Virginia O'Brien

Born in Los Angeles in 1919, Virginia O'Brien was attracted to dancing at an early age after seeing several movies starring Eleanor Powell, but she ultimately became a singer. She was hired for a 1940 stage production of Meet the People (she got the gig because the director was impressed with her spot-on impersonation of Ethel Merman). Although she thought her on-stage debut was a disaster (she suffered from stage fright and sang her song with little emotion), the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Louis B. Mayer, saw the performance and saw potential in O'Brien. She was signed to a...