Shirley Ross

Shirley Ross, born Bernice Maude Gaunt on January 7, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American actress and singer who appeared in 25 feature films between 1933 and 1945 and made her Broadway debut in 1940. The elder of two daughters of Charles Burr Gaunt and Maude C. Ellis Gaunt, she grew up in California, attended Hollywood High School and UCLA, and trained as a classical pianist. By the age of 14 she was performing radio recitals, and at 20 she made her first vocal recordings with Gus Arnheim's band.

Her entry into film came through the songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart, who selected her to present their material to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A song called "Prayer," later rewritten as "Blue Moon," led to a screen test in 1933. That test, a duet with jazz vocalist Harry Barris, was incorporated into the MGM short subject Gentlemen of Polish (1934). The studio subsequently cast her in small roles, among them a part in Manhattan Melodrama (1934) alongside Clark Gable and William Powell, in which she performed "The Bad in Every Man," an earlier version of what became "Blue Moon."

In 1936, MGM loaned Ross to Paramount, where she was paired with Ray Milland in The Big Broadcast of 1937. Paramount signed her to a five-year contract, and her introduction to songwriters Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger proved consequential. A duet with Bing Crosby in Waikiki Wedding produced the Robin-Rainger number "Blue Hawaii," beginning a three-year stretch in which Ross was cast opposite either Crosby or Bob Hope on five occasions. Her most enduring credit from this period came with The Big Broadcast of 1938, in which her duet with Bob Hope on "Thanks for the Memory" became a major hit. Two follow-up films with Hope, Thanks for the Memory (1938) and Some Like It Hot (1939, later retitled Rhythm Romance), followed the success of that recording. Thanks for the Memory yielded an additional hit song, "Two Sleepy People." Despite her willingness to take on straight dramatic roles and a capable performance in Prison Farm, Paramount moved her into supporting parts in minor romantic comedies, and her film career declined.

Although she recognized that her screen presence was better suited to film than the stage, Ross returned to the work of Rodgers and Hart and took the lead role in their Broadway musical Higher and Higher, which opened in 1940. The production featured the song "It Never Entered My Mind" but was a critical failure, closing after 108 performances.

Following her Broadway appearance, Ross signed with Republic Pictures and pursued radio work, serving as a regular cast member on The Bob Burns Show from 1943 to 1947. Burns had a close working relationship with Bing Crosby, who may have facilitated that engagement. In 1942, director Arthur Lubin sought Ross for the Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy at Universal Pictures, but the studio considered her too old for the part and cast Anne Gwynne instead.

In her personal life, Ross married agent Ken Dolan in 1938. As his health declined, she devoted increasing time to his care, effectively ending her professional career. Dolan died in 1951. She married Eddie Blum in 1955 and had three children. By 1959 she stated that she had left show business to focus on her children. Ross died of cancer on March 9, 1975, in Menlo Park, California, at the age of 62. Because her death was recorded under her married name, Bernice Dolan Blum, it received little public notice, though Bob Hope and Bing Crosby sent a five-foot cross of white carnations and red roses to her funeral.