Noel Francis

Pretty Noel Francis came to Hollywood after attracting the attention of Fox talent scouts and was signed to a contract in 1929. Born in Temple, Texas, she grew up in Dallas and had studied at Southern Methodist University and Columbia. Like so many other hopefuls who had little theatrical background, she thought to get by on good looks alone. As it turned out, Noel had quite a bit of talent, but perhaps not quite enough to propel her to stardom. She did have a stint back in 1925 in the Ziegfeld Follies and made a minor splash with Wheeler and Woolsey in "Rio Rita". Alas, musicals were briefly out of vogue in the early 30s and Noel was dropped by Fox. Luckily for her, she was contracted by Warner Brothers in 1932 for an entirely different genre and ended up as a street-wise gangsters moll in the company of James Cagney (Blonde Crazy (1931)), Edward G. Robinson (Smart Money (1931)), Humphrey Bogart (Up the River (1930)), Edmund Lowe (Guilty as Hell (1932)), George Raft (Under-Cover Man (