Ann-Margret

Ann-Margret Olsson is a daughter of Anna Regina (nee Aronsson), and Carl Gustav Olsson. She is from Ornskoldsvik. The family returned to Valsjobyn, Jamtland. Later, she stated Valsjobyn as a tiny town of "lumberjacks and farmers in the mountains near the Arctic Circle". Ann-Margret, her mother , and her father arrived in the United States on November 1946. Her father took her to Radio City Music Hall the first day. They settled in Wilmette (Illinois) which is located just outside of Chicago. In 1949, she became an naturalized citizen of the United States. Anna-Margret started her first dance classes at the Marjorie Young School of Dance She showed her natural talent from the start, easily imitating all dance steps. Her parents were supportive and she made the costumes for her. To support the family, Ann-Margret's mother became a receptionist for a funeral parlor after her husband sustained an injury to his job. When she was a teenager, Ann-Margret appeared on the Morris B. Sachs Amateur Hour as well as Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, and Ted Mack's Amateur Hour. She was a student at New Trier High School located in Winnetka, Illinois and continued her acting career. In 1959, she enrolled at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She was a member of the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta. She did not get her degree. In a group called the Suttletones they played at the Mist nightclub in Chicago and then went to Las Vegas for a promised night out, but it fell through after the group arrived. They took a flight to Los Angeles, California. Georgia Lund, their agent, helped them secure clubs in Newport Beach (California) and Reno (Nevada). [citation needed] The group went to the Dunes in Las Vegas, which also headlined Tony Bennett and Al Hirt at that time. George Burns heard of her performance and invited her to audition for his holiday show, where she along with Burns performed a soft shoe routine. Variety declared that "George Burns is a gold mine in Ann-Margret ... she has a distinct style of her own that could easily lead her to the top of the list"