Trivia

On an interview on Turner Classic Movies, she told a story about how each time she needed to dress for a dance on screen, the tops of her stockings needed to be sewn to the costume she was wearing. This was a tedious process and needed to be repeated each time there was a run, etc. One day, she suggested to the man supplying the stockings that he add a top to the stockings so they could be worn as one piece... and that's how pantyhose was born.

In her tap shoes, she claimed to be able to dance at 500 taps per minute. Her tap shoes were called Moe and Joe and were exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

At the end of her Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract, she flew overseas to Morocco to entertain on the Timex TV Hour for Bob Hope. She sang and danced "Too Darn Hot" in 120-degree heat, entertaining 5000 soldiers.

Discovered by Lucille Ball while doing a show at a nightclub in San Francisco, California.

Refusing to do any movies for years because she disliked nudity and sex, she finally relented and returned to films after nearly four decades with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001), which contained nudity and explicit sex.

When she was in her early teens, she was advised to pretend she was 18 in order to get a job in the movies. Her father wanted a boy, so Ann was named Johnnie Lucille Collier, and she later went by Lucille. In 1937, in order to keep her contract with RKO Pictures, she got a fake birth certificate, which said she was Lucille Ann Collier, born on April 12, 1919 in Chireno, Texas.

She was buried next to her miscarried daughter, which reads "Beloved Baby Daughter Mary Milner November 12, 1946".

Disliked her nose because it healed improperly after an injury, and had a prosthetic extension made to conceal the contour imperfections. Louis B. Mayer once hid it away from her in his private safe following an exchange of verbal hostilities.

Father was a well-known criminal defense lawyer who defended such infamous gangsters as Baby Face Nelson and Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow of "Bonnie and Clyde" fame.

Had to audition for Easter Parade (1948) in a steel back brace after breaking her back.

During an interview with Robert Osborne for Turner Classic Movies, Ann Miller said that when she was 9 months pregnant with Reese Milner's child, he got drunk one night, beat Ann up and threw her down a flight of stairs. Ann's back was broken and she gave birth while recovering from the injury.

Miscarried her baby when she fell down a flight of stairs after a fight with husband Reese Llewellyn Milner.

On her tax returns, she listed her occupation as "Star Lady".

She donated a pair of her gold colored tap shoes to the National Museum of American History in the Smithsonian Institute.

At just 15 years old, she played the wife of Dub Taylor - who was 16 years her senior - in You Can't Take It with You (1938).

Although some sources list her year of birth as 1919, the U.S. census taken on April 1, 1930, several years before she entered show business, gives her age as 7 years (Harris County, Texas, enumeration district 71, p. 2A, family 86).

She made herself four years older, when she began working in Hollywood. She became an excellent tap dancer after her mother told her while watching Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) starring Eleanor Powell if she would practice a little that same quality.

Began dance classes in order to strengthen her legs after suffering from rickets.

Her favorite role was Bianca/Lois Lane in Kiss Me Kate (1953).

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Was very good friends with: Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth, Lucille Ball, Ginger Rogers, Kathryn Grayson, Marie MacDonald and Linda Cristal.

Cyd Charisse was up for the role of Nadine in Easter Parade, but a torn ligament in either one or both of her knees forced her to drop out. She was replaced by Ann Miller.

Claimed her difficulty maintaining relationships with men was due to her being an Egyptian queen in a past life and executing any men who displeased her.

Made something of a comeback in the early 1970s singing and dancing in the Busby Berkeley-inspired television commercials for Heinz's "Great American Soups". The song she sang was written by humorist Stan Freberg and choreographed by Danny Daniels.

In the 1970s while tap dancing on stage, most notably in the Broadway show "Sugar Babies" with Mickey Rooney, she often wore very large wigs sprayed stiff. This became a target of good natured spoofs on television shows such as The Carol Burnett Show (1967). In the off-Broadway show "Forbidden Broadway", a revue of show tunes with parody lyrics by Gerard Alessandrini, she was portrayed by an actress who sang (to the tune of "That's Entertainment") a song that included the verse: "When I was a girl back at old MGM/ They offered me roles sorta like "Auntie Em"/ I guess I really showed them/ When I killed L.B. Mayer by hitting him with my hair!".

Nominated for the 1980 Tony Award (New York City) for Best Actress in a Musical for "Sugar Babies".

She inspired the invention of pantyhose.

She was awarded a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California on January 10, 1998.

Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame (2004).

She was a staunch Republican who gave much of her time and money towards various conservative political causes. She attended several Republican National Conventions, galas, and fundraisers, was an honorary member of the Republican National Committee, and was active in the campaigns of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush.

She was named "Johnnie" by her father, who was expecting a boy.

Devoutly spiritual, she dabbled in psychic phenomena and astrology. She believed she was once Queen Hathshepsut of Egypt.

Famous for her big hair in the later years of her career.

In Call Her Mom (1972), she was replaced by Gloria DeHaven after she, herself, had replaced Cyd Charisse.

Her star on Hollywood Boulevard appears prominently in the opening shot of Myra Breckinridge (1970).

Following her death, her remains were interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

On August 5, 2020, she was honored with a day of her film-work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.

She once lost a 40-carat diamond ring in an airplane bathroom; it was a gift from her second husband.

Her mother falsified her age by 4 years to get her into films.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 372-373. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale (2007).