Our Legendary Line of Long-Legged Lovelies
At age 18 Jill Owens
The Dance Captain of the Follies is Jill Owens, 68, now in her 12th season as a Long-Legged Lovely. She first made the jump from Davenport, Iowa, to the bright lights of national television as a June Taylor Dancer on The Jackie Gleason Show. Moving on to Broadway, she appeared in No, No Nanette (with Ruby Keeler), Pippin (with Ben Vereen) and Tip Toes. She assumed the role of "Misty Knight" on the TV show, Blansky's Beauties, with Nancy Walker, and had parts in Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley.
Jill has performed as a Bob Fosse Dancer and a Radio City Rockette, and her film credits include Pennies from Heaven, Ritzville and Young Doctors in Love.
Jill and her husband, Kenneth White, now divide their time between Palm Springs (with the Follies, naturally), New York, and Los Angeles.
What is your favorite Follies memory? "One year during our holiday show, we did a number wearing penguin costumes. One of our ladies – who shall remain nameless – tripped in the big penguin shoes and couldn't get up. She ended up crawling off stage on all fours. In hindsight, it was hilarious!"
MORE FUN FACTS:
- Jill's interests, aside from dancing and voice training, run to such eclectic pursuits as quantum physics, Tai Chi, aerobics and painting.
- Her husband is an accomplished artist in wood when not looking after their two golden retrievers, Sandy and Bailey.
- The most interesting experience of her career was watching the great Bob Fosse at work on choreography: "He would talk a dancer into and through a great performance."
- Two weeks after the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helen's in Washington, Jill played the lead in a short film, Ritzville, about a town covered with ash. She wore a mask between takes to keep from breathing ash and getting hoarse.
- While performing a Las Vegas-style number for Blansky's Beauties, Jill's rhinestone earrings and bracelets got hooked in the feathers of the dancer next to her, who just pulled her along. She recalls other girls getting their headdresses caught in drapes and being yanked off stage. Anything for a laugh.
- During the Follies' nine-show weeks, she relaxes every morning with a strong cup of coffee, followed by 15 minutes of aerobics to get her muscles tuned.
- There's nothing Jill would do over in her life. "With distance," she says, "nothing seems that important to change. Maybe the light bulbs."
