Shirley Ross

about

Shirley Ross (January 7, 1913 ― March 9, 1975) was an American actress and singer. The first of two daughters born to Charles Burr Gaunt and Maude C. Gaunt (née Ellis) during the century's second decade, Ross was born Bernice Maude Gaunt in Omaha, Nebraska, where she would reside until age 5, when her family moved to York. The following decade, the Gaunts relocated to California, due, at least in part, to Maude Gaunt's grand ambitions for Bernice, her firstborn. Before long, the future Shirley Ross was studying at Hollywood High School; later, she'd attend UCLA. Trained as a classical pianist, Bernice was giving on-air recitals at least as early as 1927, at the age of 14. By 1931, her final year at Hollywood High, she was fully involved in the thespian side of things and, as before, attracting notices in the Los Angeles Times. During her second year at UCLA, Gaunt auditioned successfully for Gus Arnheim's band, with whom she would make her first recordings in 1933 at the age of 20. It was at the band's regular venue, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, that Ross was heard by her next employers, a couple of not-quite-yet-famous Wilshire regulars named Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. In short order, Ross had a new job, namely, 'selling' the songwriters' most recent creations to their employer, MGM. Their particular focus at the time was a soon-to-be-ubiquitous melody, paired with a soon-to-be-forgotten lyric entitled "Prayer" (later "Blue Moon"). Although their tune – at least in thi

top songs

albums

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Bioshock - Music Inspired By The Game

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[Vocal Discomix]

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If You Leave Me Now

Speakeasy Music of the 1920's

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Girl In Love b/w Lookin' For A Man

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Best Of The 30's

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Broadway - America's Music

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Jazz Loungers, Vol. 4

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Famous Movie Melodies, Vol. 22

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Broadway: The American Musical

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Hoagy Carmichael. Stardust - 51 Original Mono Recordings 1924-1957

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Blue Moon

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