Corinna Mura

Bio: With little thought to her own safety, at least according to the screenplay, exotic-looking Corinna Mura belted out "La Marseillaise" in Casablanca (1942), one of the most stirring sequences in a film filled with memorable moments. Although trained as a coloratura at a very young age, Mura (born Wall and of Spanish-English-Scottish descent) preferred pop and her… More Bio: With little thought to her own safety, at least according to the screenplay, exotic-looking Corinna Mura belted out "La Marseillaise" in Casablanca (1942), one of the most stirring sequences in a film filled with memorable moments. Although trained as a coloratura at a very young age, Mura (born Wall and of Spanish-English-Scottish descent) preferred pop and her concerned parents reportedly committed her to a rest home in Connecticut. She learned to play the guitar there and soon starred in her own radio program, "The Corinne Mura International Salon." That in turn led to a contract with Warner Bros. and after cooling her heels in RKO's Call Out the Marines (1942), Mura made her indelible mark on film history as Andrea, the girl singer at Rick's café. Adhering to the wartime "Good Neighbor" policy of hiring South American entertainers, Warner Bros. kept her true nationality (not to mention parentage) a secret. It didn't matter much; Mura appeared in a couple of minor musicals, recorded "Buenas Noches" and "Samba Le Le" from The Gay Senorita (1945) and then hightailed it to New York for Mexican Hayride (1944-1945), a Broadway musical that lasted a respectable 481 performances. Marrying a reporter from the Hearst newspapers, Mura became the stepmother of well-known illustrator Edward Gorey. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi