She was born as Winifred Lei Momi in about 1907 in San Francisco, the youngest of 13 children of Hawaiian descent.

Shaw began her entertainment career as a child in her parents' vaudeville act and later appeared in a number of Warner Brothers musical films in the 1930s.

She also sang "The Lady in Red" in the musical film In Caliente (1935) starring Dolores del Río; the song was made famous when cartoon character Bugs Bunny (voiced by Mel Blanc) parodied it in drag.

[2] In 1937 she filmed a complicated duet live on the sound stage with a reciting and speaking Ross Alexander as she sang "Too Marvelous for Words" for the finale of Ready, Willing, and Able.

[3] During World War II, she toured service camps and Red Cross clubs for the USO, sometimes as part of the Jack Benny or Larry Adler troupes.