Anne Triola

She lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the early 1990s but had moved back to Los Angeles by 1996. Triola died in Lee's Summit, Missouri on July 27, 2012, at the age of 91.

Triola remarried in 1979, to Willey G. Forman (b. 1912) but they divorced in 1983. He died in June 1999 at the age of 86.

Tragedy struck the family when Triola's husband and three passengers on board his private airplane were killed in a plane crash during a trip from Las Vegas to Van Nuys, California, on May 15, 1960.

In August 1959, she took on the lead role of Bells Are Ringing at the Sacramento Music Circus. Co-starring with her were Gar Moore and Marvin Kaplan. She performed the role of a telephone answering service operator in this romantic musical comedy which ran for two weeks straight that summer.

A few years later on November 16, 1956, Triola gave birth to a 6-pound, 13-ounce baby girl, whom they named Tina. This gave them two daughters in all as Quartaroli had a daughter named Susan from his previous marriage to his first wife, Edna B. Quartaroli.

With Triola's popularity growing, producers Howard Young and Russell Lewis gave a fitting tribute to Music Circus' favorite actress as they opened the fifth anniversary season in May 1955. She starred in the musical Annie Get Your Gun which was her signature gig that Triola had performed during the Music Circus' first season.

Soon afterward, Triola's career would come to a halt as she would soon marry in 1953, move to nearby Modesto and become a housewife. "After the hustle and bustle of show business," she said, "it is nice to settle down for a change where it is quiet."

In 1953, Triola married successful businessman Ralph J. Quartaroli, president of Stanislaus Food Products Company, and decided to break away from show business as the couple moved to Modesto, California, where his family owned a cannery. She had met him in Los Angeles when she was there on a business trip. She decided "from experience in show business" marriages and careers may mix but not well. So Triola abandoned her career and became a housewife. "It is hard work, the kind of work a person does for the love of it and not money," she added.

She was loaned to Warner Brothers for the comic supporting role opposite Billy De Wolfe in Lullaby Of Broadway (1951). Then the motion picture industry deflated, leaving contracts mostly worthless.

Triola's connection with the Music Circus eventually brought her out of retirement from show business. She had been a part of the Sacramento Music Circus when it first started in 1951 which was vaudeville stage entertainment being held inside a big blue and green tent. Triola starred in this operation during its first two seasons before marrying Ralph J. Quartaroli in 1953. In July 1954, she broke out of retirement and began rehearsing for leading roles in the same Sacramento Music Circus. She assisted such musicals as New Faces, Oklahoma!, and Brigadoon. She played the role of Meg in Brigadoon and sang Eartha Kitt's numbers in New Faces.

Triola was listed as being one of the most popular performers in the history of Music Circus that included her work with the Sacramento Music Circus in the 1950s. She was described as a petite, dark haired, dark-eyed song stylist with the Betty Hutton type of delivery.

While singing at Slapsy Maxie's, Director Mervyn LeRoy and Producer Jesse L. Lasky signed her for movies at RKO where she made three movies, one with John Wayne. It was reported that Triola was in the floor show at Slapsy Maxie Rosenbloom's when Lasky and LeRoy found her and immediately offered her a contract. From those movies, Without Reservations stood out where she had a feature role. Journalist Gene Handsaker singled out Triola for this reason in a June 5, 1946, edition of the Prescott Evening Courier as he explained, "Some supporting performances are terrific, especially that of Anne Triola, who amid shrieks of preview laughter swiped her scenes clear away from Stars Colbert and John Wayne."

It was recorded on a specific day in the summer of 1944 at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, that Triola, Anderson, and their USO troupe entertained as many as 1,500 American servicemen—Navy, Army, and Merchant Marine personnel—at the 113th Amphitheater. Triola played her accordion while Shirley Cornell played the violin. Noted actress Anderson and Helen McClure each performed singing duties while PFC Paul Parmalee played the piano as the group worked together to lift the spirits of battle-weary, worn-out soldiers.

Anne Margaret Triola (September 25, 1920 – July 27, 2012) was an American singer, musician, and actress of stage, film, and television. As a comedian and supporting actress, she got her start singing in Hollywood night clubs. Triola made her mark in the well known musical film Lullaby Of Broadway (1951) and received much praise for her effort in the motion picture Without Reservations (1946), which starred Claudette Colbert and John Wayne. She participated in five Hollywood films, assisted with USO tours in the Pacific Theater during World War II, and caused audiences to lose themselves in laughter, but Triola may best be remembered for work as a singer and comedian with the musical theatre that included performances in night clubs all over the country such as the Blue Angel in New York City.