Nina Russell
Nina Russell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Teresa Ventimiglia November 24, 1930 New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 19, 2019 (aged 89) |
| Occupation | TV writer, actress, dancer |
| Period | 1958 – 1970 |
| Spouse | Ralph Dilena m. circa 1950; ? Paul Winchell m. 1961; div. 1972 Jerry Moore m. 1975 |
| Children | 3, including April Winchell |
Nina Russell (born Teresa Ventimiglia;[1][2] November 24, 1930[3][4] – December 9, 2019) was an American television writer, actress, dancer and model, who collaborated extensively with her husband, ventriloquist-comedian Paul Winchell, as a regular writer—and sometime cast member—of Winchell-Mahoney Time (1965–1968), and, prior to that, KABC-TV's The Paul Winchell Show (1963-1964).[5][6][7] Earlier still, Russell participated in one of the original Steve Allen Show's more notable episodes, NBC-TV's first live broadcast from Cuba. Russell is the mother of voice actress and radio host April Winchell.
Early life and career
[edit]In June 1961, Back Stage's Marlene Pendleton informed readers that Russell "is a real Miss!"
She's been "Miss Playgirl" for Playboy Magazine, "Miss Lookalike" for Ava Gardner, as well as being on TV as an actress, comedienne for the past three years. That's Nina in Earl Wilson's column this week; jack of all trades, master of all.[8]
In fact, the pertinent—and considerably briefer—Wilson excerpt differs in specifying Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida's likeness as the object of the contest in question, as well as including, in passing, the assertion that the "Copa girl" was "Sicilian-born".[9]
Wherever she came from, Russell's first big break in the U.S. came in January 1958, appearing in a landmark episode of The Steve Allen Show, airing live from Havana's Hotel Riviera, the first live broadcast of a major U.S. network TV program from Cuba. Russell performs in the episode's Man on the Street segment, alongside series regulars Don Knotts, Tom Poston, and Louis Nye.[10][11][12][a]
Meanwhile, despite Back Stage's June '61 mention of Russell "on TV as an actress, comedienne for the past three years," any specific instances of such work appear to have gone both uncredited and unreported at the time. By contrast, not quite one week after the Back Stage piece, news regarding Winchell's impending marital realignment and, in particular, Russell's role therein, began to emerge. Ironically, it was like-named but unrelated entertainment writer Walter Winchell[b] who broke the story, prominently displayed. "Copa doll Nina Russell tells chums she'll marry star ventriloquist, who reportedly divorced his mate for her."[15]
In April 1963, the premiere of KABC-TV's The Paul Winchell Show received a rave review from Variety'.
If the disarming air of spontaneity that characterized the premiere installment can be sustained and if novel, ingenious new ideas for exploring the imaginative sphere of children continue to be devised, then the series should spur the kind of word-of-mouth in family audience circles that could make it the dark horse click of the year [...] Orchids to Mr. Winchell for his sterling work. And much credit is also due co-writers George Kirgo and Nina Russell, director Wes Butler, set designer Bob Johnson and all others involved [...] [I]f all goes well and the basic idea is explored for its fullest and most rewarding possibilities, [it] could conceivably graduate to network status at some future time.[16]
Rosy projections notwithstanding, the series scarcely made it to the new year, discontinued after the second January installment. On March 21 of that year, the Hollywood Palace episode featuring vocals of host Nat King Cole and guest Diahann Carroll also boasted an operating room sketch featuring Russell as the nurse to Winchell's doctor;[17] three months later, the couple trekked to Anaheim for a two-week engagement at the Anaheim Bowl.[18]
From 1965 through 1968, Russell directed and occasionally performed in Winchell-Mahoney Time.[19][20]
Personal life and death
