Shirley Chambers was notorious as Hollywood's First Dumb Blonde. She
began her film career at the dawn of talking pictures and was the first
'dumb blonde' at R.K.O Studios, making whoopee in light comedies, and
fluffy musicals.
Born in Seattle, Washington, her family moved to California when she was
in her infancy. Settling in Pasadena, Chambers was schooled in Huntington Park.
By the time she left school in 1928, she was already working as a model. In 1930, she
was signed by Samuel Goldwyn as a Goldwyn Girl around the same time as
Betty Grable, Paulette Goddard, Lucille Ball, Dorothy Coonan, Toby Wing
and Pat Wing.
Among her early film credits are The Kid from Spain (1932), 42nd Street(1932)
and Gold Diggers of 1933. Chambers made her film debut in the chorus of
Whoopee! (1930) starring Eddie Cantor. Deployed in a symmetrical fashion,
she and 100 other girls were filmed from above, a new technique which would
later became ever associated with Berkeley.
In 1932, she left MGM for RKO. After appearing in a
series of film shorts, including Diplomaniacs starring the comedy duo
Wheeler and Woolsey, and The Iceman's Ball, Chambers was offered the
role of Gladys in the Lupe Velez comedy vehicle The Half Naked Truth
(1932). "Lupe was the star and being very difficult," she said. "She
screamed at the director Gregory La Cava, 'you couldn't do without me',
and he was barking back at her, 'I could make a star out of anyone, out
of the next person who walked on this set', and in I came through the
door". Lupe Velez laughed hysterically when she saw Chambers dressed
for her part as Gladys a French Maid, whom in the film is believed is
doubling as the leader of a nudist colony.. However La Cava
stuck to his word and cast Chambers in a bevy of his films.
In Melody Cruise (1933), she teamed up with June Brewster as a couple of
gold-diggers, both with their eyes on a winsome millionaire (played by
Charles Ruggles). Chambers was well on her way to become the studio's
answer to Jean Harlow. RKO was riding the crest of the wave with a
series of box-office hits, including Flying Down to Rio, King Kong and
Morning Glory (all 1933) in which she appeared.
Rare for the time, Shirley Chambers took an agent and freelanced.
She appeared in Dancing Lady (1933) with Joan Crawford,
played a manicurist in the Wallace Beery western Viva Villa! (1934),
rode into frame as lady Godiva in Nothing Sacred (1937), and took minor roles
in George Cukor's The Women, and Gone With the Wind (both 1939).
During WWII, she toured with the USO. She became the first screen star to land
in South Africa where, as part of a theatre company, she entertained hundreds of Allied
Forces. In 1943, she returned to the US, and joined the cast of the
Moss Hart morale booster, Winged Victory. Opening in Boston it
transferred to Broadway, where it became a smash hit, playing to over
350,000 people in 226 performances. During the New York run, Chambers
starred alongside Karl Malden and Mario Lanza. Returning to California
in the late 1940s, she picked up her career where she left off, making
dozens of appearances on television.
She married in 1945 and had one daughter. For the last three decades of her career,
Chambers was active in repertory theatre and in TV commercials.
