Shirley MacLaine was born as Shirley MacLean Beaty on April 24, 1934, to
Virginia native Ira Owens Beaty and his wife, Kathlyn.
Before Shirley was three years old, her brother and rival Warren Beatty was born
on March 30 or 31, 1937. As soon as she graduated, she packed her
bags and headed for New York. While auditioning for Richard Rodgers
and Oscar Hammerstein II's Me and Juliet, she had a problem with
the producer, who kept mispronouncing her name. He asked, "Okay,
Beaty. Do you have another name, kid?" She then changed her
name from Shirley MacLean Beaty to Shirley MacLaine. She later
had a role in The Pajama Game. With her high octane performance, she
won a part and the role as an understudy to Carol Haney. Unfortunately, Haney
was known for having never missed a performance in her life. A few months into
the run, Shirley was going to ditch The Pajama Game for the lead role in Can-Can.
She left for the theatre after being 15 minutes late because the train broke down.
She then heard that Carol had broken her ankle and she was to go on in her
place. Despite making many mistakes, she endeared herself to the audience.
She replaced Carol again three months later following another injury. Shirley
knew her lines this time and knocked them dead. Hal B. Wallis was in the
audience that night and signed her to a five-year contract to Paramount
Pictures. Three months later, she was off to shoot the movie The Trouble
with Harry (1955). Many years later Shirley MacLaine is still going strong, has
appeared it over 50 movies and written countless books.
I'll be posted screencaps of her in "Can-Can" tomorrow, I thought I should just start the thread first
photo source: photobucket
Shirely MacLaine. She's such an eccentric personality. 
I did actually enjoy watching the films but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It was a bit too fluffy although the costumes more than made up for that.
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