People to Know - Mary Martin

Mary Martin was born in 1913 and was a singer and actress who struggled for many years, as do many actresses. She sang in many clubs and on the radio and landed her first show in 1938 in Leave It to Me! She was lucky in originating the roles of many famous musicals. She was Ensign Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. Martin is probably most known for her title role in Peter Pan, which she played on Broadway and later on TV. Mary toured the country in Annie Get Your Gun and won the special Tony Award for “spreading Broadway to the rest of the Country.” She also won Tony Awards for Peter Pan, The Sound of Music and South Pacific. Martin often turned down the roles for the movie adaptations of musicals because she didn’t like the disconnect of the audience that movies had.