Ann Miller

Ann Miller was only 13 when she was signed to MGM studios, and would steal the spotlight of every film she appeared in with her astonishing energy, dazzling smile, and leggy sex appeal in the 1940's classics, On the Town, Easter Parade, and Kiss Me, Kate, in which her thrilling performance of Cole Porter's, "Too Darn Hot" lent substance to her claim that she could tap 500 times a minute. It was on the set of Kiss Me, Kate, in fact, where Ann met edgy loner Dennis Van Rio, a wardrobe assistant on the show. The two began a steamy love affair after a fitting for her fringe leotard, which started out as awkward, then tense, then there were double entendres exchanged, until the two of them just started French kissing each other. Ann was smitten with her new lover; she'd never met somebody so intense and odd. What she did not know was that Dennis Van Rio was not just a wardrobe assistant; he was also an arsonist. One weekend in 1953, Ann and Dennis booked a room at the Chateau Marmont, in which they planned to execute some athletic lovemaking. While Ann adjusted her nylons in the bathroom, Van Rio, sexually excited by the prospect of bedding a raven-haired superstar, as well as by the sight of an extremely flammable hotel bedspread, cracked open a condom wrapper and a book of kitchen matches. Miller woke up the next morning with a sooty smile on her face, brushed herself off, and drove to the MGM set, where she would dance beside Bob Fosse in the delightful "Tom, Dick, Or Harry" number. Van Rio, sadly, did not survive his historic night with Ann and a roomful of dangerous flaming fire. He passed away at the age of 32. But friends of Dennis Van Rio say he would have been happy to have gone the way he lived: delighted, and surrounded by fire. Having Ann Miller in the room, for him, was just a bonus.