Shirley Ross

• Name — Shirley Ross • Birth Name — Bernice Maude Gaunt • Born — 7 January 1913 • Birthplace — Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. • Died — 9 March 1975 • Place of death — Menlo Park, California, U.S. • Other Names — Bernice Dolan Blum • Occupation — * Actress • singer • Years Active — 1927–1946 • Height — 5 ft • Children — 3

Ross was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the elder of two daughters of Charles Burr Gaunt and Maude C. (née Ellis) Gaunt. Growing up in California, she attended Hollywood High School and UCLA, training as a classical pianist. By age 14, she was giving radio recitals and made her first vocal recordings at 20 with Gus Arnheim's band. Here she attracted the notice of the up-and-coming songwriting duo Rodgers and Hart, who selected her to sell their latest offerings to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio. One song, "Prayer," later rewritten as "Blue Moon", led to a successful screen test in 1933. This test, a duet with jazz vocalist Harry Barris, was edited into MGM's musical-comedy short subject Gentlemen of Polish (1934), starring the comedy team of Al Shaw and Sam Lee. MGM cast Ross in a number of small parts in films that included Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell in which, made up to look black, she sang "The Bad in Every Man," an earlier version of "Blue Moon," in a Harlem nightclub.

In 1936, MGM loaned her to Paramount, and she was paired with Ray Milland in The Big Broadcast of 1937. The Big Broadcast format emphasized musical numbers and comedy sketches with big-name performers who somewhat overshadowed her. However, she acquitted herself nicely as a flippant, all-night disc jockey, and delivered the scripted dialogue naturally. One press review declared that she had "one of the sweetest voices of any actress on the screen"’ and predicted a big future for her. Paramount signed her to a five-year contract; meanwhile her introduction to the songwriting team of Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger would prove significant.

Her duet with Bing Crosby in Waikiki Wedding was a Robin-Rainger number titled "Blue Hawaii." Thus began a three-year period during which Ross was cast opposite either Crosby or Bob Hope on five occasions.Less than a year later, as their erstwhile co-star's career floundered, Hope and Crosby themselves were paired, beginning the longstanding and hugely successful Road to... series. After a career interruption in the making of This Way Please with Buddy Rogers, when she walked off the job, alleging that Jack Benny's wife, Mary Livingstone, was trying to sabotage her scenes, she was cast opposite Hope in The Big Broadcast of 1938. Their duet, "Thanks for the Memory", became a huge hit and a defining moment for two careers headed in opposite directions – for Hope, a springboard to bigger and better things; for Ross, the pinnacle. It would prove to be her sole enduring claim to fame. The duet's great success sparked spin-off movies with Bob Hope, Thanks for the Memory (1938) and another called Some Like It Hot (1939; later renamed Rhythm Romance to avoid confusion with the unrelated 1959 feature). Although Thanks for the Memory did produce another hit song, "Two Sleepy People", the films themselves made little impact, apparently reflecting Paramount's declining interest in musical comedy. Although Ross would have been willing to play straight drama and had performed well in Prison Wife, Paramount relegated her to supporting roles in two minor romantic comedies. Although one of them (Paris Honeymoon) teamed her again with Crosby, these films failed to advance her career, which went into decline.

Although Ross knew that her understated appeal was better suited to the screen than the stage, she renewed her professional relationship with Rodgers and Hart, and played the lead in their Broadway musical Higher and Higher (1940), featuring the song "It Never Entered My Mind." The show was a critical failure and ran for 108 performances. In 1942 director Arthur Lubin wanted Shirley Ross for the Abbott and Costello comedy Ride "Em Cowboy at Universal Pictures, but according to Anne Gwynne "they thought that she was too old. I heard this years afterward. He had to take me because I was under contract." Ross signed with Republic Pictures for feature films, and did some radio work, most notably as a regular cast member on The Bob Burns Show between 1943 and 1947. Burns worked closely with Bing Crosby, who may have engineered the assignment.

Ross married agent Ken Dolan in 1938 at age 25. When he became ill Ross increasingly attended him, which became an early retirement for her. He died in 1951, when Ross was 38. She married Eddie Blum in 1955, when she was 42. She had 3 children. In 1959 she said that she had given up show business to devote her time to her children, and did not regret the decision a bit.

