She called him Uncle Al — Al Capone that is.

And that is how Rose Marie operates: completely atypically. She lacks the all-too-common story of struggle as a woman in the business that is show, having been in it since she was six (yes, six). She lacks pretense, her thickly caked New Yawk accent becoming an incredibly addictive sound when paired with her equally incredible stories. And even more heartwarming were her consistent interruptions asking if she was talking too much and, after I assured her otherwise, she would reply with a hesitant, “Okaaaay,” and delve right back into tales of radio, Hollywood, the mob, and life in general.

“My affiliation with the mob was unbelievable. They took care of me. They were like foster parents, makin’ sure I was alright,” she says, an air of nostalgia that anyone has when speaking of family.

It all started with none other than Bugsby Siegel’s desert creation known as Las Vegas. To most, the concept was absurd: a so-called oasis in the middle of a scorching desert that wasn’t near, well, anything? However, the request came from the founder and publisher of the Hollywood Reporter, Billy Wilkerson, and Siegel himself. Paired with Rose was George Raft and Jimmy Durante paired with the famed orchestra of Xavier Cugat and emceed by George Jessel. The first two nights — harnessed by the star power Wilkerson was able to convince to attend, ranging from Clark Gable to Joan Crawford — were incredible. But following that, it became a disaster. “The show was absolutely spectacular,” Rose said, “but no one came after that. Las Vegas was a ghost town.”

This wasn’t to be her last partnership with the mob.

At the time she met Al Capone, she was working at the Palace Theatre with Milton Berle when Mr. Capone came backstage to offer her father an invitation few could refuse, “I wanna take the kid out to dinner.” The following night, a limousine showed up to cart Rose away to Al’s house in Cicero, New York.

“Every major mob guy was there,” she says, happily chuckling. “Tommy Brown, Frank Garbo, Doc Magine, Jerry Malone, Blackjack — all the important guys wanted to meet the kids. And that’s when he told me to call him Uncle Al,” she explained, describing the dinner ring — which she still proudly owns — Mr. Capone gave her, an inch-long piece of precious metal set with three diamonds. “He told me, ‘You don’t worry about a thing — everything will be fine. You need anything, you call us, Baby Rose.'”

When asked where she was gonna go next, she told the group of infamous men that she had no idea. Al certainly had an idea, telling her that Tahoe, Reno, and all the places the mob owned and ran — and Rose played every single one of them. “I was, undoubtedly, the baby,” she said.

However, her role in show business wouldn’t end with the will of the mob. In fact, she would become part of what is considered to be one of the best television shows of all time, The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Her friendship with Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard–the star of and the producer of The Danny Thomas Show or what was widely known as Make Room for Daddy–solidified Rose’s placement in television. After Rose’s insistence from Vegas that she be on the show, the casting office responsible for Danny’s show finally informed Rose that–all without an audition or reading–that she would be on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Her response? “What’s a Dick Van Dyke?”

Of course, Rose didn’t quite stop there. Her influence in shaping the show founded the key character of the third writer that hadn’t even been casted yet at the time. Her suggestion was Morey Amsterdam, a famed comedian — at least within the business — who, when asked if he would work for the show, ironically replied, “What’s a Dick Van Dyke?”

The rest, as they often say, is history. “We knew it was a good show — the writing and characters were exceptional,” despite the fact that Sheldon had to desperately beg for the show to continue after its initial first-year cancellation.

But Rose herself is not quite yet fully relegated to the halls of history. In fact, her story–at least within the framing of women within show business–lies within the atypical personality she exudes. She never dealt with the overt misogyny that many women experienced at the time. “I loved the people I worked with and I was always–always–treated beautifully.” One could say she somehow skipped it given she was always considered the baby.

And while that may be true, one fact remains that she never let go of the busisness. “First and foremost: I love the business–I wouldn’t be in it for as long as I’ve been. So many child stars disappeared after they got through their beginnings, like Margaret O’Brien and Deanna Durbin and Shirley Temple… They just never did anything more, they never went on. I kept going.”

And she is still going. Her current project is the contemporary remake of Garfield, where her vocal talent for the film heralds back to her work on radio. In fact, it is safe to say that she’ll always keep going because to call her a legend understates the point; she is show business.

This is one in a series of weekly profiles leading up to the 2012 California Women’s Conference, which will be held at the Long Beach Convention Center September 23-24.