Elaine Riley

Elaine was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, to the engineer Allen B. Riley (owner of the local Riley Electrical Company) and his wife Pearl, on January 15 1917. Like other aspiring starlets, she took the route to Hollywood via beauty contests. She was elected 'Miss Chic' at the Cleveland exposition and was runner-up to the 'Miss Ohio' title in 1937. For a while Elaine performed as a vocalist with a dance band in and around Pittsburgh, billed as 'Elaine Gray'. Aged eighteen, she made her way to New York and started as a model for fashion designer G.W. Cohen, appearing for the first time on the cover of Glamour magazine. During the six years which followed, Elaine completed studies in dress design at the prestigious Traphagen School of Fashion, modelled for John Robert Powers and Hattie Carnegie and worked her way up from secretary to personnel manager of New York radio station WINS.