Ross died from cancer in Menlo Park, California, aged 62. As her married name, Bernice Dolan Blum, was not well known, her death was not widely publicized. But Hope, with whom she had an enduring real-life friendship, did not fail to commemorate her death. He and Crosby sent a 5-foot tall cross with white carnations and a spray of red roses to her funeral. According to her daughter, the service was mobbed.

• Bombshell (1933) - Singer (uncredited) • Jail Birds of Paradise (1934, Short) - Shirley Ross • Morocco Nights (1934, Short) - Singer • Manhattan Melodrama (1934) - Singer in Cotton Club • Hollywood Party (1934) - Singer of 'Feelin' High' (uncredited) • What Price Jazz (1934, Short) - Singer • The Girl from Missouri (1934) - Party Guest (uncredited) • Gentlemen of Polish (1934, Short) - Singer • The Merry Widow (1934) - Minor Role (uncredited) • Buried Loot (1935, Short) - Girl in Apartment (uncredited) • Two Hearts in Wax Time (1935, Short) - Shirley (uncredited) • Age of Indiscretion (1935) - Dotty • Calm Yourself (1935) - Mrs. Ruth Rockwell • I Live My Life (1935) - Vi - drunken party guest dozing in armchair next to piano (uncredited) • It's in the Air (1935) - Cigar Stand Clerk (uncredited) • La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935, Short) - Herself • Devil's Squadron (1936) - Eunice • San Francisco (1936) - Trixie • The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936) - Gwen Holmes • Hideaway Girl (1936) - Toni Ainsworth • Waikiki Wedding (1937) - Georgia Smith • Blossoms on Broadway (1937) - Sally Shea • The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) - Cleo Fielding • Prison Farm (1938) - Jean Forest • Thanks for the Memory (1938) - Anne Merrick • Dangerous to Know (1938) - Herself / Singer on Recording (voice, uncredited) • Paris Honeymoon (1939) - Barbara Wayne Countess De Remi • Cafe Society (1939) - Bells Browne • Some Like It Hot (1939) - Lily Racquel • Unexpected Father (1939) - Dianna Donovan • Kisses for Breakfast (1941) - Juliet Marsden • Sailors on Leave (1941) - Linda Hall • A Song for Miss Julie (1945) - Valerie Kimbro (final film role)

* • Google Books – Roy Hemming on Shirley Ross (1991) • Google Books – Bernard K. Dick on Ross, Crosby & Hope (2007) • In My Mother's Kitchen: Life, Love, and Cooking with Shirley Ross • Photographs and literature

