Sam Harris sings "Heart Of The Machine" from his first Motown album in 1984.There was no music video for this song, so enjoy the substitution footage from a dance routine featuring Gwen Verdon.Gwem Verdon found a job as assistant to choreographer Jack Cole, whose work was respected by both Broadway and major Hollywood movie studios. During her five-year employment with Cole, she took small roles in movie musicals as a "specialty dancer". She also gave dance instruction to performers who eventually became stars, such as Jane Russell, Gene Kelly, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe.Verdon started out on Broadway as a "gypsy", going from one chorus line to another. Her breakthrough role finally came when she was cast by choreographer Michael Kidd as the second female lead in Cole Porter's musical Can-Can (1953), which starred French prima donna Lilo. Out-of-town reviewers hailed Verdon's interpretation of Eve in the Garden of Eden ballet as a performance that upstaged the show's star, who jealously demanded Verdon's role be cut to only two featured dance numbers. With her role reduced to little more than an ensemble part, Verdon formally announced her intention to quit by the time the show premiered on Broadway. But her opening night Garden of Eden performance was so well-received, the audience screamed her name until the startled actress was brought out of her dressing room in her bathrobe to take a curtain call. Verdon received a pay increase and her first Tony Award for her triumphant performance.With flaming red hair and an irreverent attitude, Verdon was considered the best dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s. She would forever be identified with her role as the vampish "Lola" in Bob Fosse's Damn Yankees (1955), which is based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. In the play, Verdon played a Devil's disciple who entices a baseball aficionado to sell his soul to play for the Washington Senators. The musical ran for 1,019 performances. She won another Tony and went to Hollywood to repeat her role in the 1958 movie version, Damn Yankees.In 1966, Verdon returned to the stage in the role of Charity in Sweet Charity, which like many of her earlier Broadway triumphs was choreographed by longtime husband Bob Fosse. The show became a Broadway cult classic and was followed by a movie version starring Shirley MacLaine, Ricardo Montalban, Sammy Davis Jr. and Chita Rivera. Verdon helped choreograph the numbers, which included the legendary "Big Spender", the fast-paced "Rhythm of Life" and the show-stopping "If My Friends Could See Me Now".She and estranged husband Bob Fosse collaborated on projects like Chicago (1975) (in which she played murderess Roxie Hart) and the musical Dancin' (1978), as well as Fosse's autobiographical movie, All That Jazz (1979). She developed a close working relationship with Fosse's domestic companion, actress Ann Reinking, and instructed for Reinking's musical theatre classes.After playing Roxie Hart in Chicago, Verdon focused on acting, playing character roles in movies such as The Cotton Club (1984), Cocoon (1985) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). She continued to instruct dance and musical theatre and to act, including receiving three Emmy Award nominations for appearances on Magnum PI (1988), Dream On (1993) and Homicide (1993). Verdon appeared as the Alice's mother in the Woody Allen movie Alice (1990) and as Ruth in Marvin's Room (1996), co-starring Meryl Streep and Hume Cronyn. In 1999, Verdon served as artistic consultant on the stage biography of her late husband's life in theatre, the current stage musical Fosse, and her daughter Nicole received a "special thanks" credit. The show received a Tony for best musical.Verdon played Alora in the movie Walking Across Egypt (1999) and appeared in the movie Bruno, released in 2000.Verdon received a total of four Tonys, for Can-Can (1953), Damn Yankees (1955), New Girl in Town (1957) and Redhead (1959), a murder-mystery musical. She also won a Grammy Award for the cast recording of Redhead.

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