Shirley Ross (born Bernice Maude Gaunt, January , â€" March , ) was
an American actress and singer, notable for her duet with Bob Hope,
"Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of . She appeared in
feature films between and , including singing earlier and wholly
different lyrics for the Rodgers and Hart song in Manhattan Melodrama
() that later became "Blue Moon."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 , she was giving
radio recitals and made her first vocal recordings at with Gus
Arnheims'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 MGM. One song, which was later re-written as "Blue
Moon", led to a successful screen test in and then to 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.
an American actress and singer, notable for her duet with Bob Hope,
"Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of . She appeared in
feature films between and , including singing earlier and wholly
different lyrics for the Rodgers and Hart song in Manhattan Melodrama
() that later became "Blue Moon."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 , she was giving
radio recitals and made her first vocal recordings at with Gus
Arnheims'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 MGM. One song, which was later re-written as "Blue
Moon", led to a successful screen test in and then to 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.
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