Patricia Ellis: Of WAMPAS and Warners

Classic comedy fans have reason to take note of the name Patricia Ellis(Patricia O’Brien, 1916-1970). She appears opposite Joe E. Brown in Elmer the Great (1933), The Circus Clown (1934) and Bright Lights (1935); and plays Billy Gilbert’s wife in Laurel and Hardy’s Block-Heads(1938). She also co-stars with Jack Haley in Here Comes the Groom (1934) and Arthur Treacher in Step Lively, Jeeves (1938) among other pictures.

The step daughter of Broadway actor/director/producer Alexander Leftwich, Ellis had a couple of years of regional stage experience under her belt when at the young age of 16 she was cast in a small role in the film Three on a Match (1932) and voted one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars. Earl on she had bit roles in things like 42nd Street (1933) but pretty rapidly she ascended to second female leads, and plenty of leading parts, usually in second features. Some other notable pictures include the 1934 version of Harold Teen (1934) with Hal Le Roy, A Night at the Ritz (1935) and Gaiety Girls (1937). Following her five year contract at Warner Brothers, she made numerous films with Columbia, Universal, Fox, Republic, etc.

After nearly 50 films and a career of just seven years, Ellis left Hollywood pretty abruptly. Her last picture was the crime feature Fugitive at Large (1939) with Jack Holt. Her stated reason was that her career was in a rut, although she was in the enviable position of co-starring in movies year after year. It’s just that they tended to be minor ones. She was only 23 years old at the time.

From here she went on to Broadway, where she replacedCarol Bruceearly in the run of the original production of Louisiana Purchase (1940). She began singing with big bands, a gambit very much in vogue at the time. In 1941 she is recorded as having fronted Blue Barron and His Orchestra in Atlantic City, on a bill with Henny Youngman. That same year she married a Kansas City businessman named George O’Maley, spending her remaining days in that city, retired from the biz. She was only 51 when cancer took her.

For more on show biz history, please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,and for more on classic comedy read  Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.