Ruby Keeler (1909 - 1993)

• actress, singer
• born August 25, 1909, in Halifax, Nova Scotia
• died February 28, 1993, Rancho Mirage, CA
• former speakeasy dancer, and Broadway lead who married musical star Al Jolson in 1928
• made her film debut as an aspiring showgirl in 42nd Street (1933), opposite newcomer Dick Powell
• she would be paired with the singing Powell in seven Warner Bros. films, most of them with elaborate Busby Berkeley-designed dance routines
• Keeler was sometimes the decorative centerpiece of Berkeley's numbers, such as the jigsaw puzzle of Keeler's face in Dames (1934), assembled to the strains of "I Only Have Eyes For You"
• although Keeler later claimed "I couldn't act. I had that terrible singing voice, and now I can see I wasn't the greatest tap dancer in the world, either," her sincere portrayals of sweet, ingenues trying to get a break touched a chord in audiences during the height of the Depression
• Keeler retired from the screen in 1941 and, after occasional TV appearances in the 50s and 60s, made one of the most heralded show business comebacks, charming Broadway in the 1971 revival of the musical No No Nanette
• divorced Jolson in1940
• filmography

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