Georgia Frontiere (born Violet Frances Irwin; November 21, 1927 – January 18, 2008) was an American businesswoman and entertainer. She was the majority owner and chairperson of the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams NFL team.
During her nearly three decades in charge (1979–2008), the Rams made the playoffs in 14 seasons, played in 25 postseason games, won 13 postseason games, reached the Super Bowl three times and won the championship game once in the 1999 season. Her commitment to the team earned her the nickname "Madame Ram".
Also a philanthropist, Frontiere created the St. Louis Rams Foundation, sat on the board of the local United Way chapter, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America and the American Foundation for AIDS Research and made numerous charitable contributions both to the arts and to other organizations in St. Louis and elsewhere.
Frontiere was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Lucia Pamela, Miss St. Louis of 1926, KMOX radio's 'gal about town', and the leader of United States' first all-girl orchestra (Lucia Pamela and her band of musical pirates), and Reginald Irwin, an insurance salesman and businessman.
Frontiere had early aspirations to work as an opera singer and eventually traveled to Milan to train with the Milan Opera. By ten years old, she performed along with her mother and brother in the singing group the Pamela Trio. The act entertained at ballrooms and state fairs.
Frontiere attended Soldan High School in St. Louis.
When she was fifteen, Frontiere's parents divorced, and she married a young U.S. Marine who was heading to Europe during World War II. The union was quickly annulled. A few years later, the family moved to Fresno, California, where Frontiere performed at dinner theatres alongside her mother in a duo, the Pamela Sisters. During this time, she married her second husband, who was killed in a car accident near San Francisco shortly after the couple had wed.
In the early 1950s, Frontiere worked as a urologist's secretary while acting in Fresno's Garrick Little Theatre (where she met her third husband). The couple divorced a short time later. She later married her fourth husband, a stage manager at the Sacramento Music Circus, but the couple split after five years.
In the late 1950s, Frontiere moved to Miami and hosted her own television interview show. During this time, Frontiere met her fifth husband, a Miami television producer, to whom she was married for a short time. She later made appearances as part of NBC's Today show cast. She also performed as a nightclub singer in Miami, where she met Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom, who was separated from his first wife, at a party hosted by Joseph Kennedy at his Palm Beach estate in 1957. Kennedy was an admirer of Frontiere after seeing her on the morning show. Rosenbloom and Frontiere were engaged in 1960, but it took Rosenbloom ten years to divorce his first wife. Rosenbloom and Frontiere married in 1966, though they had been together for eight years and had two children by that point.
In 1972, Rosenbloom traded ownership of the Baltimore Colts for ownership of the Los Angeles Rams. During this time, the couple resided in Bel Air, California and Frontiere became a part of the Los Angeles social scene, hosting numerous parties and philanthropic events. Frontiere was also known to entertain guests in a section near the owner's box at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum dubbed Georgia's Grandstand.
In April 1979, Rosenbloom drowned while swimming near a Florida beach from an apparent heart attack. Some suspected foul play, although medical examiners found no evidence that his death was the result of anything but natural causes.
Upon her husband's death, Frontiere inherited a 70% ownership stake in the Los Angeles Rams. Rosenbloom's five children inherited the other 30%.
Although she was often called the first female owner of an NFL franchise, Frontiere was actually the second female majority owner. Violet Bidwill Wolfner inherited the Chicago Cardinals after her husband's death in 1947 and owned the franchise until she died in 1962. However, during Frontiere's tenure, she was the only active female majority owner in the NFL.
During her years as owner, Frontiere moved the Rams twice, first relocating from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1980 to Anaheim (a deal that Rosenbloom had struck in 1978), then to St. Louis in 1995.
Initially criticized and harassed as a woman in a league dominated by men and accused of not being capable of running a football team, Frontiere quickly asserted control of the Rams, named John Shaw president and addressed her detractors during her first press conference, saying, "There are some who feel there are two different kinds of people—human beings and women."
Her inheritance came as a surprise to many fans (though not to close friends and family) who thought Steve Rosenbloom, the former owner's son from a previous marriage and the Rams' vice president, would take a leadership role in the team's management. However, Frontiere could not settle conflicts that arose between Rosenbloom and general manager Don Klosterman, and she fired Rosenbloom after four months.
During the 1970s, the Rams were a perennial contender, but a championship or a Super Bowl appearance eluded them. However, the team lacked organizational direction in the early stages of Frontiere's ownership. During the preseason, Frontiere drafted a position paper in which she asserted her role as the team's boss. Believing that a lack of direction was responsible for the Rams' inability to win a championship (despite fielding talented teams), she told Sports Illustrated, "Right now, we don't have much leadership. Oh, they played well—they're trying to earn their positions—and I'm not talking about the coaching. We have good coaching. I'm talking about the top. There are some things that have to be ironed out."
The next season, the Rams reached Super Bowl XIV but lost to the three-time champion Pittsburgh Steelers 31-19. After the Super Bowl, Frontiere increased her national profile by appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated and in an American Express commercial with Rams players.