Chandler attended the Professional Children's School in New York and made her Broadway debut on September 2, 1918 at the Globe Theatre in Penrod, Edward E. Rose's adaptation of the like-named Booth Tarkington series of stories.

The unusual story told of a group of passengers on an ocean liner who gradually realize that they are all dead and will soon face the Last Judgment.

Chandler, with her blonde hair and ethereal quality, was considered to be perfectly cast, and she received critical praise for her performance.

Chandler appeared with Manners that same year in the Lost Generation celebration of alcohol in Paris, The Last Flight, also starring Richard Barthelmess and John Mack Brown.

Among her later stage successes were Within The Gates in 1934, Pride and Prejudice in 1935, Lady Precious Stream in 1936 with then-husband Bramwell Fletcher, a reprise of her film role in Outward Bound in 1938 and various productions of Boy Meets Girl and Noël Coward's Tonight at 8.30 Helen Frances Chandler was born February 1, 1908, in New York, according to family,[1] although the date and place have been reported as 1906[4][5] in Charleston, South Carolina[5] and New York in 1909.