From Broadway to Boulder City

Many may know Connie Ferraro best for her nearly two dozen large murals that could be seen around town over the years, while others may know her as the wife of longtime Mayor Bob Ferraro.

But there’s a part of her past that many may not be aware of. One that she is very proud of because she turned a childhood dream into a career that spanned nearly two decades.

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Ferraro dreamed of being a professional dancer.

“I was very shy,” she said. “When people would come over, I would run into the next room.”

In order to help break that shyness, her mom enrolled her in dance classes early on. She would then begin training in Pittsburgh but after seeing a visiting dance troupe from New York, she knew exactly what she wanted to do in life.

She moved to New York right after high school to follow her dreams. She would meet two women her age and the three rented an apartment together and Ferraro spent her days auditioning. But homesickness set in and she found herself back in Pittsburgh and auditioned for a new club there before returning to New York three months later.

“We called it a cattle call,” she said of auditioning for productions in the Big Apple. “It was very hard. They would call us out five or six at a time. If you passed the dancing, you then had to sing. That’s why I had to take singing lessons. I remember before one audition, I was practicing my song and our German shepherd began to howl. It didn’t make me feel confident at all.”

It wasn’t long before she landed her first Broadway show, that being “13 Daughters” starring Don Ameche.

“I was full of euphoria when they told me I had the part,” she said. “I couldn’t believe I got a Broadway show. I loved it. But once it closed, you think, ‘I’m never going to work again.’”

While still living in New York, Ferraro danced at a mafia-owned nightclub in Kentucky. Around that same time, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine were in a nearby town filming 1958’s “Some Came Running.” The trio and others would come to the club when not filming.

“Someone told me they heard Frank and Dean say about me, ‘She’s got great gams’ (legs),” she said, laughing.

Upon her return to New York City, she landed several jobs on Broadway and that extended into television appearances, including the “Ed Sullivan Show,” which she appeared on nine times over the years.

“We were hired to dance behind the performers,” she said.

But one time, during a performance of the song “By the Beautiful Sea” she got to do more than dance.

“They gave me one line to sing which was, ‘We will duck or swim, and we’ll float and fool around in the water.’ I got paid more money because I opened my mouth. On the show, dancers were the peons.”

Being that variety shows were televised live, and long before the VCR existed to record, Ferraro said her family and friends back home would gather to see her. But it wasn’t until recent years she was able to see some of the performances on YouTube.

“Knowing it was live — I was often terrified,” she said. “When we were backstage, I remember telling myself, ‘Please, Connie, don’t fall.’ Later in my career we were using tambourines. Somehow, I put my foot through it and fell. It took me a long time to get back up. That’s when I told myself it was time to retire.”

Aside from Ed Sullivan, Ferraro would later appear on television specials hosted by Gene Kelly and Shirley MacLaine. But Broadway was still her first love.

“Once I knew a number, I thought I could do anything,” she said. “The most exciting time was after rehearsing for three or four weeks, you get on stage, hear a real orchestra and all of a sudden it was exciting and pure joy for me.”

Over the years she would appear in nine different Broadway productions, which included “The King and I” co-starring Betty White, “Zorba” and “Bajour” with Chita Rivera. She also performed in “My Fair Lady” in Japan. She auditioned for the film “West Side Story” and while she had the dancing down, she admits that the singing portion “did not go so well.”

In addition to Broadway, many dancers like Ferraro would make extra money doing what are called “industrials.” These, according to the website dancespirit.com, are “a flashy stage show sponsored by a corporation to promote a new product or concept – and hundreds of dancers stay gainfully employed through them.” Ferraro did many of these, including one at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.

Near the end of her dance career, Ferraro began attending classes at the Art Students League, where she honed her painting skills, her other artistic passion. One of her classmates was Peter Falk, who would later find fame as “Columbo.” While her father left the family when she was just eight, she credits a lot of her artistic talents to him.

Ferraro moved to Boulder City in the late 1980s, which is when she met Bob Ferraro, who was mayor or councilman for 31 straight years. He passed away in 2017. During this time is when she made a name for herself with her mural work, which was measured not in inches but in feet. Her last was an inside mural at Martha P. King Elementary just last year.

“I love getting started but then it goes on and on,” she said of mural painting. “I get slower by the minute and then I enjoy the finished project.”

Ron Eland is editor of the Boulder City Review. He can be reached at reland@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523.