From Jeff Alexander…
Let me be among the 1,492 who are correcting you on an understandable error you made in your Bye Bye Birdie column. The 1963 movie was not Miss Ann-Margret's debut. She'd already scored major appearances in Pocketful of Miracles (1961) and State Fair (1962).
As much as Birdie was re-tooled to emphasize her, it does seem like it was her debut. Keep up the great work. I do enjoy your columns!!
You're right about everything, Jeff, except that it wasn't 1,492. More like 1,480. But thanks for the correction and you also reminded me that I've never told my Ann-Margret story on this blog. Three in the morning isn't a good time for me to be trying to write it out so I'll get to it in the next week or so, "or so" meaning (of course) before Christmas of this or some other year. Thanks to all of you.