Museum pays nod to former showgirl

Diosa Costello shares history with oral archives

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Las Vegas resident and former actress, singer and dancer Diosa Costello said she was quietly living out of the public eye watching Spanish soap operas when she received a letter from a Cornell University anthropologist that brought her back into the spotlight.

At first, Costello said she ignored the letter, but Frederic Gleach was persistent. He sent Costello a DVD of her life history.

"When I saw the DVD, I started crying," Costello said. "Everything that I did [in life] was on the DVD."

Costello is most well-known for her performances on stage and in the movies of the 1930s to '50s. Once billed as "the Puerto Rican bombshell," she first began performing in New York City nightclubs where she worked with Desi Arnaz before he became famous. She performed with Arnaz in 1939 on Broadway in "Too Many Girls" and appeared on screen in "They Met in Argentina" in 1941 and "The Bullfighters" in 1945. In 1949, Costello played Bloody Mary in "South Pacific" on Broadway. She also acted in "Miss Sadie Thompson" in 1953.

The events that followed Gleach's letter led to the filming of Costello's oral history for the Archives of the National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives. In addition, many of Costello's vintage costumes will appear in the Smithsonian. The filming took place in June in front of a 60-person audience at the Black Box Theatre at UNLV.

"I was shocked there were so many people in the audience. People were asking questions like I was doing a show," Costello said. "It's impossible for me to tell my life story in an hour."

Costello has lived the past few decades relatively invisible to the public. Gleach said he stumbled across Costello while listening to a compilation of early Puerto Rican music in which she had a recording. Gleach's wife, Cornell anthropologist Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, is from Puerto Rico, and Gleach had increasingly started studying the culture.

"[When] I asked my wife, she said she had heard [of Diosa Costello] but never knew she was Puerto Rican. That started me trying to find out more. How could such a talented performer (and as I accumulated material, her talents became even more evident) not be remembered?" Gleach wrote in an e-mail interview.

Gleach said he spent hours studying online periodical indexes, reading published works and even visiting auctions to find out more about Costello. He combed through old copies of Variety Magazine day by day to find information on her. Eventually, he found Costello's residence through an Internet search.

"She finds it hard to imagine that someone would go to that effort for her, but her career is really quite remarkable," Gleach said.

Costello was born in Guayama, Puerto Rico, and said she always knew she wanted to be a performer.

"That's all I wanted to do since I was born -- sing and dance," she said. "In those days for you to be in show business, it meant that you are going to be a woman of the world, meaning a prostitute."

Costello said her mother did not approve. She said she used to sing and dance for soldiers for pennies, and her mother took what she earned from her.

"I wouldn't do it for nothing. I had to get paid," Costello said.

Costello said her mother, frustrated, put her into an orphanage for children of single mothers. While there, Costello said she used to watch the boats leaving for the United States.

"One of these days I said I'm going to be on that boat and go to America," she said.

At 12 1/2 years old, Costello and her family left for New York City to live in Spanish Harlem. Costello said she used to ditch school to work for a Spanish theater not far from her house unbeknownst to her mother.

"I used to hide in the fire escape from the woman who would make sure kids were in school," Costello said.

Years later, Costello met Arnaz while headlining at the 500 Club in Miami in the late-1930s. She said she asked her boss if Arnaz could perform in the show, but the club lacked the budget to hire him. Instead, she said he performed after the shows with his guitar.

In 1939, while Costello was at La Conga in New York City, Arnaz showed up in New York. The timing was perfect, Costello said. She asked the band leader to hire Arnaz, and he obliged.

"I told him [Arnaz] couldn't play the guitar, he's not a good conga player, and he's not such a good singer. But look at him, he's gorgeous!" she said.

Broadway producer George Abbott visited the club nightly and enjoyed the Latin dancing so much that he paired Arnaz and Costello in his 1939 production of "Too Many Girls."

Later, Costello said she and Arnaz were to star in the movie of the production of the same name. Costello said she turned down the offer because she was afraid of flying on an airplane to California. Lucille Ball ended up playing her part in the movie.

"That's how they met and the rest is history," Costello said.

Costello soon got over her fear of flying and starred in "They Met in Argentina" in 1941. She continued to perform in movies and on stage. In 1949, Costello took over as Bloody Mary in the Broadway musical "South Pacific."

"[The part] was a challenge to me and I liked the challenge. I was very content in that part. It was something entirely different from what I'd ever done," she said.

Costello said she was hired to play the part for four weeks and ended up staying for five years. She said that role was her favorite of all the performances she did.

Costello said she first encountered Las Vegas as a performer.

"In those days, Las Vegas was the thing," she said. "It was a pleasure to work here."

Costello said she never faced any difficulty being a Puerto Rican woman. She said she was a "New Yorican" and living in Spanish Harlem was an experience she was glad she had.

"It wasn't difficult at all. I didn't have that much competition when I started," Costello said.

Costello described her performances in nightclubs as risqué for the time.

"I used to dance, shake my behind with a glass of water on top. My behind is the original. JLo is a copy," she said in reference to 36-year-old singer, actress and dancer Jennifer Lopez.

Costello still gets offers from time to time, but said today's show business is not the same as when she was in it.

"In my day before you hit the big time, you had an act and you rehearsed and performed in a little town to see how the big time goes," she said. "Now you become a sensation overnight. That's why I'm not interested."

Costello said she does not regret her decision to leave. She said she left for personal reasons after her second divorce, which is also how she ended up settling in Las Vegas.

"I'm happy to say that I left show business, show business didn't leave me," she said.

Gleach said Costello's story is important because it serves to correct historical inaccuracies. Costello's story is particularly difficult, Gleach said, because she was often not billed as a Puerto Rican.

"I hope that Diosa's story will offer encouragement through a strong example for young Puerto Ricans, in particular, and for Latinos and other minority people in general, that they have valuable contributions to make to American society and the world, and that there were and are pioneers out there -- many of them still not well recognized but people who have worked and are working hard to make their marks," he said.

Gleach said Costello blames him for interrupting her quiet life.

"Diosa likes to say that it's all my fault that she was just a quiet, little old lady watching her soaps until I came along. But she's a truly remarkable person, and I'm honored to have had a chance to meet her, and to do this little bit to help return her to the public eye," he said.

Costello, who is very protective of her exact age, said only that she is in her 80s.

"Ages are numbers. You can erase the numbers," she said. "I live the same life as I did 50 years ago, and I feel good."