[edit]As of April 1950, Russell (then Mrs. Tessie DiLena) was married to Ralph DiLena, an officer of the NYPD.[21] On October 5, 1961, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's Dauphin County Courthouse, DiLena—having, in the interim, adopted the stage name, Nina Russell—wed the recently divorced Paul Winchell, likewise embarking on his second marriage.[1] Their union produced one child, their frequent onscreen collaborator, April Winchell. They divorced in April 1972,[2] and from 1975 until her death, Russell was out of show business and married to Nevada resident Jerry Moore.[22]
Russell died "quietly in her sleep" on December 9, 2019, survived by her husband, her daughter April, and by two daughters from her first marriage.[23][24]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Exactly how Russell came to be cast in this episode is not known, but it may be worthy of note that the hosting venue, Havana's Hotel Riviera, had just opened the previous month, and had, in the interim, been commemorating that opening with a lavish inaugural revue starring Ginger Rogers, just the sort of production in which Russell—consistently described, pre-1961, as either Copa girl, chorus girl, or simply dancer—could easily have been employed.[13]
- ^ The respective birth names of latter and former being Walter Weinchel and Paul Wilchin.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Ventriloquist and Actress Wed at Courthouse". The Patriot-News. October 6, 1961. p. 1. "Television ventriloquist Paul Winchell, 38, and actress Nina Russell, 30, were married Thursday at Dauphin County Courthouse in the chambers of Judge Lee F. Swope. The couple eloped to Harrisburg from their homes in Whitestone, N.Y. They said they plan to stay here several days while Winchell takes flying lessons at the Carlisle Airport. It was the second marriage for both. The new Mrs. Winchell is the former Mrs. Tessie DiLena."
- ^ a b "California, Divorce Index, 1966-1984", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPRC-KSP : Tue Feb 25 15:48:14 UTC 2025), Entry for Tessie N Ventimiglia and Paul Winchell, Apr 1972.
- ^ "United States, Public Records, 1970-2009", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KTM2-G48 : 18 December 2019), Nina Tessie Moore, 1997.
- ^ "United States, Residence Database, 1970-2024", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6YSW-38Z1 : 17 June 2024), Tessie Moore, 2017.
- ^ "Mugging It Up". The Register Leisuretime Magazine. May 12, 1963. p. 15. "Ventriloquist Paul Winchell and his youngest daughter, April, aged 3, clown for the camera on his KABC-TV show (Sunday evenings at 7). Winchell, whose wife helps with the show, would like to try a unique video approach to emotional therapy for children."
- ^ Library of Congress (1961). Catalog of Copyright Entries. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1961. pp. 1244, 1492. "HE'S EQUIPPED; w Paul Winchell & Nina Russell; m John Russo. © Priscilla Music Corp., 3Aug61; EU681266. [...] "SHE JUST DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE; w Paul Winchell & Nina Russell; m John Russo. © Priscilla Music Corp., 3Aug61; EU681265."
- ^ Library of Congress (1970). Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series. Parts 3-4: Dramas and Works Prepared for Oral Delivery Jan-Dec 1970: Vol 24 No 1-2. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 39. "NIGHT NOISES, an animated cartoon for theatres by Paul Winchell. 13 1. Appl. authors: Paul Winchell & Nina Russell. © Paul Winchell; 22Apr70; DU76994."
- ^ Pendleton, Marlene (June 23, 1961). "BACKSTAGE at the COPA". Back Stage. p. 12. ProQuest 963319784.
- ^ Wilson, Earl (June 20, 1961). "It Happened Last Night; The Midnight Earl; Nina Russell". Newsday. p. 6C. "Copa girl Nina Russell, Sicilian-born, won a contest as a Lollobrigida lookalike."
- ^ "Television for the Week: Dancer Nina Murray". Los Angeles Mirror. January 18, 1958. pt. IV, p. 1 Retrieved April 22, 2025. "DANCER NINA RUSSELL interrupts Steve Allen's interview with the man on the street when show is seen from Cuba tomorrow at 8 p.m. Regulars (left to right) Tom Poston, Don Knotts and Louis Nye will help furnish local color. The Channel 4 variety show will star Mamie Van Doren, Lou Costello, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy."
- ^ "Frolic From Cuba". The Atlanta Journal. January 19, 1958. p. 3E. "Dancer Nina Russell rehearses with Tom Poston (left), Don Knotts (center) and Louis Nye for their Cuban 'Man on the Street' sequence as part of the Steve Allen show Sunday (8, WSB-TV). The show will originate 'live' in Havana, Cuba, to become the first major program to be telecast from the island to the U.S."
- ^ "Television & Radio: High Wind in Havana". Time Magazine. February 3, 1958. p. 64.
- ^ Lowinger, Rosa (October 7, 2016). "Rum, Gambling, and Showgirls: Six Historic Entertainment Venues in Havana, Cuba". National Trust for Historic Preservation. "The Habana Riviera was one of the last swanky hotel-casinos to be built before the Revolution, and the first centrally air-conditioned building in Cuba. Financed by Meyer Lansky, the oceanfront resort opened in December 1957 with a show starring Ginger Rogers, exactly one year before Fidel Castro shut down gambling and expropriated private property. Designed by a Miami Beach architect, the Riviera is flagrantly Hollywood Regency in style, a product of its designer Albert Parvin."
- ^ Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; McNeilly, Donald (2007). Vaudeville Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performances in America. New York: Routledge. p. 1224. ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2. "Paul Winchell. b: (Paul Wilchin) 21 December 1922, New York, NY. [...] Walter Winchell. b: (Walter Weinschel) 7 April 1897, New York, NY."
- ^ Winchell, Walter (June 29, 1961). "Broadway and Elsewhere". The Indianapolis Star. p. 31. "JEFF CHANDLER'S final exit aroused the editors of Limelight (a H'wood weekly), who ordered the staff to check the talk. Copa doll Nina Russell tells chums she'll wed a star ventriloquist, who reportedly divorced his mate for her."
- ^ Tube (April 3, 1963). "Television Reviews: Paul Winchell Show". Variety. p. 81. ProQuest 1032430444.
- ^ "Tonight's TV Previews: Sports crowd TV hours with top offerings". The Star-Ledger. March 21, 1964. p. 9. "HOLLYWOOD PALACE 9:30 7 It's a good night for music. With Nat King Cole in charge, and Diahann Carroll as chief guest, what else could you expect? [...] Paul Winchell—in a funny operating room scene, aided by Chris Quinn and Nina Russell—and a few minor acts round out the bill."
- ^ "At the 'Bowl'". The Orange County Register. June 14, 1964. p. LT-28. Retrieved April 16, 2025. "Paul Winchell, Jerry Mahoney and lovely Nina Russell are currently appearing at the Anaheim Bowl through June 24."
- ^ Miller, Quinlan (2019). Camp TV: Trans Gender Queer Sitcom History. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 127. ISBN 9781478003038. "In Winchell-Mahoney Time, NBC, written by Nina Russel, Winchell hosted and played characters like Bonehead Smiff, Mr. Goody-Goody"
- ^ Lerner, Patricia Klein (September 9, 1988). "Valley News: Ventriloquist's Ex-Wife Fails to Get Share of $17.8-Million Award ". The Los Angeles Times. pt. II, p. 11. Retrieved April 22, 2025. "Tessie Nina Moore, who was married to the ventriloquist for 11 years, contended that she was entitled to $8.9 million of the judgment Metromedia was ordered to pay Winchell for destroying tapes of his popular "Winchel-Mahoney Time" children's television show. [...] When the couple divorced, Moore, who wrote and performed in the show, agreed to $1,500 as her share of the corporation the couple used for business matters, said her attorney, Robert A. Kahn."
- ^ "United States, Census, 1950", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XY9-ZB43 : Tue Oct 03 10:44:39 UTC 2023), Entry for Ralph Dilena and Tessie Dilena, 1 April 1950.
- ^ "Nevada, Marriage Index, 1956-2005", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVG5-FZ8 : 20 September 2019), Nina Tessie Winchell and Jerry Walter Moore, 1975.
- ^ "Obituary Notices: Moore, Nina Tessie". The Los Angeles Times. December 26, 2019. p. B5. "."
- ^ "United States, Public Records, 1970-2009", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KT7K-9HG : 18 December 2019), Amber V Dilena, 1999.