96-year-old can still “Whistle a Happy Tune”.