Mary Carlisle

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Mary Carlisle (born 3 February 1912 Boston, Massachusetts) is a retired American actress and singer.

She was a star of Hollywood B-movies in the 1930's. The archetypal blonde, Mary Carlisle was brought to Hollywood at the age of four by her recently widowed mother. While eating lunch with her mother at the Universal Pictures commissary, Mary was spotted by Carl Laemmle, Jr. and offered a screen test. Carlisle was interested, but decided to finish school before launching her film career. Carlisle finally stepped in front of the cameras in 1930, appearing in her first film, Madame Satan, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. She subsequently freelanced in eighteen movies, alternating between supporting and leading roles. She co-starred in three films with Bing Crosby: College Humor, Double or Nothing and Doctor Rhythm. Carlisle also starred opposite Robert Armstrong and Richard Cromwell, for Producers Releasing Corporation in Baby Face Morgan(1942).

During Carlisle's first decade in Hollywood, her mother became the second wife of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Carlisle herself married New York socialite James Blakely, an erstwhile film actor who later became an executive producer at 20th Century-Fox. Mary Carlisle retired from films in 1942. Seven years later, she began a second career as the manager of the Elizabeth Arden Salon in Beverly Hills, California. Carlisle recently received a "star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.