Sally Long was a dancer and motion picture actress from Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

. She graduated from Eden Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 in 1921.

Dancer

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...

 insured Long for $100,000 against the possibility of her falling in love or marrying when she danced for his Ziegfeld Follies

Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....

 in the early 1920s. After performing with the Follies, Long appeared in the New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 comedy production of Scandals. Her rising popularity secured her a role in the cast of Kid Boots. Composer Milton Ager

Milton Ager

Milton Ager was an American composer.Ager was born in Chicago, Illinois, the sixth of nine children. Leaving school with only three years of formal high-school education, he taught himself to play the piano and embarked on a career as a musician. After spending time as an accompanist to silent...

 said Long was his inspiration for the song, I Wonder What's Become of Sally.

Film star

Long's first film experience came when Jesse Lasky secured fourteen of the prettiest women for parts in his The Dressmaker from Paris (1925). Produced by Famous Players, Long's character was noticed on the screen by filmmaker D.W. Griffith. Soon she appeared in a motion picture with Leatrice Joy

Leatrice Joy

Leatrice Joy was an American actress most prolific during the early silent film era.-Early life and career:...

.

Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...

 picked Long to play the leading feminine role in The Hooded Falcon. However her contract with Valentino expired before the film was made. Valentino changed his mind about the movie he wished to make. He decided to do a motion picture which called for a blond feminine lead.

Long opted to sign with A. H. Sebastian, Hollywood producer and executive head of Sebastian-Belasco Productions. Her first part with Sebastian was in Fifth Avenue (1926), playing a Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

 girl. She next starred with Buck Jones

Buck Jones

Buck Jones was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, best known for his work starring in many popular western movies...

 in a Pathe Pictures production of the comedy, The Fighting Buckaroo (1926).

She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars

WAMPAS Baby Stars

The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...

 of 1926 along with Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, Fay Wray

Fay Wray

Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...

, Mary Brian

Mary Brian

Mary Brian was an American actress and movie star who made the transition from 'silents' to 'talkies'.-Early life:...

, Joyce Compton

Joyce Compton

Joyce Compton was an American actress.She was born Olivia Joyce Compton in Lexington, Kentucky and not Eleanor Hunt as is frequently erroneously stated. She had appeared in the film Good Sport with Hunt and this confusion in an early press article followed Compton throughout her career...

, and eight others. In 1927 she appeared in the serial King of the Jungle

King of the Jungle (serial)

King of the Jungle is a 1927 adventure film serial directed by Webster Cullison. The film is considered to be lost.-Cast:* Elmo Lincoln* Sally Long...

with Elmo Lincoln

Elmo Lincoln

Elmo Lincoln was an American film actor.Born Otto Elmo Linkenhelt, the barrel-chested actor is best known in his silent movie role as the first Tarzan in 1918's Tarzan of the Apes as an adult --...

. Long's final screen appearances came in Cock o' the Walk (1930) and Traffic Tangle (1930). She studied voice beginning in 1932 with director Mitchell Leisen

Mitchell Leisen

Mitchell Leisen was an American director, art director, and costume designer.-Film career:He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments...

.

Personal life

Long married Leo Bovette Tuey in Kansas City in 1916, when she was fifteen years old. The couple had two children. Long divorced Tuey in December 1926. Long explained that she kept her marriage to Tuey a secret because it might have inhibited her career advancement.

She resided for a time with her mother in a large Spanish home at 628 Rodeo Drive

Rodeo Drive

Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....

 in Beverly Hills, California

Beverly Hills, California

Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...

. In August 1926 she moved to a cozier home in the Mexican Village a few blocks away, at 251 Crescent Drive.

Sally Long died in Newport Beach, California

Newport Beach, California

Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, south of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 85,186 at the 2010 census.The city's median family income and property values consistently place high in national rankings...

in 1987, aged 85.