Gloria Warren(1926-2021)

Gloria Warren was briefly touted as a potential rival to Deanna Durbin. As a singer (soprano), she was noted for her rendition of "Always in My Heart', a song adapted from Ernesto Lecuona's Siempre en mi corazón and first popularized by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. Despite a strong build-up, enduring fame, however, was not to be hers. A personable brunette, Gloria was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to jeweler and watchmaker Herman Weiman, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, and his wife Julia Weiss, who was a Hungarian Jewish émigré. She was regarded as a child prodigy, tutored by Budapest-born concert pianist Agnes Laszlo and adept at the instrument by the tender age of nine. In addition, she took singing, dancing and acting lessons. Gloria's musical talents may not have attracted more than local attention if not for her ambitious mother. In 1940, Julia managed to finagle a five minute interview with a local radio producer, who became so impressed by the 14-year old that he arranged for a Hollywood talent scout to come out and assess her abilities. Two years later, Gloria signed a seven-year deal with Warner Brothers. For the usual marquee reasons, the studio changed her surname to Warren and this moniker was also adopted by her parents.

Gloria's brief motion picture career was launched (and almost instantly scuttled) with Always in My Heart (1942), a domestic melodrama with music, in which she played the teenage daughter of Kay Francis. The hackneyed and contrived screenplay did the cast no favours. Bosley Crowther, reviewing for The New York Times, wrote "virtually everything else that is antique was done to her in this film. Miss Warren is a pleasing little lady - a bit mature for her reported fifteen years- and she has a reedy voice which she handles rather well. So you would think the Warners could have managed to provide for her debut a tale just a shade more refreshing..." Apparently not, since she was loaned out to RKO for her next picture, Cinderella Swings It (1943). The last of the increasingly out-of-favour 'Scattergood Baines' comedy series with Guy Kibbee, this too failed on every level and was panned by critics and audiences alike, though co-star Gloria was generally regarded as the film's sole bright spot. After two pictures considered box-office poison, an unsurprising three year long hiatus followed. She was cast as female leads on three more occasions: not in musicals (which would have made sense) but in forgettable quota quickies for Poverty Row studios, including a lesser entry in the Charlie Chan series.

By 1948, Gloria had given up on film acting to raise a family, having married businessman Peter Gold (eventually CEO and chairman of the Price Pfister Brass Manufacturing Company) two years earlier. They had two children. Gloria Warren died in Los Angeles on September 11 2021 at the age of 95.