June MacCloy
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June MacCloy (June 2, 1909 - May 5, 2005) was an American actress and singer in the 1930s and 1940s.
Born in Sturgis, Michigan, (official records say 1909, but MacCloy claimed they confused her with her older sister and she was actually born in 1915), MacCloy moved to Toledo, Ohio as a child.
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[edit] Theater
In 1928 she joined Vanities, produced by Earl Carroll. However her mother forced her to quit due to her skimpy costume. She joined George White's Scandals after studying at the University of Michigan for a year. She impersonated her co-star, Harry Richman, on the song I'm on the Crest of a Wave, and later appeared in a vaudeville troupe designed by Vincente Minnelli, whom she viewed as "sadistic". In 1930 she began making films, signing a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1931. She was loaned out for the musical comedy Reaching for the Moon, starring Bebe Daniels and Douglas Fairbanks. In 1932 she appeared in Florenz Ziegfeld's last production, Hot-Cha. When that closed she toured with a band in a variety of major cities and sang on the cruise ship S.S Transylvania, but radio producers were not interested in her voice.
[edit] Movies
McCloy made her motion picture debut in Reaching For The Moon (1931). It is a United Artists production directed by Edmund Goulding. She has the second lead in the movie. Goulding was casting a Douglas Fairbanks Sr. film when he heard about MacCloy and wired her to come and test.
MacCloy appeared in a variety of short films (including some directed by the then disgraced Fatty Arbuckle) and some features with stars such as Zasu Pitts, and she had her share of admirers (one man offered to take her on a flight in a plane full of rose petals), but never gained any traction. MacCloy's last major role arrived in 1940, when she sparred and flirted with Groucho Marx in one of the Marx Brothers' final films, Go West. Groucho asked her to appear in another film, but she declined, claiming she wanted to make serious pictures.
[edit] Singer
MacCloy was signed by Jimmie Grier to sing with his band in April 1935. Before this she was performing with the Griff William's Orchestra. She was a singer on the radio prior to be hired by George White. Just prior to making her first movie MacCloy was working in a New York City club under the direction of Broadway (Manhattan) producer Billy Rose. Rose, husband of Fanny Brice starred MacCloy in a feature called Sweet and Low.
[edit] Private life
In March 1931 she was sued for divorce in Cincinnati, Ohio by Wilbur Guthlein, a representative of a motion picture corporation. MacCloy married Schuyler Schenck in 1931 and divorced him in 1933. In December 1941 she married architect and fellow jazz enthusiast Neal Wendell Butler, with whom she raised two children until his 1985 death. MacCloy had few regrets about her failure as an actress, but years later wondered if film producers had shied away from her due to their assumption that she was a lesbian.
MacCloy died May 5, 2005 of natural causes.
[edit] References
- Lincoln Star, Likes Movies, January 2, 1931, Page 9.
- Los Angeles Times, College Days Linger In Memories of Stars, December 14, 1930, Page B28.
- Los Angeles Times, Absence Fails To Make Heart Fonder, March 24, 1931, Page 2.
- Los Angeles Times, Tuning In Along The Air Lines, April 29, 1935, Page A14.
- New York Times, June McCloy to Divorce Schenck, March 19, 1933, Page 29.
- Syracuse Herald, June MacCloy, Wednesday Evening, February 18, 1931, Page 10.
