LEAH RAY

LEAH RAY

As She Appears Under the

MIKErocscope

By Lee Mortimer

LEAH RAY is next Baby Rose Marie, one of the radio’s young stars. She was born nineteen years ago in Norfolk, Virginia, and has a cute Southern accent to substantiate the fact.

Ambition as a kid led her to be a literary critic. She was most enthused about Dickens and Thackeray. But now she’s glad she didn’t pursue the pen, because she makes as much on one radio broadcast as most literary critics make in a year.

When seventeen years old she was taken by her mother to Los Angeles, where she was to finish school. She was all prepared to enroll in the Hollywood High School on a Monday, when in the previous Friday her uncle, who is in the music business, introduced her to Phil Harris. This was when Harris played at the Cocoanut Grove. Phil needed a girl singer. Lead used to sing in parties, so she asked for an audition. After hearing her voice Phil hired her. Her first salary was $ 50 a week. So it transpired that the world lost a literary critic.

Greatest thrill in her life came when Harris brought her to New York. Frequently she had visited the big town as a kid; always had dreamed of the day when she’d live there.

Lead likes to knit. Sweaters and mufflers are her passion. She also reads and adores music, but her hours in the Palais her from visiting opera or concert hall.

Tremendous appetite make her eat everything she can get. Mother tries to keep her in a check because overeating affects her weight. She’s just right now for her five feet, six inches in height, weighting 120 pounds, but if she ever lets go she might blow up like a mountain. Candy, nuts and pop-corn are her special weakness.

Leah is a happy child; has absolutely no dislikes. She goes in for extreme styles in clothes and hats, but wears only black and white. Once in a while her accessories are in pastel shades. Her hobby is collecting hair-ribbons in all colors and patterns. She usually wears hair-ribbons in public. It makes her look cute. She likes all fussy things.

Her only real love affair came when she was in high school. It’s all over now. Leah prefers tall men, but has no set ideas about their complexions. Blonds, brunettes—they’re all the same to her, despite the fact that her own hair is black. She doesn’t care how old the men are, either, just so long as they are companionable and do not jar her. But she’s never going to marry. She’d rather work.

Leah has regular habits, and keeps a strict routine. Never does she smoke or drink; she gets to bed immediately after the show. “I’m just a hillbilly at heart,” she insists. She prefers dancing almost to anything in the world; get a dreamy look in her lovely dark eyes when she dances.

Leah is a sound sleeper; never snores; sleeps in pajamas, pink ones. Her undies are simple, usually plain white. She likes costume jewelry and diamonds.

Ambition drives her continually. She’d like to work in pictures; appeared in “Bed Time Story” with Chevalier, and has made a few shorts. She got a kick when she saw “Bob Hope and Leah Ray in ‘Going Spanish’” advertised in lights on Broadway; laughed for a full day after seeing the sign. “Can you imagine me in lights!” she said to herself again and again.

Her favorite movie actress is JoanCrawford, but she has no favorite man. She loves them all. Hardly ever does she listen to the radio. She’s crazy about animals but living in a big New York hotel allows her to have no pets. She comprises with a big stuffed dog which she keeps in her room.

Leah is sweet, unassuming and child-like. When she lived at home two years ago she was a popular kid; had invitation to parties every night. Now many of her friends are in New York going to college. She sees them whenever she can, both boys and girls. About one thing is she set: She doesn’t want to settle down. She is heartfree at the present time, and likes it. She doesn’t pet. “That’s kid stuff,” she says.

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