Anna Maria Alberghetti

Anna Maria Alberghetti, a soprano and actress born on May 15, 1936, in Pesaro, Marche, Italy, built a career spanning concert performance, film, television, and Broadway. Her father was an opera singer and concert master of the Rome Opera Company, and her mother was a pianist. Alberghetti demonstrated musical ability from an early age, performing in concert at age six with a 100-piece orchestra on the Isle of Rhodes. She appeared at Carnegie Hall at age 13, and by age 16 she was serving as Red Skelton's opening act during his engagement at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.

Alberghetti entered American film at age 15 in Frank Capra's 1951 musical Here Comes the Groom, which starred Bing Crosby. Throughout the 1950s she continued working in film, appearing in The Last Command alongside Sterling Hayden in 1955, the Western Duel at Apache Wells in 1957, and Ten Thousand Bedrooms with Dean Martin that same year. She later co-starred with Jerry Lewis in The Jazz Singer in 1959 and Cinderfella in 1960. In 2001, she appeared in two films, The Whole Shebang and Friends & Family.

Her television presence during the same period was extensive. Alberghetti appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show more than 50 times and twice on the cover of Life magazine. In 1957 she guest-starred on NBC's The Gisele MacKenzie Show and performed in the premiere episode of The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom on ABC. In 1959, she played the lead in "The Conchita Vasquez Story" episode of NBC's Wagon Train, portraying a member of a Comanchero gang who falls in love with scout Flint McCullough, played by Robert Horton, and is ultimately killed in an ambush. She appeared as a mystery guest on What's My Line on November 23, 1958, and again on April 30, 1961, and was a guest contestant on I've Got a Secret on March 1, 1961. She also guest-starred on The Andy Williams Show on March 28, 1963, and performed on The Hollywood Palace on May 2, 1964. In 1965, she performed on stage with Bob Hope in Okinawa for U.S. servicemen. During the 1970s and early 1980s, she appeared in television commercials for Good Seasons salad dressing, where she was cast as "The Good Seasons Lady."

Alberghetti became a U.S. citizen in 1961, the same year she made her Broadway appearance in Carnival!. In 1962, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for that role, tying with Diahann Carroll, who won for No Strings. Her younger sister Carla, also a musical artist, subsequently replaced her in the role. Alberghetti's stage work extended across decades and included productions of Rose-Marie, Fanny, The Fantasticks, West Side Story, The Most Happy Fella, Cabaret, Kismet, The Student Prince, The Sound of Music, Side by Side by Sondheim, Camelot, and The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, among others.

Her family's immigration to the United States was facilitated by a Congressional bill passed in August 1954 and sponsored by Nevada senator Pat McCarran, following her father's acknowledgment that he had been an involuntary fascist during World War II. Alberghetti has a brother, Paul Alberghetti, who is an entertainment attorney and film producer married to filmmaker Michele Noble. She was married to television producer-director Claudio Guzmán from 1964 to 1974, and they had two children: Alexandra, born in 1966, and Pilar, born in 1970. In a 2022 Vanity Fair article, Alberghetti alleged incidents of sexual harassment by the late actor Jerry Lewis.