Winifred Shaw on AllMovie

The youngest of 13 children, singer/dancer/actress Wini Shaw was the daughter of Hawaiian/English entertainers. She made her own performing debut with her siblings at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair. When the family act split up in the 1920s, Shaw became a headliner in the Ziegfeld Follies. After a false start at Fox Studios, Shaw's film career got under way at Warner Bros. in 1934, where she played secondary parts in such musicals as Sweet Adeline (1934) and Ready, Willing and Able (1937). Her most memorable screen assignment was the Broadway Baby in Gold Diggers of 1935; her face spotlighted in the middle of a pitch-black screen, Shaw introduced the Oscar-winning song "Lullaby of Broadway." During her stay at Warners, she also played dramatic roles in such films as Satan Met a Lady (1936) and The Case of the Velvet Claws (1936). Shaw spent the war years touring military bases with comedian Jack Benny and harmonica specialist Larry Adler; in the early '50s, she devoted her time to the stage, starring in the touring company of Call Me Madam. Wini Shaw retired from show business when she married Bill O'Malley in 1955.