| # | Quote |
|---|
| 1 | [on her early success] I was all personality and no talent. |
| 2 | Dancing in speakeasies was a job, and none of us knew for sure who were gangsters. No one told us, so how could we know? My mother used to come and take me home. We thought nothing of walking home together at two in the morning. How different New York was then! |
| 3 | [on her childhood ballet teacher Helen Guest] We were very poor, and I think she gave me the lessons for nothing. |
| 4 | [on why she was not portrayed in 'The Jolson Story'] I don't like him. I don't want my children to grow up someday and maybe see the picture and know I was married to a man like that. |
| 5 | [on her stardom in the 1930s Warner Bros. musicals] It's really amazing. I couldn't act. I had that terrible singing voice, and now I can see I wasn't the greatest tap dancer in the world, either. |
| 6 | Al Jolson was my first husband. He always used to boast that he was spoiling me for any man who might come after him. I think Al sensed that it wasn't easy for me being married to an American institution . . . Was he right about spoiling me? I'm sorry. I couldn't possibly say. I couldn't be that indiscreet. |
| # | Fact |
|---|
| 1 | In her heyday, with carefully counted slow motion, she was declared the world's fastest "tapper". |
| 2 | Keeler ended her RKO contract when the studio billed Anne Shirley over her in "Mother Carey's Chickens.". |
| 3 | Keeler walked out on the play "Hold on to Your Hat" when husband Al Jolson persisted in making ad-lib references to their marital difficulties during rehearsals. |
| 4 | When she enrolled in Jack Blue's dancing school on West 54th Street in Manhattan at eleven, one of her classmates was Patsy Kelly. |
| 5 | Received a standing ovation at the 1979 Academy Awards when she appeared to co-present the Oscar for the Best Song. She was overwhelmed with emotion. |
| 6 | Aunt of Ken Weatherwax. He was Pugsley Addams of The Addams Family (1964). |
| 7 | Aunt of Joey D. Vieira. |
| 8 | Older sister of Gertrude Keeler and Helen Keeler. |
| 9 | When she was a chorus girl in New York City, Ruby was looked after and protected by a gangster named Johnny Irish. An associate of speakeasy owner and bootlegger Owney Madden--who owned the world-famous Cotton Club in Harlem--and an ally of notorious gangster Dutch Schultz, Irish ran Schultz's nightspots for him. The older and married Irish was said not to have had any romantic interest in Keeler but watched over her because she was very young, somewhat naive and also Irish, like himself. When Al Jolson decided to marry Ruby, he went to Irish to tell him of his intentions. Irish warned Jolson that if he ever mistreated Ruby, he'd pay for the transgression with his life. |
| 10 | Ruby began appearing as a singer and dancer in nightclubs when she was 13 years old, after dropping out of the sixth grade at Catholic school. She would work at two or three clubs a night, making a minimum of $150 a week. Her iceman father, Ralph, had costly medical problems, and she became the Keeler family breadwinner. |
| 11 | Famous Broadway columnist Mark Hellinger, later to become a movie producer, accompanied Ruby and Al Jolson on their honeymoon, to chronicle the event for the "NY Daily News". |
| 12 | According to her mother, Al Jolson gave Ruby a dowry of $1 million when they were married. |
| 13 | When 40-year-old Al Jolson, her future husband, first met her at Texas Guinan's El Fey Club in New York City one night in 1926, she was a 16-year-old dancer in the chorus line. He married her two years later, when she was 18. |
| 14 | Ruby, who was Irish, and her 24-years-senior husband Al Jolson, who was Jewish, could not conceive a child, so they adopted a baby boy who was half-Irish and half-Jewish. After she divorced Jolson, she had four children with her second husband. Her adopted son, Al Jolson Jr., was a contented member of her new family. He later changed his name to Peter. |
| 15 | Although she had been married to Al Jolson she forbade the use of her name in the film of Jolson's life, The Jolson Story (1946). Portrayed in that film by Evelyn Keyes, Keeler is referred to as "Julie Benson.". |
| 16 | She returned to Broadway in 1971, starring in "No No, Nanette", appearing in a run of 861 performances. |
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|
| Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical Treasure | 2008 | TV Movie documentary performer: "I Only Have Eyes for You", "Dames" - uncredited | |
