Freqeuently compared to Clara Bow, Sturm made her debut in Lewis' Frolics, and then also appeared in George White's Scandals of 1924.

[5] While in Hollywood, she became better known as "Sally Starr," and performed leading roles in So This Is College (1929), The Woman Racket (1930), Not So Dumb (1930), Personality (1930), Pardon My Gun (1930) and For The Love o' Lil (1930).

Starr also continued her theatrical work after her motion picture career began, performing with Eleanor Powell and George Hassell in The Optimists, staged at the Century Roof Theater in January 1928.

Although she was in her late twenties at the time, she still projected a fresh-faced youth and became Educational's all-purpose ingenue, appearing opposite several of the studio's resident comedians including Bert Lahr, Charles Kemper, Danny Kaye, and the team of Herman Timberg, Jr. and Pat Rooney, Jr. She almost certainly would have continued at Educational if the company hadn't discontinued production in 1938.

She was buried as "Sally (Mrs. John F.) Kovacevich" in the Garden of Devotion (lot 111-D, space 4) at Jefferson Memorial Park, which is located south of Pittsburgh in the community of Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania.