Ellen Drew left a unique Hollywood legacy: not only did she star in several dozen movies as varied as a Bing Crosby musical and a Boris Karloff horror film, but she also devised her very own ice-cream sundae at CC Brown's famous parlour in Hollywood Boulevard. The recipe still appears on the company website. The name ''Cinderella sundae'' seems entirely appropriate, for while thousands of young girls dreamed about being spotted waiting tables, Ellen Drew made the dream happen.
The waitress, who became a Film Pictorial cover girl and starred opposite some of the biggest names in Hollywood, has died in Palm Desert, California, aged 89.
The daughter of a barber, she was born Esther Loretta Ray in Kansas City, Missouri, though the family subsequently moved to Chicago. Success in a local beauty competition encouraged her to pursue the
Hollywood dream.
She had virtually given up hope of breaking into the movies and was working in CC Brown's, whose hot fudge sundaes attracted stars attending premieres at the nearby Chinese Theatre, when she met William Demarest, a leading character actor, who appeared with Al Jolson in the first talkie, The Jazz Singer.
One screen test later, she had swapped Brown's paycheque for Paramount's. In 1936 and 1937, she appeared in at least 20 films. The following year, the musical Cocoanut Grove provided her with another supporting role and the second
of her four husbands, writer
Sy Bartlett, who also wrote Road to Zanzibar and The
Big Country.
Her career was transformed that year, when she appeared in a leading role in Sing, You Sinners, in which Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray and 12-year-old Donald O'Connor played three singing brothers.
Even as a contract star, she was making up to six films a year at Paramount, across a wide range of genres. In Preston Sturges's romantic
comedy Christmas in July (1940), Drew shared star billing with Dick Powell, who played a lowly clerk who thinks he has won a fortune, and she got to work with erstwhile customer William Demarest.
Subsequently, Drew switched from Paramount to RKO, where she appeared in Isle of the Dead (1945), one of the classic Val Lewton horror films that inspired fear through atmosphere and ideas, rather than gore and special effects.
Set in 1912, the film explored science, superstition and the fear of premature burial. A small group of assorted characters is stranded on a small island. Among their number is Boris Karloff , who plays a ruthless Greek general, but they are menaced by a more terrifying killer - the plague.
Drew appeared in Geronimo in 1939 and the Jack Benny comedy western Buck Benny Rides Again in 1940.
Increasingly, she seemed to find herself back in the Wild West, co-starring with Glenn Ford and William Holden in The Man from Colorado (1948) and George Montgomery in Indian Scout (1950).
She appeared with some of the biggest names of the genre - she was Vincent Price's baroness in Sam Fuller's The Baron of Arizona (1950), she helped shape the legend of Jesse and Frank James in The Great Missouri Raid (1950) and she co-starred with Randolph Scott in Andre de Toth's Man in the Saddle (1951).
Drew worked less in films as the decade progressed and more in television, appearing in the likes of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and Perry Mason. She retired in the early 1960s and is survived by a son, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Ellen Drew, actress; born November 23 , 1914, died December 3, 2003.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article