There’s No Place Like Home

Has it really been 16 years since she last performed in Southern California?

True, confirmed Mitzi Gaynor, recalling her 1972 booking at the Valley Music Theatre, an intimate Woodland Hills theater-in-the-round that also served as a boxing arena on occasions.

“I love working at a theater-in-the-round,” she said. “There’s a lot of camaraderie between you and the audience. There’s a constant contest going on.”

Gaynor will have considerable more leg room today and Sunday when she takes over the spacious Terrace Theater in Long Beach for a three-show concert.

Presented by the Long Beach Civic Light Opera and produced by Gaynor’s manager-husband, Jack Bean, the performances will feature a musical tribute to Irving Berlin in a belated celebration of his 100th birthday. Her long friendship with Berlin and the urging of friends and relatives persuaded Gaynor to accept the Long Beach engagement.

“I’ve never wanted to play in my hometown,” said Gaynor, who is sandwiching the weekend appearances between her two-week concert run that opened June 14 in Flint, Mich.

When on the road, Gaynor takes no chances on unfamiliar surfaces which could prove hazardous when tap-dancing; she takes her roll-up linoleum “stage” with her.

On the road four or five months each year, Gaynor, at 55, seems to have lost little ambition or energy after 43 years in the profession. She launched her career with the corps de ballet of the L.A. Civic Light Opera at 12.

Despite her dedication to her career (she updates her acts frequently and keeps trim with daily workouts in her home gym), she also enjoys her role as a Beverly Hills housewife--and so does Bean, her husband of 34 years.

“I’m Mitzi Gaynor on the road and Mrs. Jack Bean at home,” the entertainer said. “Jack says I am a cook who can sing and dance.