• United Press: "Co-Ed Crashes Gates of Hollywood Studio", The Pittsburgh Press, December 26, 1933, p. 18 • NEA (captioned photo): "The perfect legs of Shirley Ross...", The Spokane Chronicle (Monday, March 26, 1934), p. 5 * • "Shirley Ross Wins Contract, Big Role", The Milwaukee Sentinel, September 8, 1936, p. 17 • "This Actress Proves Dangerous," The Pittsburgh Press (Tuesday, October 6, 1936), p. 27 • "New Star Tops State Musical," Spokane Daily Chronicle, October 12, 1936, p. 10 • Ed Sullivan: "Broadway: Building Up From a Terrific Letdown", The Pittsburgh Press, October 24, 1936, p. 6 • "'Big Broadcast' Comes Thursday: Cast for Carolina Picture Includes Benny, Gracie Allen and Burns", The Spartanburg Herald-Tribune, November 1, 1936, p. 20 • "'The Big Broadcast' Current Empire Film Has Mixture of Comedy and Music," The Lewiston Daily Sun, November 3, 1936, p. 2 • Sheilah Graham: "Hollywood Today: 'Those Who Wait' Include Stars of Filmdom," The Milwaukee Journal, November 16, 1936, p. 7 • "Miss Ross Steals Show At Paramount", The Deseret News, January 26, 1937, p. 11 • Eileen Percy: "Shirley Ross to Play Lead in 'This Way Please'", The Milwaukee Sentinel, April 30, 1937, p. 2 • "Romance in 'Waikiki Wedding: Crosby's Latest at American Said to be Topnotch,'" The San Jose News, June 14, 1937, p. 13 • Louella O. Parsons: "Shirley Ross Has New Job", The Rochester Journal, June 29, 1937, p. 6 • "Theater Gossip: Runyon Story to be Filmed," The St. Petersburg Independent, August 20, 1937, p. 5-A • "Film Runyon's Story", The St. Petersburg Times, September 12, 1937, p. 22 • United Press: "Bing Crosby Shoots 73 to Defeat Hope", The Eugene Register-Guard, November 8, 1937, p. 6 • "Right This Way, My Charming Little Chickadees", The Pittsburgh Press, February 5, 1938, p. 10 • Associated Press wirephoto: "Finds 450 Dead," The Spokane Spokesman-Review, March 5, 1938, p. 13 • "'Big Broadcast of 1938' Stars", The Rochester (PA) Daily Times, March 31, 1938, p. 7 • "Shirley Ross Gets a Leading Role in 'Paris Honeymoon'", The Schenectady Gazette, May 18, 1938, p. 8 • Jimmy Fidler: "Hollywood Shots: Bing's lost ad lib in 'Paris Honeymoon'," The Reading Eagle, June 22, 1938), p. 8 • Sheilah Graham: "Hollywood Clothes Offering Ideas to Brides, Travelers," The Milwaukee Journal, August 8, 1938, p. 2 • Ad for "Prison Farm", The Meriden Record, August 11, 1938, p. 13. "The man she loved put her in a prison more terrifying than Devil's Island." • "Cutie Silences Glib Bob Hope With a Smart Crack," The Pittsburgh Press, September 18, 1938, p. D7 • Associated Press: "Pair Off in Hollywood: Genevieve Tobin and Shirley Ross Are Newlyweds", The Lawrence Journal-World, September 20, 1938, p. 12 • Louella O. Parsons: "It Was Ken Vs. Ken Until Shirley Chose Ken: Miss Ross and Dolan Reveal Marriage in Nevada," The Milwaukee Sentinel, September 20, 1938, p. 3 • "Bob Hope Stars as 'Househusband'," The Spokane Chronicle, January 3, 1939, p. 14 • "Song Inspires Film," The Melbourne Age, January 7, 1939, p. 12 • Kaspar Monahan: "Two Screen Comedies on Warner Bill: Bob Hope and Shirley Ross Shine in Adaptation of Stage Hit," The Pittsburgh Press, January 14, 1939, p. 6 • Patricia Lindsay: "Faddish Diets Are Out, Says Beauty Expert", The Miami News, June 30, 1939, p. 4-C • L.S.B. Shapiro: "A New Hit for Broadway", The Montreal Gazette, April 13, 1940, p. 10 • Louella O. Parsons: "Film Actors Find New Careers on Broadway", Milwaukee Sentinel, April 14, 1940, p. 7-D • Associated Press: "Shirley Ross Sets Pace for Comediennes on Broadway," The Miami News, May 4, 1940, p. 6-A • Jimmy Fidler: "Hollywood: Short Short Story," The Pittsburgh Press, August 19, 1940, p. 9 • Dee Lowrance: "Sister Sluggers: Ladies Of Hollywood Have Learned How To Flip A Mean Right and Are Glad to Oblige for the Camera", The Wilmington Star, June 29, 1941, p. 18 • Captioned photo (ad for Kisses for Breakfast): "They're Much Married", St. Petersburg Times, August 24, 1941, p. 21 • "Beautiful Star Collects Rent", The Madera Tribune, January 29, 1942, p. 1 • Associated Press: "Shirley Ross Granted Divorce From Dolan", The San Bernardino Sun, January 8, 1944, p. 2 • Dorothy Kilgallen: "Voice of Broadway: Gossip in Gotham", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 24, 1944, p. 22 • Louella O. Parsons: "Hollywood: Snapshots of Hollywood Collected at Random", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 2, 1945, p. 6 • Rick Du Brow: "Original 'Thanks for the Memory' Girl Prefers Family to Stardom; Once Musical Comedy Star", The Beaver Valley Times, July 20, 1959, p. 9 • Polly Anderson: "How 'Thanks' became Hope's signature song", The Lumberton Robesonian, May 25, 2003, p. 4C