Actress, singer, comedienne and dancer. Gladys Blake left home at age 14 to join a stock company in Reading, Pennsylvania, and after two years she had developed her own vaudeville act, Gresham and Blake, with Lee Gresham. Coming to California, they were booked into the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles where she was spotted by film agent Edward Small. Her first small film roles were mostly for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Director 'Richard Thorpe personally offered Gladys her small role in "The Earl of Chicago" in which only her legs were seen.
As a vaudeville comedienne in the team Gresham and Blake, Gladys came to Hollywood and tried for eight months to get into pictures before finally succeeding.
In 1939, Gladys Blakes home was ransacked of jewelry and furs worth $12.000. She appealed to the burglars to return one inexpensive locket which contained a portrait of her mother, who died when Gladys was 11 months old. The burglary occurred the night after she got her first movie role with Robert Taylor and Myrna Loy in "Lucky Night".
