Biography

Wini Shaw started her show biz career as child in her parents' vaudeville act. In 1934 she made her first screen appearance in a Hollywood movie and got a Warner contract. Her starring roles were mostly in minor movies, but as a specialty singer she appeared in some of the studio's big productions. She is best remembered as the girl who introduced the Harry Warren-Al Dubin song "Lullaby of Broadway" in Busby Berkeley's movie Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935). Surprisingly, she made only one record, for Decca in 1935 (Decca 408, recorded February 28, 1935). At the end of the '30s her screen career faded away.
- IMDb mini biography by: Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>

Wini Shaw was born Wini Lei Momi in San Francisco, California, in 1907, according to her Social Security records, filed under her married name Winifred O'Malley. She was the youngest of 13 children, and her parents were of Hawaiian and Irish descent. Her show business debut was in 1915 at the San Francisco World's Fair, in her family's hula dance act. When the act disbanded in the 1920s, Wini struck out on her own as a singer, dancer and actress. She was married at 17 to Leo Cummins in 1924 and had three children. Leo left Wini in 1929, and she divorced him in 1933. She sang in revues and was headlined in The Ziegfield Follies of 1931. She performed in several short-run Broadway plays and musicals, including "Simple Simon". She appeared frequently on radio on such programs as "The Rudy Vallee Show." In 1934 she arrived in Hollywood and made several films for Fox and Universal before finding a home with Warner Brothers. All together she made seven musical shorts, 22 films and one cartoon and at least two appearances in silent film. She was used as a supporting player in most of her films with the exception of the starring role in the programmer musical Broadway Hostess (1935). She will always be remembered as the Broadway Baby who introduced the blockbuster song "Lullaby of Broadway" in Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935). She introduced the song "The Lady in Red" in In Caliente (1935) the same year. She left Hollywood in 1939 when her film career came to an end. In 1941 she made four "Soundies" for Minoco Productions and spent the war years in Jack Benny's and Ed Wynn's USO troupes. After the war, she performed in nightclubs as a headlining singer. In the early 1950s, Wini returned to Broadway and nightclubs and later toured as the lead in "Call Me Madame". She married William O'Malley in 1955 and retired from show business. She died in New York on May 2, 1982.
- IMDb mini biography by: Vandersteeg