June MacCloy was an American actress and singer in the 1930s and 1940s.

Born in Sturgis, Michigan

Sturgis, Michigan

Sturgis, is a city in St. Joseph County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,994 at the 2010 census. The city is located at the northeast corner of Sturgis Township and at the intersection of US 12 and M-66....

, MacCloy moved to Toledo, Ohio

Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

 as a child.

Theater

In 1928 she joined Vanities, produced by Earl Carroll

Earl Carroll

Earl Carroll was an American theatrical producer, director, songwriter and composer born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.-Career:...

, but her mother forced her to quit due to her skimpy costume. When she was a teenager, MacCloy was chosen by song writer/producer Lew Brown

Lew Brown

Lew Brown was a lyricist for popular songs in the United States.Brown was born as Louis Brownstein in Odessa, Russian Empire...

 (of the prolific team DeSylva, Brown & Henderson) to impersonate Broadway star Harry Richman

Harry Richman

Harry Richman was an American entertainer. He was a singer, actor, dancer, comedian, pianist, songwriter, bandleader, and night club performer, at his most popular in the 1920s and 1930s....

, singing "I'm On The Crest of a Wave" in the ninth edition of George White's Scandals

George White's Scandals

George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modelled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, ...

 (Apollo Theater, July 2, 1928; 230 performances). Just prior to making her first movie MacCloy was working in New York City clubs such as the Abbey and Chateau Madrid. She also toured with a Parkington Vaudeville Unit, which used the designing talents of a young Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...

. After her film début she appeared with Lupe Vélez

Lupe Vélez

Lupe Vélez was a Mexican film actress. Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville. She was seen by Fanny Brice who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had...

, Bert Lahr

Bert Lahr

Bert Lahr was an American actor and comedian. Lahr is remembered today for his roles as the Cowardly Lion and Kansas farmworker Zeke in The Wizard of Oz, but was also well-known for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and on Broadway.-Early life:Lahr was born in New York City, of German-Jewish heritage...

, Buddy Rogers and June Knight

June Knight

June Knight was an American Broadway and film actress.Aged 19, she appeared in the last Ziegfeld Follies show, Hot-Cha!...

 in "Hot-Cha", Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...

's last production (Ziegfeld Theater, March 8, 1932; 119 performances). Her big number was "Little Old New York" by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson.

Movies

Signed by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 in 1930, she was loaned out to United Artists

United Artists

United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....

 for her first feature, Reaching for the Moon (film)

Reaching for the Moon (film)

Reaching for the Moon is an American 1930 black and white musical film. Originally released at 91 minutes; surviving versions are usually cut to 62 minutes. A 74-minute version aired in 1998 on USA cable channel AMC. The DVD version runs just under 72 minutes. The film's workingtitle was Lucky...

 (released February 21, 1931), starring Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, became a star in musicals like 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain...

, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Edward Everett Horton

Edward Everett Horton

Edward Everett Horton was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television and voice work for animated cartoons. He is especially known for his work in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Isabella...

 and Claud Allister. She plays 'Kitty,' Bebe Daniels' flirtatious best friend. The director, Edmund Goulding

Edmund Goulding

Edmund Goulding was a British film writer and director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 British made Paramount silent Three Live Ghosts alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. Also in the early 20s he wrote several screenplays for star Mae Murray and...

, was casting another Fairbanks film when he heard about MacCloy and wired her to come and test. Her first Paramount film was June Moon

June Moon

June Moon is a play by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner. Based on the Lardner short story "Some Like Them Cold," about a love affair that loses steam before it ever gets started, it includes songs with words and music by Lardner but is not considered a musical per se.At its center is Fred...

 (released March 21, 1931), based on the play by George S. Kaufman

George S. Kaufman

George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...

 and Ring Lardner

Ring Lardner

Ringgold Wilmer Lardner was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre.-Personal life:...

. Subsequently MacCloy appeared in a variety of short films and some features with stars such as Jack Oakie

Jack Oakie

Jack Oakie was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television.-Early life:...

, Frances Dee

Frances Dee

Frances Marion Dee was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early talkie musical, The Playboy of Paris...

 and ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...

. With co-stars Gertrude Short

Gertrude Short

Gertrude Short was an American film actress of the silent and early sound era. She appeared in 132 films between 1912 and 1945.She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died in Hollywood, California, aged 66....

 and Marion Shilling

Marion Shilling

Marion Shilling was an American film actress of the 1930s.Shilling was born as Marion Schilling in Denver, Colorado in 1910 as per , although some biographers had formerly cited 1911 or 1914. She started her acting career as a stage actress, starring in stage plays such as Miss Lulu Betts and Mrs....

, she made a series of short films for RKO-Pathé called The Gay Girls. One of her directors was the then disgraced Fatty Arbuckle

Fatty Arbuckle

Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd...

. With Leon Erroll, she co-starred in the second full Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

 film shot outdoors, "Good Morning, Eve!" (released September 22, 1934). MacCloy's last major role was in 1940, when she sparred and flirted with Groucho Marx

Groucho Marx

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...

 in one of the Marx Brothers

Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...

' final films, Go West" (released December 6, 1940). Groucho asked her to appear in another film, but she declined, claiming she wanted to make serious pictures.

Singer

MacCloy subsequently sang with dance orchestras, including Johnny Hamp, Henry King

Henry King

Henry King may refer to:* Henry King , English poet, Bishop of Chichester* Henry King , Member of Parliament for County Sligo* Henry King , U.S...

, Jimmie Grier and Ben Pollack

Ben Pollack

Ben Pollack was a drummer and bandleader from the mid 1920s through the swing era. His eye for talent led him to either discover or employ, at one time or another, musicians such as Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Glenn Miller, Jimmy McPartland and Harry James...

. In San Francisco she was featured with the Williams-Walsh Orchestra (Griff Williams and Jimmy Walsh) at the Hotel Mark Hopkins. Her band work took her to Chicago and many other cities.

Private life

In March 1931 she was sued for divorce in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

 by Wilbur Guthlein, a representative of a motion picture corporation. MacCloy married Schuyler Schenck in 1931 and divorced him in 1933.
In December 1941 she married architect and fellow jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 enthusiast Neal Wendell Butler, with whom she raised two children until his 1985 death.

MacCloy died May 5, 2005 of natural causes.

External links