BROOKLYN, NY — Grace Bradley was born in Brooklyn on September 21, 1913. See information on Grace early in her screen career as printed on a 1936 “tobacco card” pictured here.
It was a year later that Grace married William Boyd, which was about the time he found fame as the screen’s “Hop-a-long (later Hopalong) Cassidy,” a role that made him a millionaire. The marriage lasted 35 years until his death in 1972. Boyd asked Grace soon after they were wed to name his new white stallion. She was reading the “Topper” series of books by Thorne Smith at the time and asked Boyd to name the horse after her favorite book … and that’s how Topper got his name! Grace got her own horse a short time later and named it Turnabout.
Grace Bradley was a beautiful blonde, very talented — could act, sing and dance but she never quite made the big time. Under contract to Paramount at first she appeared in many supporting roles in their big productions which included: “Too Much Harmony” (1933 — Bing Crosby film), “The Way to Love” (1933 — with Maurice Chevalier), “The Gilded Lily” (1935 — with Claudette Colbert), “Anything Goes” (1936 — with Bing Crosby), “The Big Broadcast of 1938” (with Bing Crosby) and “There’s Magic in Music” (1941 — with Alan Jones). Grace played the female lead in a number of Paramount’s “B” films including Two Fisted (1935) and “F-Man” (1936). Other studios that featured her in films were Fox, RKO, Universal, Republic, poverty-row studios PRC and Monogram. Another starlet also appeared in two of Grace’s films — her name was Betty Grable (and she did make it big!). The films were both filmed at RKO: “Old Man Rhythm” (1935) and “Don’t Turn ’em Loose” (1936).
In Grace’s last three films she was teamed
with the Manhattan-born William Bendix who played Brooklyn characters so well. All three films revolved around a Brooklyn couple named Tim (a taxicab driver) and Sadie (an ex-burlesque queen) McGuerin. “The McGuerins from Brooklyn” was first of the trilogy in 1942 (aka “Two Mugs from Brooklyn”). The second was “Brooklyn Orchid” (1942) in which Bendix and Joe Sawyer played two taxi drivers from Brooklyn who rescue Marjorie Woodworth from a watery suicide at an up-State resort. Marjorie takes a fancy to Bendix and creates a problem for Grace. The last of the trilogy and Grace’s last film was “Taxi Mister” (1943). Those three films were made by Hal Roach studios and released through United Artists.
The wealthy widow of “Hopalong” lives alone quietly in Newport Beach, California. She and Boyd, although childless, loved children and she has devoted most of her time since his death in active support of children’s hospitals in Southern California.
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