[5] A soprano,[4] she studied opera in Rome for a year with Mario Marafioti, but returned to the United States as the Second World War loomed.

Back in California, she studied with Nina Koshetz and sang leading roles with the San Francisco Opera Company, including the Shepherd in Wagner’s Tannhäuser and the young girl in Love of Three Kings by Montemezzi.

Accounts of her discovery as a potential film star vary: her obituaries in the New York Times and Variety credited her signing to the director Robert Z. Leonard, who heard her sing at a party.

[2] After signing with MGM at age 15, Bell toured with the Marx Brothers in their vaudeville show, and had a small uncredited role in their 1935 movie A Night at the Opera.

[2][6] Her MGM contract delayed her Broadway debut by preventing her from accepting a role in the Lerner-Loewe musical The Day Before Spring in 1945.

[7] Bell had been interviewed by the New York World-Telegram during tryouts in Boston and intimated that she regarded the Broadway musical as a lesser artform than opera.

Lees conjectures that the New York Times review of her recital would have been painful, as it found her good enough for Broadway but insufficient for the classical repertoire.

[2] That review, signed only with the initials "N.S.," praised her "expert showmanship … which captivated the large and highly responsive audience" and her "enviable poise and an ability to project a song in a way to hold the attention not commonly encountered among newcomers on the concert stage.

[4] The year Bell spent performing in Brigadoon, which ran for 581 shows over 18 months, was the extent of her Broadway career,[2] although she was floated as the possible female lead for Kiss Me, Kate.

[2] Courtesy of MGM, Bell helped entertain the troops in 1945 at Camp Roberts, California, performing with Joseph Sullivan in Naughty Marietta (operetta).

[1] In 1951, she was performing in Three Wishes for Jamie with John Raitt and Cecil Kellaway, a production tried out at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium and then moved to the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.

[3] In the late 1990s, Bell provided archival film of her Town Hall recital for "Classic Arts Showcase" television, of which she was said to be a regular viewer.

[3] Bell spent the last 15 years of her life in Culver City, where she was involved with local light opera and community activities.