Constance Moore

Blonde singer/actress Constance Moore was a stylish, glamorous lead in many "B" war-era musicals. Born in Sioux City, Iowa, on January 18, 1920, she was raised in Dallas, Texas, and nurtured ambitions to be a singer. The one-time brunette with the rich contralto started out as a band vocalist prior to entering films. Universal took notice and signed her up initially, but she is probably better known for the vocal work she did as leading lady in Republic Pictures tunefests, her best showcases being Show Business (1944) and Atlantic City (1944). In the former, she joined co-stars Eddie Cantor, George Murphy and Joan Davis in the vintage songs "I Want a Girl, Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad" and "Dinah". In the latter, she was top-billed and soloed on "After You've Gone" and "On a Sunday Afternoon". As for her non-singing endeavors, Constance was seen to good advantage as both the femme colleague Wilma Deering to Buster Crabbe's planetary hero in the popular Buck Rogers (1939) serial, and as the lovely young daughter of W.C. Fields' character in the classic comedy You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939), in which she also played second fiddle to love interest Edgar Bergen and his puppet Charlie McCarthy. That same year Constance would yet again receive lower billing to the puppet in the mystery Charlie McCarthy, Detective (1939). She and "husband" Macdonald Carey complemented Rosalind Russell and Fred MacMurray in the comedy romp Take a Letter, Darling (1942) as a secondary couple, and she later provided lovely distraction from the rugged goings-on in the WWII picture I Wanted Wings (1941) and westerns Mexicana (1945) and In Old Sacramento (1946). Constance retired from films in 1947 after co-starring with Eddie Albert in Hit Parade of 1947 (1947). She reappeared on TV only a few times in later years. Outside of some guest shots on such shows as Laramie (1959) and My Three Sons (1960), she co-starred with Robert Young in the short-lived, post-Father Knows Best (1954) series Window on Main Street (1961) and then replaced Irene Hervey in the dramatic series The Young Marrieds (1964) while in its second season. She also occasionally worked up elegant nightclub acts. Married in 1939 to agent John Maschino and the mother of two, her husband later became a successful real estate agent. After her retirement, Constance indulged herself in still life painting. Her husband passed away in 1998 and she followed in 2005 of heart failure following a long illness. The couple had two children.