The beautiful movie star known to millions as the 'Oomph Girl' often admitted to the press she had no idea what 'oomph' meant, and described it as 'what a fat man says when he leans over to tie his shoelace in a phone booth.'
Clara Lou Sheridan was born in Denton, Texas, a town just northwest of Dallas, Feb. 21, 1915. She was her parents' fifth and last child of four girls and a boy. Her father C.W. was an automobile mechanic and her mother Lulu was a stay-at-home mom.
As a teen, the last thing on pretty tomboy Clara's mind was to become a movie star or a glamour queen. She was content to excel in sports, particularly basketball, and planned to become a teacher.
Her sister Kitty decided to send a photo of Clara in a bathing suit to Paramount Studios for a promotional campaign contest for the film Search For Beauty. Clara and five other young girls won a trip to Hollywood and a screen test. Ditching her teaching plans and her studies at the North Texas Teacher's College, the future star landed a small role in the film, which featured other future stars Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino. In 1934 Clara won a small part in Wagon Wheels. She was well received and the studio gave her a short-term contract.
During the next two years, Sheridan appeared in 24 mostly forgettable films in which her roles were engineered to show off her beauty. In late 1935, Clara left Paramount for Warner Brothers Studios, where she landed a new contract and changed her name to Ann. There, with her luxurious red hair, hazel eyes, quick smile and sense of humour, she excelled in tough melodramas and comedy.
In 1936 Ann married her first husband, becoming the fifth wife of fellow actor Edward Norris. They separated after 375 days. That same year she made her first film for Warner's, Black Legion, also starring Humphrey Bogart. They were to make five more films together, including Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and They Drive By Night (1940), which also starred George Raft and Ida Lupino.
In 1939, makeup king Max Factor named Ann 'Girl of the Year.' Warner Brothers announced that Sheridan was chosen from among 1- other starlets as 'The Oomph Girl'—a name she despised—by a panel of 25 well-known celebrities that included Bob Hope. In 1941, Ann went on a six-month strike against Warner's, feeling she deserved more than the $600 a week they were paying her. She lost her battle, and returned to work. Yet she was thereafter treated as a star, and given a great starring role in King's Row (1942), opposite future president Ronald Reagan.
At the start of WWII, Sheridan became one of the favorite pin-up girls of that time, though not quite rivaling Betty Grable. In 1942, she gave marriage another chance with actor George Brent, a union which lasted only 263 days. Throughout the 1940s, she made 16 films, which include Torrid Zone (1940), The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942), Nora Prentiss (1947), The Unfaithful (1947), and I Was A Male War Bride (1949), with Cary Grant. During this time, Ann Sheridan was one of Hollywood's most glamorous celebrities.
In 1956, Ann gave marriage a third try with one James Owens. Also that year, she was one of the many stars (including Joan Collins and June Allyson) who appeared in a glossy musical version of The Women named The Opposite Sex.
In 1957 Ann made her final Hollywood film, The Woman and the Hunter, and then moved to New York to continue her career on stage and in numerous television shows. In 1964, she was the first movie actress to star in a soap opera series, Another World.
In 1966, she completely revived her career when she played the star role of Henrietta Hawks in the comedy series Pistols 'n Petticoats. That same year she married her fourth husband, actor Scott McKay. But Ann never finished filming the first season of her hit television show. Married less than a year, the beautiful, feisty, wise-cracking Ann Sheridan succumbed to cancer Jan. 21, 1967, 30 days before her 52nd birthday.
Director Howard Hawks said of Ann, 'She outlived some of the worst pictures you've ever known. People liked her. They made her a star in spite of the bad pictures. When we made I Was A Male War Bride she wasn't so young. She'd been through the mill by that time. But if you're going to make a good picture with Cary Grant, you'd better have somebody who's pretty damn good along with him.'
Ann Sheridan once said of her time in Hollywood, 'There was a certain kind of fantasy, a certain imagination that is not accepted now. The world is too small. Those were glamorous days.'
Sources The Movie Stars Story edited by Robyn Karney. Hollywood Album—Lives and Deaths of Hollywood Stars from the pages of The New York Times, Edited by Arleen Keylin and Suri Fleischer. The Illustrated Who's Who Of The Cinema, Edited by Ann Lloyd and Graham Fuller. They Had Faces Then by John Springer and Jack D. Hamilton. Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits by Mark A. Vieira, and Ann Sheridan Web sites.
Steve Starr is the author of Picture Perfect—Art Deco Photo Frames 1926-1946, published by Rizzoli International Publications. A designer and an artist, he is the owner of Steve Starr Studios, specializing in original Art Deco photo frames, jewelry and furnishings, and celebrating its 36th anniversary in 2003.
Visit the studio at 2779 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago where adorning the walls is Steve Starr's personal collection of over 950 gorgeous frames filed with photos of Hollywood's most glamorous stars.
Photo of Steve Starr July 25, 2002, by Albert Aguilar
You may email Steve at SSSChicago@ameritech.net