“It’s really amazing. 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.” — Ruby Keeler
“Dancing in speakeasies was a job, and none of us knew for sure who were gangsters. No one told us, so how could we know? My mother used to come and take me home. We thought nothing of walking home together at two in the morning.” — Ruby Keeler, who worked underage as a New York nightclub hoofer in the 1920s.
“I’m certainly not an actress. What I did on the screen wasn’t acting.” — Ruby Keeler
Photo: 42nd Street (1942)
“I haven’t any voice. I can’t sing. I’ve never tried. I mean, what can you do? I’ve talked songs, but it always petrified me.” — Ruby Keeler
Source: Joyce Haber (1971)
Photo: Elmer Fryer (1933)
Dames (1933). With Dick Powell.
Surrounded by lookalikes in the Busby Berkeley musical number “I Only Have Eyes for You” in Dames (1934).
Famous lips of 1935: Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak, Winifred Shaw, Glenda Farrell, Dolores Del Rio, Verree Teasdale, Marion Davies, Jean Muir, Josephine Hutchinson, Olivia de Havilland, Anita Louise, Patricia Ellis, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Margaret Lindsey and Kay Francis.
“I always felt there was more to life than showbiz. The idea of early retirement appealed to me to no end.” – Ruby Keeler
Source: Joyce Haber (1971)
Photo: 1936
Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell from the Field & Turf Club at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel.
