Katharine Snell

Biography

She grew up in Los Angeles in the home of her father, an executive with the Sid Grauman organization, and her paternal grandmother, a retired hotelier. Upon her graduation from the Flintridge Academy in 1933, she was given a screen test at Paramount, and hired as a singer and dancer. She appeared in virtually every musical made at Paramount from 1933 to 1939. She used to joke that she went to college at Paramount, since she appeared in all the so-called "College" movies [i.e., "College Swing" (1938}, "College Humor" (1933), "College Rhythm" (1934), "College Holiday" (1936), "Murder Goes to College" (1937), etc. In 1939, she was loaned out to MGM for crowd scenes in both "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz." She later went on the road with a trio known as the Singing Powers Models, playing Loew's State in New York City among other vaudeville venues. It was in New York City that she met her husband. After World War II ended, her family moved to Los Angeles, and she retired from performing.