Signed photographic portrait of Australian Hollywood screen actress Marcia Ralston, circa 1937.

[Burbank, Ca. : Warner Bros. Pictures Inc., circa 1937]. Gelatin silver print publicity photograph, 175 x 125 mm, inscribed in white fountain pen by the actress ‘Sincerely, Marcia Ralston’; verso blank; in fine condition.

The classically beautiful Sydney-born actress Marcia Ralston – winner of a Miss Australia contest – was one of a small number of Australians to have a career in Hollywood prior to World War Two. After being awarded a contract with Warner Bros. in 1937, she appeared in no fewer than seven films that year, including Call It a Day alongside Olivia de Havilland. In 1938 she had small roles in another four films, appearing alongside Carole Lombard in Fools for Scandal and Humphrey Bogart in Men Are Such Fools.

‘Marcia Mascotte Ralston (19 September 1906 – 23 November 1988) was an Australian-born actress who appeared in Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. She was married to Phil Harris from 1927 to 1940. Ralston’s father was well known Australian singer and actor John Ralston. She attended Bethlehem College, Ashfield and won third place in a 1926 Miss Australia competition. She met band leader Phil Harris in Australia in 1927, and they married, then moved to California. She had a Warner Bros. contract by 1937 and appeared in a number of supporting and leading roles, mostly in B films. Her marriage to Harris ended in divorce in 1940. She continued to act in various bit and supporting roles until the late 1940s. Work after this included instructing for the Arthur Murray dance studio in the early 1950s. She married Bud Henderson in 1954. Henderson’s sister Betty was married to actor Robert Young. The connection resulted in an occasional supporting role as Nurse Donnelly in the TV series Marcus Welby, M.D. in the early 1970s. She died at Rancho Mirage, California in 1988.’ (Wiki)