June MacCloy Biography

The tall, blonde schemer of the Marx Brothers' Out West (1940), in which she performed "You Can't Argue with Love", June MacCloy's light soprano was first heard in the 1928 edition of Broadway's George White's Scandals. She signed with Paramount soon after and, replacing Ginger Rogers, joined Bebe Daniels and Bing Crosby in a rousing rendition of Irving Berlin's "When the Folks High Up Do the Mean Low Down!" in Reaching for the Moon (1931). Musicals, alas, were suffering at the box office and McCloy was ushered into a series of two-reel girl comedies for RKO. She returned to Broadway the following year, singing "Little Old New York" in what was to become Florenz Ziegfeld's final production, Hot Cha!, and spent the remainder of the decade performing for live audiences. Go West brought her back to Hollywood and her attempts to seduce Groucho Marx have become legendary. She retired to marry shortly thereafter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi