ACTOR
Ruby Keeler
17 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (17)
- #001
Ruby Keeler, who was mostly of Irish descent and Catholic, and her Jewish husband Al Jolson adopted a son who was half Irish and half Jewish after they were unable to have children of their own. After divorcing Jolson, she had four children with her second husband. Her adopted son, Al Jolson Jr., was a happy member of his new family and later changed his name to Peter.
- #002
When she co-presented the Oscar for Best Song at the 51st Academy Awards (1979), Ruby Keeler received a standing ovation. She was overcome with emotion.
- #003
Although she was married to Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler forbade the use of her name in The Jolson Story (1946), the film about his life. In that film, Keeler, played by Evelyn Keyes, is referred to as "Julie Benson."
- #004
After leaving the sixth grade at her Catholic school, Keeler began appearing as a singer and dancer in nightclubs at about the age of 14. Working at two or three clubs a night, she earned at least $150 a week. Her father, an iceman, had costly medical problems, and she became the family's breadwinner.
- #005
In 1971 she returned to Broadway, starring in "No No, Nanette" and appearing in 861 performances. Her dancer friend from fifty years earlier, Patsy Kelly, was also in the cast.
- #006
While she was a chorus girl in New York, Ruby was looked after and protected by a gangster named Johnny Irish. The Irishman, a partner of the talkative Cotton Club owner and bootlegger Owney Madden and an ally of the notorious gangster Dutch Schultz, ran Schultz's nightclubs on his behalf. Irish was reported to have no romantic interest in Keeler but to have watched over her because she was very young, somewhat naive and also of Irish descent like himself. When Al Jolson decided to marry Keeler, he went to Irish to tell him of his intentions. Irish allegedly warned Jolson that if he mistreated her, he would pay for that violation with his life.
- #007
Broadway columnist Mark Hellinger, who later became a film producer, accompanied Keeler and Al Jolson on their honeymoon to report the event for the local tabloid the New York Daily News.
- #008
When her future husband, the 40-year-old Al Jolson, first met her in 1926 at Texas Guinan's El Fey Club in New York City, she was a 16-year-old dancer in the chorus. He married her two years later, when she was 18.
- #009
At the height of her career, she was proclaimed the world's fastest "tapper" through carefully calculated slow motion.
- #010
At Warner Brothers she was paired with Dick Powell in seven films: 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Footlight Parade (1933), Dames (1934), Flirtation Walk (1934), Shipmates Forever (1935) and Colleen (1936).
- #011
When she enrolled at Jack Blue's dance school on West 54th Street in Manhattan at the age of eleven, one of her classmates was Patsy Kelly.
- #012
The eldest of three daughters of Nova Scotian immigrants Ralph Hector Keeler and Eleanora "Nellie" Lahey, Ruby Keeler's parents were poor but managed to pay for her dance lessons. Ruby was the older sister of Gertrude Keeler and Helen Keeler and the aunt of child actors Joey D. Vieira and Ken Weatherwax (the latter best known for playing "Pugsley Addams" on The Addams Family (1964)).
- #013
At the age of 14 she joined the chorus of a Broadway show and then danced in nightclubs, drinking establishments and on stage.
- #014
In 2019 she was inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame.
- #015
A street in Burbank, California, has been named after her.
- #016
Keeler ended her RKO contract after the studio billed Anne Shirley above her in "Mother Carey's Chickens."
- #017
She was born on August 25, 1909, on exactly the same date as Michael Rennie.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work