When the family moved to San Francisco she attended Holy Rosary Academy, where she discovered her vocation from participating in a school play.

[citation needed] As a youngster, she used her weekly allowance to attend Saturday productions at the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco and eventually gained small parts in some of those plays.

Three years later, after the San Francisco Fire, at the age of 16, she made the trip, and true to his words, Goodwin put her to work with several tour engagements.

[1] It was not until November 2, 1921, that she again scored another hit where she starred in the title role of Eugene O’Neill's Anna Christie at the Vaudeville Theatre on Broadway.

[citation needed] She made her film debut in 1934 as Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, followed by A Feather in Her Hat,[3] released the following year.