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It was on her 20th birthday that Bonnie Scott signed the contract to create the role of "Rosemary" in the original Broadway production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying".
Bonnie Ann Paul was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Blanche and Albert Paul. The family of four, which included her older brother Jordan Paul, moved to Los Angeles in 1945. For eight days, the family traveled across the country, with all of their belongings, in a 1932 Ford that had no trunk, air conditioning or radio.
Little Bonnie had been joyfully singing and dancing since the age of 2. Beginning at age 8, she performed live on the weekly ABC-TV show, Soapbox Theatre, for two years. Bonnie appeared in the films, Vicki (1953) for 20th Century-Fox, Beware, My Lovely (1952) for RKO, Love Is Better Than Ever (1952) for MGM, and Dondi (1961) for Allied Artists. On television, she was seen on The Jerry Lewis Show (1957), Playhouse 90 (1956), The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952), American American Bandstand (1952), and Groucho Marx's show, You Bet Your Life (1950). At 15, Bonnie changed her name from Bonnie Paul to Bonnie Scott, when she began recording for RCA Records, because there was a Bunny Paul recording on Capitol Records. She toured the country for ten days promoting her first record, played LA clubs and, at 17, after completing high school, began a three-month engagement singing in the lounge at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas.
On stage in Hollywood, Bonnie performed in four off-Vine Street musicals, starting with "Going Up" at age 13, where she stopped the show every night. The next musical was "Best Foot Forward", then "Paint Your Fingers" and "Vintage '60". Broadway producer David Merrick brought "Vintage '60" to New York, and, although it closed before the end of the first week, it brought her lovely notices from the New York critics. Richard Watts Jr. wrote in his New York Post review, "And a tall, beautiful brunette named Bonnie Scott is a performer of notable attractiveness".
Back in LA again, Bonnie entertained four nights a week at the "23 Skidoo", with songs from the Roaring '20s. It was a beer hall near UCLA that had no stage -- so she performed atop the piano. The William Morris Agency placed her name on a list of female singers the agency was sending to audition for producer Cy Feuer, who was in town looking for a leading lady for his upcoming Broadway musical. Rumor had it that "pretty perky" Peggy King was just about set for the part but it wasn't a done deal. At the audition, while everyone else was singing more standard fare, Bonnie decided to sing one of her comedy songs from the 1920s, "How Could Red Riding Hood Have Been So Very Good And Still Keep The Wolf From Her Door?"
At first, Feuer looked confused. But then he burst out laughing. When the song ended, he made Bonnie an offer: "cut your hair like Jackie Kennedy and I'll fly you to New York to audition". Before she knew it, she was on a New York stage spending her 20th birthday auditioning for the role of a lifetime. After singing "Red Riding Hood" for Feuer, Ernest Martin, Frank Loesser, and many others associated with the production, Abe Burrows came up onstage with Bonnie. He put her through what were his well-known, standard vocal paces, by having her sing the first two notes of "Blue Skies" higher and higher up the scale. Frank Loesser loved big voices and Bonnie's voice made him very happy. Feuer then congratulated her on getting the female lead and everyone in the theatre sang Happy Birthday to Bonnie. "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", with Bonnie as the female lead "Rosemary", opened on Broadway on October 14, 1961 to unanimous rave reviews. The next day, Pinkerton guards had to be hired to keep order in the long lines of people waiting to buy tickets. "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" was the biggest smash hit since "My Fair Lady" in 1956. "How to Succeed..." went on to win every major award, including the Pulitzer Prize.
After the opening, Bonnie met and married Robert Parker Hutchins II, one of the backers of "How to Succeed..." In June 1962, she left the show when her pregnancy intervened. Prior to her leaving, Feuer requested Bonnie sign a contract to return to "How to Succeed..." in one year. He was less than pleased when Bonnie declined. It was a gut-wrenching, difficult decision for her because she loved the show and performing in it. But she knew she was heading into uncharted territory and had no idea how she'd feel in a year. It turned out to be the right decision as Bonnie wound up having twins and a marriage headed for the rocks. She was succeeded by Michele Lee, who later played the role in the film. (Dyan Cannon played the part in the first U.S. road company.)
Now a single mother, Bonnie and the twins moved back to LA in early 1966 to be near her family. She soon signed for a co-starring role on TV's That Girl (1966) as Marlo Thomas neighbor, Judy. After the first season of working twelve to eighteen hour days, she left the show in order to devote her time to being mom to three-year-old Wendy and Douglas. From then on, Bonnie worked only infrequently, with guest roles on He & She (1967), The Streets of San Francisco (1972), and others.
Bonnie married Jon Armstrong, a public finance investment banker, in 1978. While the twins were away in college, Bonnie attended the UCLA School of Design for four years and began another burgeoning career. Her design work appeared in and on the cover of many publications. However, a congenital heart problem progressively deteriorated throughout her life until she was in heart failure. In 1994, her heart was repaired by a brilliant cardiac surgeon and his team at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center using a titanium ring, a Gortex cord and the hands of a true artist. Since 1988, The Armstrongs have lived in northern California, where Bonnie manages the family investment portfolio, and relaxes with her art, cooking, gardening and Norwich Terriers.
