American comedienne Polly Moran left the vaudeville circuit (which in her case included Europe and South Africa) in 1914 for a job at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios. Polly took to broad, vulgar slapstick with ease, remaining with Sennett into the '20s. Her best work in that decade commenced after Polly signed with MGM, where she was teamed with legendary Broadway musical comedy star Marie Dressler in an earthy domestic comedy The Callahans and the Murphys (1927). MGM decided to build up Polly and Marie as a team in such talkies as Chasing Rainbows (1930) Caught Short(1930) and Politics (1932). Nowhere near as brilliant a performer as Dressler, Polly Moran nonetheless had her own roughneck charm, her parts fluctuating between low-class servants and pretentious "nouveau riche" dowagers. After Marie Dressler's death in 1934, Polly Moran's star waned, and by 1936 she was languishing in inexpensive two-reel comedies at Columbia Pictures. Her days of prominence had passed, and Polly would have to be content with B-pictures and bit roles for most of the rest of her career; nonetheless, she maintained a hyperactive social life, throwing some of Hollywood's rowdiest (and most talked about) parties. A good small part in Adam's Rib(1949) led to a new screen career for Polly Moran, unfortunately cut short by her death in 1952.
by Hal Erickson
biography
