On meeting her first husband, stage, film and TV actor Jack Cassidy

She was warned to watch out for Cassidy, who was married. "Be careful, he's a ladies man, they told me." After five weeks, he asked her to dinner. They had escargots "and my first martini," and walked across the Seine, and when they got to her door, he kissed her and told her he was going to marry her.

"But he was already married!" She laughs heartily at the memory of his outrageousness. They did eventually marry, and had three sons -- Shaun, Patrick and Ryan, before divorcing in 1976. Cassidy died in a fire in 1976. Still, she talks proudly of the Tony Award Cassidy won for "She Loves Me," and their own success together in "Maggie Flynn" and the things he taught her. "He had a magnificent voice. He had a huge range, and taught me so much about breath control, and how to frame a lyric."

On Returning to Broadway in 1994

"42d Street," with her son, Patrick Cassidy, was her first Broadway performance in 38 years (from the time she had appeared with his father in "Maggie Flynn" in 1968) and the first mother-son performance in a Broadway musical. At first, the vocal demands of the part were daunting. " I was scared to death to do it, and it was a big deal to go back to Broadway. But I got stronger and stronger and stronger and that gave me the impetus to say I can go back, not for a long period of time."

On not being able to read music

Despite her own prodigious musical gifts, her inability to read music would annoy many a musical director. Once, when she was appearing on Frank Sinatra's television variety show in the 1950s, preparing to sing "If I Loved You" with him, she was asked by the musical director what key she'd sung the song in the movie.

"I told him, 'I don't know.' And he looked at me and said, 'You don't KNOW?' As though, well, I had been so privileged to have an opportunity to sing these songs and who was I to not know what key they were in?"

"Of course, Frank Sinatra didn't read music either," she added with a grin.

On Sinatra vs. frequent co-star Gordon MacRae vs. John Raitt

Sinatra also dropped out of the film version of "Carousel" after spending one day on the set, for reasons that still aren't completely clear -- reportedly he balked at the idea of shooting the film twice, in 35 and 55 millimeter -- but Jones is eternally grateful that Gordon MacRae took his place.

"Nobody could sing it like Gordon. Nobody. Carousel can't be crooned, it has to be sung."

Why didn't John Raitt, who created the role on Broadway, get the part?

"He had a wonderful instrument, but he just wasn't a very good actor," she muses.

On "The Music Man"

Her movie musical career flamed brightly one last time, when she played Marian the Librarian in "The Music Man," with Robert Preston -- "even though the producers wanted Frank Sinatra, but Meredith Willson had a fit and told them in no uncertain terms it was Robert Preston or there'd be no movie."

On "Elmer Gantry"

The director, Richard Brooks, who had wanted Piper Laurie, offered no advice on how she should play her first scene. But after seeing her play it, "he directed me after that," she said with a smile.