Beverly Tyler

This relatively obscure sweetfaced B level ingénue of the postwar 40s and 50s was born Beverly Jean Saul of modest beginnings in Scranton Pennsylvania on July 5 1927 Her mother was a secretary who secured piano and music lessons for her young daughter Her father was employed with a typewriter company As a teenager Beverly made her singing debut on radio Moving to Hollywood with her mother she was groomed by MGM at the ripe old age of 14 and made her first picture with a bit part in The Youngest Profession 1943 using her real name She was given the more attractive marquee name of Beverly Tyler before the ink had barely dried on her contract Her career showed some signs of improvement after appearing opposite Tom Drake in The Green Years 1946 and Peter Lawford in the lightweight comedy My Brother Talks to Horses 1947 but then she was forced to wait out a lull Strangely enough other than for a brief singing bit in Best Foot Forward 1943 Beverly was never promoted in musicals by MGM or any other studio for that matter although she did test once for the Kathryn Grayson part in That Midnight Kiss 1949 starring Mario Lanza She did however appear in the shortlived Kurt Weill musical The Firebrand of Florence on Broadway in 1945 and performed in the musical Miss Liberty in Los Angeles in 1950 Beverly also sang on TV on such variety shows as Cavalcade of Stars and Shower of Stars She returned to the camera after a threeyear absence in 1950 with Mickey Rooney in The Fireball 1950 and in another horse film Hills of the Brave 1950 Most of the roles offered had her playing an altruistic love interest amid rugged surroundings in such western adventures as The Battle at Apache Pass 1952 and The Cimarron Kid 1952 She made only a handful of films over the course of her career which effectively ended once Voodoo Island 1957 and Hong Kong Confidential 1958 were in the can A serviceable costar little attempt was made by the Hollywood powersthatbe to effectively challenge her multiple talents Although she dated the likes of Tom Drake Peter Lawford Audie Murphy Mickey Rooney and Rory Calhoun this lovely sparrow did not settle down in marriage until 1962 when she wed comedy writerdirector Jim Jordan Jr The Colgate Comedy Hour who was the son of the famous Fibber McGee Molly radio couple Beverly instantly retired from the business and together the couple produced a son The only performing she has done over the years was to appear in a few local theater productions in Reno Nevada having moved there in 1972 Her husband later became a developer Beverly died at age 78 of a pulmonary embolism on November 23 2005 and was survived by her son James W Jordan and three stepdaughters