| The Wedding Planner | 2001 | performer: "Mr. and Mrs. Is The Name" | |
| Here's Looking at You, Warner Bros. | 1991 | TV Movie documentary performer: "Forty-Second Street", "Shanghai Lil", "Pettin' in the Park", "I Only Have Eyes for You" - uncredited | |
| Pee-wee's Playhouse | 1990 | TV Series performer - 1 episode | |
| That's Dancing! | 1985 | Documentary performer: "Forty-Second Street", "Shadow Waltz", "I Only Have Eyes for You" | |
| Virgins in Heat | 1976 | performer: "Forty-Second Street" - uncredited | |
| RCA's Opening Night | 1973 | TV Movie performer: "Forty-Second Street" - uncredited | |
| The 26th Annual Tony Awards | 1972 | TV Special performer: "I Want to Be Happy" | |
| The Love Goddesses | 1965 | Documentary performer: "Pettin' in the Park" - uncredited | |
| Hollywood and the Stars | 1963 | TV Series performer - 1 episode | |
| Six Hits and a Miss | 1942 | Short performer: "You Gotta Know How to Dance" | |
| Calling All Girls | 1942 | Short performer: "Shanghai Lil" | |
| Sweetheart of the Campus | 1941 | performer: "Tap Happy" | |
| Ready, Willing and Able | 1937 | "Just a Quiet Evening" 1937, uncredited / performer: "Too Marvelous for Words" 1937, "Handy with Your Feet" 1937 - uncredited | |
| Colleen | 1936 | lyrics: "You Gotta Know How to Dance" 1936 - uncredited / performer: "An Evening with You" 1936, "I Don't Have to Dream Again" 1936, "You Gotta Know How to Dance" 1936 - uncredited | |
| Shipmates Forever | 1935 | performer: "Don't Give Up the Ship", "I'd Love to Take Orders from You" - uncredited | |
| Go Into Your Dance | 1935 | performer: "A Good Old Fashioned Cocktail With a Good Old Fashioned Gal" 1935, "About a Quarter to Nine" 1935, "Ruby" 1935, "Pimiento" 1935, "She's a Latin from Manhattan" 1935 - uncredited | |
| Flirtation Walk | 1934 | performer: "Flirtation Walk" 1934, "Mr. and Mrs. Is the Name" 1934 - uncredited | |
| Dames | 1934 | "I Only Have Eyes for You" 1934, uncredited / performer: "Dames" 1934 - uncredited | |
| Footlight Parade | 1933 | performer: "Shanghai Lil" 1933, "By a Waterfall" 1933, "Sittin' on a Back Yard Fence" 1933, "Honeymoon Hotel" 1933 - uncredited | |
| Gold Diggers of 1933 | 1933 | performer: "Shadow Waltz" 1933, "Pettin' in the Park" 1933 - uncredited | |
| 42nd Street | 1933 | performer: "Forty-Second Street" 1932, "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" 1932 - uncredited | |
| Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1930s: Dancing Away the Great Depression | 2009 | Video documentary performer: "I Only Have Eyes for You", "Dames" - uncredited | |
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|
| Warner Bros. Celebration of Tradition, June 2, 1990 | 1990 | TV Movie documentary | Host |
| The American Ireland Fund Annual Tribute a Salute to Gene Kelly | 1990 | TV Movie | Herself |
| Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood | 1987 | TV Special documentary | Herself |
| This Is Your Life | 1984 | TV Series documentary | Herself |
| The 7th Annual People's Choice Awards | 1981 | TV Special | Herself - Presenter: Favourite Motion Picture- Comedy |
| The 51st Annual Academy Awards | 1979 | TV Special documentary | Herself - Co-Presenter: Best Original Song |
| RCA's Opening Night | 1973 | TV Movie | Herself |
| The 26th Annual Tony Awards | 1972 | TV Special | Herself - Performer |
| The Dick Cavett Show | 1971 | TV Series | Herself |
| The 25th Annual Tony Awards | 1971 | TV Special | Herself - Presenter |
| New York, New York | 1971 | TV Series | Herself |
| The David Frost Show | 1970-1971 | TV Series | Herself |
| The Mike Douglas Show | 1971 | TV Series | Herself - Actress / Singer |
| The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | 1965-1970 | TV Series | Herself / Herself - Guest |
| The Movie Game | 1970 | TV Series | Herself |
| The Joey Bishop Show | 1969 | TV Series | Herself |
| The Ed Sullivan Show | 1954-1967 | TV Series | Herself - Audience Bow / Herself |
| The Jerry Lewis Show | 1963 | TV Series | Herself |
| This Is Your Life | 1953-1958 | TV Series | Herself |
| The Ken Murray Show | 1950 | TV Series | Herself - Actress / Dancer |
| Screen Snapshots Series 19, No 6: Hollywood Recreations | 1940 | Documentary short | Herself |
| Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 7 | 1937 | Documentary short | Herself |
| Studio Highlights | 1934 | Short | Herself |
| Screen Snapshots Series 9, No. 20 | 1930 | Short | Herself, Mrs. Al Jolson |
| Ruby Keeler | 1929 | Short | Herself |
| Let's Do Blackbottom | 1926 | Documentary short | Dancer (uncredited) |
$20 Million
