Born 1913 as Bernice Maude Gaunt in Omaha, Nebraska, American actress and singer Shirley Ross was giving radio recitals at age 14 and made her first vocal recordings at 20 with Gus Arnheims’s band.
Ross was notable for her duet with Bob Hope, “Thanks for the Memory” from The Big Broadcast of 1938. She appeared in 25 feature films between 1933 and 1945, including singing earlier and wholly different lyrics for the Rodgers and Hart song in Manhattan Melodrama (1934) that later became “Blue Moon.”
Although Ross knew that her understated appeal was better suited to the screen than the stage, she played the lead in Rodgers and Hart’s Broadway musical Higher and Higher (1940), featuring the song “It Never Entered My Mind.” The show was a critical failure. After a few forgettable movies and some radio work, most notably as a regular cast member on The Bob Burns Show between 1943 and 1947, she became an early retirement.
Ross died in 1975 from cancer in Menlo Park, California, aged 62. Take a look at these fabulous photos to see the beauty of young Shirley Ross in the 1930s.
.jpg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment