- Carole Landis, Moon Over Miami, 1940. Seen for Betty Grable’s sister, Barbara, Davis found herself playing Miss Carstairs in Sun Valley Serenade – with two other Miami candidates, Lynn Bari and John Payne. That was the Fox way. Much the same at MGM, too.
- Betty Grable, Song of the Islands, 1941. Once Davis and Alice Faye were bypassed, it was always going to be Grable as Eileen, on the tropical isle Ahmi-Oni. She fell for Victor Mature’s Irishman, looking and sounding as Irish as Cheetah.
- Mary Wickes, Higher and Higher, 1942. Director Tim Whelan changed Katherine into Hale in the screen debut of Frank Sinatra. And, indeed, of Mel Tormé. (Wickes was the first Mary Poppins – on CBS TV in 1949).
Birth year: 1907Death year: 1961Other name: Casting Calls: 3