From Wikipedia:
Mary Carlisle (born
February 3,
1912) is a retired
American actress and
singer.
Born in
Boston, Massachusetts, she was a star of Hollywood films in the 1930s, having been one of fifteen girls selected as "
WAMPAS Baby Stars" in 1932. The archetypal blonde, Mary Carlisle was brought to
Hollywood at the age of four by her recently widowed mother. While eating lunch with her mother at the
Universal Pictures commissary, Mary was spotted by
Carl Laemmle, Jr. and offered a screen test. Carlisle was interested, but decided to finish school before launching her film career. Carlisle finally stepped in front of the cameras in 1930, appearing in her first film,
Madame Satan, directed by
Cecil B. DeMille.
She subsequently freelanced in eighteen movies, alternating between supporting and leading roles. She co-starred in three films with
Bing Crosby:
College Humor,
Double or Nothing and
Doctor Rhythm.
In 1934, Carlisle was featured opposite
Ralph Bellamy and
Fay Wray in
Once to Every Woman, based on a story by
A.J. Cronin. She also starred with
Robert Armstrong and
Richard Cromwell, for
Producers Releasing Corporation, in
Baby Face Morgan(1942).
During Carlisle's first decade in Hollywood, her mother became the second wife of
industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Carlisle herself married
New York socialite James Blakely, an erstwhile film actor who later became an executive producer at
20th Century-Fox. Blakely died on January 30, 2007.
Mary Carlisle retired from films in 1942. Seven years later, she began a second career as the manager of the
Elizabeth Arden Salon in
Beverly Hills, California. Carlisle recently received a "star" on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. Of the fifteen girls selected as "WAMPAS Baby Stars" in 1932, only three are still alive: Carlisle,
Dorothy Layton, and
Gloria Stuart.
Barbara Kent also survives, but was chosen as a "
WAMPAS Baby Star" in 1927.
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