Mary Printz
Encyclopedia
Mary Printz was an answering service operator who catered to many of the New York theater and business A-list in the 1950s. Bells Are Ringing
, a Broadway
musical, was based on her career, which was turned into the 1960 film of the same name
.
on April 8, 1923, she was raised in in Hampton, Virginia
and was afflicted with polio
as a five-year old. She moved to New York City
after dropping out of college and a failed marriage. There she married cocktail pianist Bob Printz in 1953 and found a night job at an answering service to match her husband's evening schedule.
Adolph Green
, one of her customers, based the Broadway play Bells Are Ringing
on Printz, with lyrics by Betty Comden
and music by Jule Styne
. In his review in The New York Times
, Brooks Atkinson
described Judy Holliday
's character Ella Peterson as "an original subject - a telephone answering service that leads into the personal lives of several people. This is how the dream girl played by Miss Holliday meets her sweetheart, and brings a number of other bizarre people together." The original production ran from 1956 to 1959, with songs such as The Party's Over
and Just in Time
that have become standards. Both Holliday and co-star Sydney Chaplin
won Tony Award
s for their performances.
The play was made into a film that came out in 1960. Bells Are Ringing
, directed by Vincente Minnelli
, starred Dean Martin
and Judy Holliday, reprising her stage role.
, who was on the calling end of Printz's first message, her clients included Candice Bergen
, Shirley MacLaine
, Robert Redford
, Burt Reynolds
, Brooke Shields
, Liz Smith
, Spencer Tracy
, Kathleen Turner
, Tennessee Williams
, as well as members of the band Kiss
. She once received a call from Noël Coward
who was panicked after draining the last out of a bottle of Scotch
on Sunday when liquor stores were closed. Printz had her husband pick up a bottle from a cooperative bartender and had him deliver it to Mr. Coward at his building, solving yet one more crisis.
By the late 1960s, the company had 300 business and theatrical customers, but was running into problems with phone company service on the Plaza 8 exchange it used that served the area around East 50th Street in Manhattan. A spike in demand for telephone calls resulted in the PLaza 8 exchange being out of service for periods of time around June 1969. A client who called the phone company to complain about her inability to contact "the Belles" was told to contract with an alternate service "not on PL 8".
The firm had as many as 600 clients at its peak by the late 1970s, with over 20 operators at six switchboards. Celebrities and the well-off were the company's mainstay, all of whom came by referral, as the company did not advertise. Leonard Bernstein
called to use the company's service, saying "This is Lenny. Adolph asked me to call you". Printz would not take business from physicians or repairmen, saying "It's too much trouble for the girls".
Though the advent of the answering machine
cut into her business, Printz remained at the company until her death, by which time the service still had about 90 customers, including Woody Allen
, Stephen Sondheim
and Steven Spielberg
.
The Belles service continues, currently run by a successor chosen by Mary Printz.
due to congestive heart failure
, which was related to post-polio syndrome
. She was survived by her husband, two sons and a granddaughter.
Bells Are Ringing (musical)
Bells Are Ringing is a musical with a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne. The story revolves around Ella, who works at an answering service and the characters that she meets there. The main character was based on Mary Printz, who worked for Green's answering...
, a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical, was based on her career, which was turned into the 1960 film of the same name
Bells Are Ringing (film)
Bells Are Ringing is a 1960 romantic comedy-musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. It stars Judy Holliday and Dean Martin.-Synopsis:Based on the successful 1956 Broadway production of the same name by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jule Styne, the film focuses on Ella Peterson, who works in...
.
Biography
Born Mary Selina Horn in Grosse Pointe, MichiganGrosse Pointe, Michigan
Grosse Pointe is a suburban city bordering Detroit in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city covers just over one square mile, and had a population of 5,421 at the 2010 census. It is bordered on the west by Grosse Pointe Park, on the north by Detroit, on the east by Grosse Pointe...
on April 8, 1923, she was raised in in Hampton, Virginia
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
and was afflicted with polio
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...
as a five-year old. She moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
after dropping out of college and a failed marriage. There she married cocktail pianist Bob Printz in 1953 and found a night job at an answering service to match her husband's evening schedule.
Bells Are Ringing
The service she worked for was used by many of the city's professionals and people show business, and Printz was noted for her ability to serve her clients, going beyond just listening to her customers to the point where she would pick up their laundry, walk their dog or water their plants, whatever was necessary.Adolph Green
Adolph Green
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday...
