"[4] Coleman -- "a quiet red-haired girl"[5] -- was listed among the 14 most beautiful women in the world in 1926 along with Sally Rand, Etta Lee, Eugenia Gilbert, Jocelyn Lee, Sally Long, Clara Morris, Olive Borden, Christina Montt, Adalyn Mayer, Thais Valdemar, Yola D'Avril, and Dorothy Seastrom.
Long before the directors discovered that Majel Coleman's face was not hard to look upon, her hands were given screen tests and found not wanting.
"[7] A nationally syndicated newspaper story in 1922 noted that "The largest close-up of a pair of hands ever made for the screen was taken recently of those belonging to Majel Coleman, a former Cincinnati society girl, who is now carrying a career for herself in the films.
However, "her beauty attracted the attention of a big middle-western theater owner, who sent her photos on to a representative of a Pacific coast studio, with the result that she has already appeared in five feature productions and is now a permanent resident at the capital of the cinema world.
"[10] A month earlier a newspaper reported that "Max Linder is working on a burlesque of 'The Three Musketeteers', a five-reel Goldwyn comedy nearing completion.
He has chosen what he thinks are two real American beauties -- Jobyna Ralston of New York and Majel Coleman, winner of a pretty girl contest in Cincinnati.
"[11] On her 19th birthday in 1922, a newspaper reported she "received an instrument of destruction this week in the shape of a snappy speedster (car) from her father, P.D.
Her early motion picture efforts include roles in Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1923) and several Harry Carey westerns, Soft Shoes (1925) and West of Broadway (1926).
[citation needed] Majel Coleman was married to Academy Award-winning feature film and television set decorator Victor Gangelin (1899-1967), whose father was born in Russia and mother in Germany.