British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1312. Photo: Universal.
Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: N.V. Holl.-Am. F.B.O. Robert Stack, Gloria Jean and Nan Grey in A Little Bit of Heaven (Andrew Marton, 1940).
Little Miss Fixit roles and Hepcat musicals
Gloria Jean Schoonover was born in 1926 in Buffalo, New York. She and her family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, shortly afterwards. Her father, Ferman Schoonover, owned a music store. Her mother, Eleanor Schoonover, had been a circus bareback rider and took care of Gloria and her three sisters: Sally, Lois and Bonnie. Gloria's singing ability was discovered when she was little. She was three years old when she first sang on the radio under the name of Baby Skylark.
Her family was involved in her later career. Lois served as a stand-in for Gloria Jean, and their father managed her career. By 5, she was singing in the Scranton area and sang with Paul Whiteman's orchestra on radio broadcasts. At 12, she became the youngest member of an American opera troupe when she joined a small New York opera company. In 1938, Gloria was being trained as a coloratura soprano when her voice teacher, Leah Russel, took her to an audition held by Universal Pictures producer Joe Pasternak.
Pasternak was looking for a new child singer to replace studio icon Deanna Durbin, who was being steered into ingenue and young-adult roles. Although hundreds of Shirley-Temple-perfect girls competed, natural-looking Gloria was chosen, and she and her mother headed to Hollywood. Gloria made her first film, The Under-Pup (Richard Wallace, 1939), with Robert Cummings and Nan Grey. It made her an instant hit with filmgoers. Happy with their young coloratura soprano, Universal cast her in If I Had My Way (David Butler, 1940), which co-starred Bing Crosby and Charles Winninger. Next came A Little Bit of Heaven (Andrew Marton, 1940) with Robert Stack, which some consider her best film. Then followed a co-starring role with W.C. Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Edward F. Cline, 1941), which became her most-seen film.
At this point in 1941, Gloria Jean was at the pinnacle of her career, yet her star wasn't soaring. She had outgrown her Little Miss Fixit roles, as Deanna Durbin had a few years earlier. Durbin was in command of the older-girl roles for the better pictures. Unsure what to do with Jean, Universal moved her to the 'Hepcat' movies in which she often co-starred with Donald O'Connor. These 'hipster' musicals were geared to teenagers to introduce new young talent and included What's Cooking (Edward F. Cline, 1942) with The Andrews Sisters, Get Hep to Love (Charles Lamont, 1942), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (Charles Lamont, 1942), and It Comes Up Love (Charles Lamont, 1942). The next year, Mr Big (Charles Lamont, 1943) and Moonlight in Vermont (Edward C. Lilley, 1943) followed.
All these 'Hepcat' musicals were stock B-films. Like many Universal stars, Gloria had a few seconds onscreen in the war effort picture Follow the Boys (A. Edward Sutherland, John Rawlins, 1944). After that came the rather good Pardon My Rhythm (Felix E. Feist, 1944) with Mel Torme, who became a close friend. In Ghost Catchers (Edward F. Cline, 1944), she was teamed with popular comedians Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. The forgettable Reckless Age (Felix E. Feist, 1944) was next, and its main distinction was as the first in which Gloria played a more mature role.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series. Photo: Universal, London, no. 1312a.
Spanish postcard in the Hollywood (California) series by Archivo Bermejo, Barcelona, no. 3239.
Hostess at a Tahitian restaurant
In January 1944, Universal announced plans to launch Gloria Jean as a more adult star, and she turned 18 in April. Gloria was to star as a blind girl in one of four episodes of Julien Duvivier's Flesh and Fantasy, alongside such stars as Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, and Barbara Stanwyck. But the film was found to be too long, and Gloria's segment was cut out. Some additional footage was added, and the result was the Film Noir Destiny (Reginald Le Borg, Julien Duvivier, 1944). Gloria's first dramatic performance won rave reviews, but the actual film met with only modest success.
Gloria followed this with three more Universal films: I'll Remember April (Harold Young, 1945), the Film Noir River Gang (Charles David, 1945) with Keefe Brasselle, and the musical Easy to Look At (Ford Beebe, 1945) with Kirby Grant. On bad advice from her agent, Gloria Jean decided to go on tour instead of renewing her Universal contract. The tour underperformed, and she returned to Hollywood in 1947. Gloria Jean's family lawyer had vanished with her earnings, and she found great difficulty in securing film roles.
Groucho Marx gave her a minor role in his film Copacabana (Alfred E. Green, 1947) with Carmen Miranda. This appearance ultimately landed her four more: I Surrender Dear (Arthur Dreifuss, 1948), Manhattan Angel (Arthur Dreifuss, 1948), An Old-Fashioned Girl (Arthur Dreifuss, 1949), and There's a Girl in My Heart (Arthur Dreifuss, 1949). As the 1950s began, Gloria made six Snader Telescriptions, three-minute musicals that aired during television's early days. Other than that and a few guest appearances on TV series, her acting career was virtually finished.
She appeared in the forgettable Air Strike (Cy Roth, 1955) and a couple of films that were never released. In 1961, Jerry Lewis read about her working as a hostess at a Tahitian restaurant and gave her a part in his film The Ladies' Man (Jerry Lewis, 1963). This was meant to relaunch her career, but her scenes didn't make the final cut. Gloria Jean's final television appearances occurred in episodes of The Dick Powell Theatre, Lockup and Saints and Sinners. Shortly after, she was briefly married to Italian actor Franco Cellini (1962-1966) and had a son, Angelo. At that point, she virtually retired from the screen and went to work for the cosmetics firm Redken until 1993, when she retired.
Gloria was reintroduced to a limelight of sorts by the magic of eBay, where her films were being sold. With her sister Bonnie's help, who handled the computer, she sold copies of her films on eBay, as well as signed photographs of herself. Spurred by the popularity of these, she published her autobiography, 'Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven' (2005). After her sister Bonnie's death in 2007, Gloria moved to Hawaii to live with her son and his family. Her son died in 2017, and very late in life, she suffered health problems. Until she died from heart failure and pneumonia in 2018, Gloria Jean lived in Mountain View, HI, with her family. She is buried in Hawaii's Mountain View Community Cemetery. She had four grandchildren.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 245, offered by Victoria, Brussels, no. 639. Photo: Universal.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 668. Photo: Associated British Pathé.
Sources: Tom Barrister (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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