Palm Springs Follies’ Glenda Guilfoyle Relishes All Roles
 Glenda Guilfoyle with nine of her ten grandchildren
 She reels them off in sequential order: “Stacy, Stephanie, Karin, Sean, Kurt and the twins, Victoria and Vanessa.” The oldest, Stacy, is 47 and a burgeoning fine artist of Hawaiian motifs.
They are the seven children of the classic septuagenarian hoofer who performs in the chorus line of “long-legged lovelies” for the long-running Fabulous Palm Springs Follies.
But wait. Add to her progeny ten grandchildren, from ages 20 to infancy, and again Glenda proudly recites and without a hitch: “Corey, Courtney, Brett, Connor, Maci, Ross, Shane, Kaitlyn, Abrielle and, the newest one, Lilyana.” She displays a sweater that she knitted for the baby. Between shows.
 With Donald O'Connor
While nurturing that brood in the matronly bubble of motherhood and grandmotherhood, Glenda, 74, has been dancing in the Follies for 13 seasons to cap a lifetime in show business that started 57 years ago.
 With daughter Karin
She was born in the Bronx to a show-business family that moved to San Bernardino, Calif., where Glenda graduated from St. Bernardine High School. Her father phoned Russell Markert, the originator of the famed Rockettes, and persuaded him to audition his dancing daughter. They all packed into the family car – mother, father, brother, Glenda, cat and dog – and drove straight through to New York. At 17 she was on stage, high-kicking with the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes for the next three years (and has since attended a Rockettes’ reunion).
 Age 21 backstage at Disneyland
 Glenda at age 20 on Radio City roof
Returning to California, the statuesque 5’7 ½” terpsichorean performed in Donn Arden’s Moulin Rouge in Hollywood, was personally handpicked by Walt Disney for his Golden Horseshoe Revueat the soon-to-open Disneyland, did TV specials with Fred Astaire and Dean Martin, appeared in movies such as The Music Manand Frank Sinatra’s Robin and the Seven Hoods, taught at dance academies and modeled. After many years as a divorced mother and the sole support of her family, she joined the Follies when the youngest twins finished high school and married.
 Age 21 The entire Guilfoyle clan gathers each year to see the Thanksgiving matinee then feasts afterwards. On her days off, she treks to the Los Angeles area to see them.
“My life,” she says, “is just the way I want it.”
What does ever-beaming Glenda Guilfoyle see when she peers out from her vantage perch on stage?
“A sea of glasses,” she chirpily describes the vastly geriatric audience.
|
