Gloria Jean, the singing-and-dancing star best remembered for playing W.C. Field’s devoted niece in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, pedals around the Universal lot in this 1940 photo. Born Gloria Jean Schoonover, the actress made more than two dozen pictures in the twenty years following her signing to Universal at age 13.
Here’s the snipe: “Gloria Jean takes a ride around the Universal studio on the new bicycle given to her by her producer, Joe Pasternak, who discovered her and launched her on the screen in ‘The Under-Pup.’ He will soon star her in another Universal picture, ‘A Little Bit of Heaven.'”