Carol Bruce (November 15, 1919 – October 9, 2007) was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress. She was born Shirley Levy in Great Neck, New York to Beatrice and Harry Levy.She began her career as a singer in the late 1930s with Larry Clinton and his band. A graduate of Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York, she made her Broadway debut in Louisiana Purchase," with songs by Irving Berlin who discovered her at a nightclub in Newark, New Jersey. She was the first actress to play the role of Julie in a Broadway production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat since the 1932 Broadway revival. Bruce played the role onstage in 1946 and garnered favorable comparisons to Helen Morgan, who had originated the role onstage in 1927 and repeated it in both the 1932 revival and the 1936 film. After a long career as a singer and in films, Bruce is probably best-remembered for her recurring role as the domineering and meddlesome "Mama Carlson" (mother of the station manager played by Gordon Jump) on CBS' WKRP in Cincinnati. Sylvia Sidney played Mr. Carlson's mother in the Pilot episode.
November 15, 1919, Great Neck, New York, United States
Died
October 9, 2007, Woodland Hills, Utah, United States
Place Of Birth
Great Neck, Long Island, New York, USA
Profession
Actress, Soundtrack
Education
Erasmus Hall High School
Nationality
American
Spouse
Milton Nathanson (m. 1945–1963)
Children
Julie Nathanson
Parents
Beatrice Levy, Harry Levy
Albums
Calypso Blues, The Glory of Love, Blue Classics, Thrill to the Fabulous Carol Bruce
Movies
The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, American Gigolo, Behind the Eight Ball, Keep 'Em Flying, This Woman Is Mine
Star Sign
Scorpio
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Fact
1
Began her singing career as a Montreal nightclub singer before returning to the states and appearing in "George White's Scandals" in Boston in 1938. The show eventually went to Broadway.
2
Won the revered role of Julie in the acclaimed 1946 revival of "Show Boat" opposite Kenneth Spencer and Jan Clayton (of "Lassie" fame). She went on to name her daughter Julie.
3
Some references claim Ms. Bruce earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway work in the musical "Do I Hear a Waltz?" in 1965. Despite her outstanding performance, it was another actress Elizabeth Allen who was given a nomination from the show. Ms. Allen subsequently lost to Liza Minnelli of "Flora, the Red Menace" that year.
4
Made her film debut in the Frank Lloyd seafaring adventure This Woman is Mine (1941). In her second film, Keep 'Em Flying (1941), she sang "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You." In her third, Behind the Eight Ball (1942), she introduced a Don Raye-Gene DePaul ballad, "You Don't Know What Love Is," which had been dropped from "Keep 'Em Flying" but later became a jazz standard. After these three pictures for Universal, she didn't appear in another film until 1980.
5
The Broadway show "Louisiana Purchase" landed her on the cover of Life Magazine (September 9, 1940).
6
On July 12, 1951, she was involved in a serious auto accident in Pennsylvania when she collided with a truck. The truck driver died and she was deemed at fault.
7
Her last musical stage role was as Madame Armfeldt in a 1994 performance of "A Little Night Music" in San Diego.
8
Mother of one daughter, Julie.
9
Sang at President Franklin D Roosevelt's Birthday Ball, The White House, Washington, D.C., January 1942
$300,000