, one of her customers, based the Broadway play Bells Are Ringing
Bells Are Ringing (musical)
Bells Are Ringing is a musical with a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne. The story revolves around Ella, who works at an answering service and the characters that she meets there. The main character was based on Mary Printz, who worked for Green's answering...
on Printz, with lyrics by Betty Comden
Betty Comden
Betty Comden was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century...
and music by Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
. In his review in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Brooks Atkinson
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
described Judy Holliday
Judy Holliday
Judy Holliday was an American actress.Holliday began her career as part of a night-club act, before working in Broadway plays and musicals...
's character Ella Peterson as "an original subject - a telephone answering service that leads into the personal lives of several people. This is how the dream girl played by Miss Holliday meets her sweetheart, and brings a number of other bizarre people together." The original production ran from 1956 to 1959, with songs such as The Party's Over
The Party's Over (1956 song)
"The Party's Over" is a popular song composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It was introduced in the 1956 musical comedy Bells Are Ringing by Judy Holliday. Nat King Cole, Smoking Popes and Lonnie Donegan recorded popular versions. Shirley Bassey recorded the song for...
and Just in Time
Just in Time (song)
"Just in Time" is a popular song with the melody written by Jule Styne and the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The song was published in 1956....
that have become standards. Both Holliday and co-star Sydney Chaplin
Sydney Chaplin
Sydney Chaplin was an English actor. He was the elder half-brother of Sir Charlie Chaplin and served as his business manager, and the half-uncle of the actor Sydney Chaplin , who was named after him.-Early life:...
won Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
s for their performances.
The play was made into a film that came out in 1960. Bells Are Ringing
Bells Are Ringing (film)
Bells Are Ringing is a 1960 romantic comedy-musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. It stars Judy Holliday and Dean Martin.-Synopsis:Based on the successful 1956 Broadway production of the same name by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jule Styne, the film focuses on Ella Peterson, who works in...
, directed by Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
, starred Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Judy Holliday, reprising her stage role.
Belles Celebrity Answering Service
Printz established the Belles Celebrity Answering Service in 1956, the same year the Broadway play opened, getting up at 4 a.m. in order to be able to arrive at the switchboard to make wake up calls that started as early as 5 a.m. There, Printz provided her customers with services that went beyond messages. Starting with Hermione GingoldHermione Gingold
Hermione Gingold was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric persona, an image enhanced by her sharp nose and chin, as well as her deepening voice, a result of vocal nodes which her mother reportedly encouraged her not to remove. She starred on stage, on radio, in films, on...
, who was on the calling end of Printz's first message, her clients included Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
, Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
, Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
, Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
, Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
, Liz Smith
Liz Smith (journalist)
Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish.- Early life and career :...
, Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
, Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
, Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, as well as members of the band Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
. She once received a call from Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
who was panicked after draining the last out of a bottle of Scotch
Scotch whisky
Scotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland.Scotch whisky is divided into five distinct categories: Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Grain Scotch Whisky, Blended Malt Scotch Whisky , Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, and Blended Scotch Whisky.All Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three...
on Sunday when liquor stores were closed. Printz had her husband pick up a bottle from a cooperative bartender and had him deliver it to Mr. Coward at his building, solving yet one more crisis.
By the late 1960s, the company had 300 business and theatrical customers, but was running into problems with phone company service on the Plaza 8 exchange it used that served the area around East 50th Street in Manhattan. A spike in demand for telephone calls resulted in the PLaza 8 exchange being out of service for periods of time around June 1969. A client who called the phone company to complain about her inability to contact "the Belles" was told to contract with an alternate service "not on PL 8".
The firm had as many as 600 clients at its peak by the late 1970s, with over 20 operators at six switchboards. Celebrities and the well-off were the company's mainstay, all of whom came by referral, as the company did not advertise. Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
called to use the company's service, saying "This is Lenny. Adolph asked me to call you". Printz would not take business from physicians or repairmen, saying "It's too much trouble for the girls".
Though the advent of the answering machine
Answering machine
The answering machine or message machine, also known as the telephone answering machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries) and previously known as an ansaphone, ansafone, or telephone answering device is a device for answering telephones and recording callers' messages.Unlike voicemail,...
cut into her business, Printz remained at the company until her death, by which time the service still had about 90 customers, including Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
and Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
.
The Belles service continues, currently run by a successor chosen by Mary Printz.
Death
Printz died at age 85 on February 21, 2009 at her home in Tappan, New YorkTappan, New York
Tappan is a hamlet in the Town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Old Tappan, New Jersey; east of Nauraushaun and Pearl River; south of Blauvelt and west of Palisades and Sparkill...
due to congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
, which was related to post-polio syndrome
Post-polio syndrome
Post-polio syndrome is a condition that affects approximately 25–50% of people who have previously contracted poliomyelitis—a viral infection of the nervous system—after the initial infection. Typically the symptoms appear 15–30 years after recovery from the original paralytic attack, at an age of...
. She was survived by her husband, two sons and a granddaughter.