Bernice Maude Gaunt (1913-75) was a singer and actor, popular in the 1930s and 40s.
Ross was already giving radio recitals by the time she was 14, and started recording with Gus Arnheim a few years later. In 1933, she came to the attention of Rodgers and Hart, who used her to demonstrate their work at MGM, which led to a contract with the studio. Her first appearance was in Manhattan Melodrama (1934) where she sang (regrettably in blackface) lyrics to the tune that would eventually become the standard ‘Blue Moon’.
Ross appeared in about twenty feature films, including several pictures with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby duetting with the latter in Waikiki Wedding (1937). In The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938), she helped Bob Hope launch his subsequent theme song, ‘Thanks for the Memory’.
By the end of her film career she was working for Republic, where her final film, in which she starred, was A Song for Julie (1945).
Ross also performed on the stage and in radio, but had retired by the mid-fifties to raise a family.
Ross appeared in three mid-thirties MGM musicals: Hollywood Party, The Merry Widow and (in a featured role) San Francisco.
