The Linda Stirling Centennial

Born 100 years ago today, B movie star Linda Stirling (Louise Schultz, 1921-1997).

Stirling wasm a Long Beach native who started out in amateur theatricals as a child, eventually studying with Ben Bard for two years, before going on to summer stock and modeling on the side. She did a stint as a show girl at Earl Carroll’s Theatre. She was one of the models in the Norman McLeod musical The Powers Girl in 1943. From 1944 through 1947, usually playing the female lead in westerns starring the likes of Wild Bill Elliott and Allan Lane, as well as the sci fi serial The Purple Monster Strikes. On two notable occasions, she played the title character in a Republic picture:

The Tiger Woman (1944):

Hello, Kitty!

And…Zorro’s Black Whip (1944):

Why, put them both together and you’ve got Kitten with a Whip!

In 1946 she married screenwriter Sloan Nibley and left the biz for a time, but she returned from 1954 through 1959 to try her hand at television, acting on shows such as The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and The Real McCoys.

By the early ’60s her two sons were grown so she did a wonderful thing. She attended UCLA and got both a Bacherlors and a Masters. She then went on to teach English and Drama at Glendale College from 1965 through 1992. And from time to time she attended fan conventions.

Fun fact: she was a cousin of both Harris Yullin and Gwen Welles! And her son Christopher Nibley went into the biz behind the camera in various production capacities (D.P., effects, etc).