[5] When Whoopee closed after a year and a half, Vilma and Buddy Ebsen took their act to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where they caught the eye of celebrity columnist Walter Winchell.

Repeated positive mentions of the Ebsens in Winchell's column brought them multiple offers for performing.

[4] Along with her brother, Ebsen performed a dance act on Broadway, as well as around the United States in vaudeville theaters and supper clubs throughout the early 1930s.

[citation needed] The two starred in Broadway productions of Flying Colors (1932) and Ziegfeld Follies of 1934.

Vilma Ebsen was not interested in accepting Louis B. Mayer's offer to make her "the next Myrna Loy" and moved back to New York with her husband, composer and bandleader Robert Emmett "Bobby" Dolan,[3] whom she had married on June 24, 1933.

Back in New York, she appeared in the Broadway musical comedy, Between the Devil, with British dancing stars Jack Buchanan, Evelyn Laye, and Adele Dixon.

[7] In the 1950s she opened a dance school in Pacific Palisades with her sister, Helga, which was also partially funded by their brother, Buddy.