Shirley Eder(1919-2005)
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Shirley was born and raised in New York City's Washington Square. At age 16 she was
able to secure a role in "The Women" starring her
soon-to-be good friend Celeste Holm at the Adams theatre in Newark, New Jersey. She
was given 10 lines, but 7 of them went to the Producer's girlfriend. Her
father was a New York Supreme Court justice and he was quoted as saying
life upon the wicked stage was no life for a girl.
Her acting career quickly faded away, but her dreams of working in show business never did. Her ability and gift to cover every aspect of show business with integrity became her claim to fame.
Shirley began her new career on radio station WINS in New York at the tender age of 17. She began doing daily radio programs focusing on women's issues. Her good friend Mitzi Green was an impressionist (as Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn) but in time celebrities began to come on her program. In 1944 she married Edward Slotkin, an executive of Hygrade Foods, a meat packing firm. Edward was serving in the Army at the time so she put her career on hold to go with him for two years. In 1946 she began working at WMCA in New York as an emcee of the variety show, "Mic About Town," which featured celebrity interviews. This forum allowed her to cultivate a wide circle of friends in the show business industry.
Shirley also brought "Mic About Town" to WOR TV and in 1951 she began hosting another program on WOR TV with Ilka Chase and Dorothy Ward called "Women Talk it Over". In 1956 she joined "Monitor" as a roving reporter and interviewer. By then, Shirley had moved to Detroit and began working as the Girl On The Go on the WJR Radio show, "Composite". In addition, she also did her own show, "Dear Shirley", giving advice to listeners who wrote her letters. In conjunction with the Bell Syndicate, she also wrote a weekly column which was featured in 175 newspapers throughout the United States and was also a guest columnist for Dorothy Kilgallen.
Twenty years into her busy career Shirley was courted by the Detroit Free Press and the Knight Ridder syndicate to write 4 weekly columns on the show business industry.
Shirley had great relationships with Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Sinatra, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, Bob Hope, Joan Rivers, Jacqueline Susann, Kathleen Winsor, Harold Robbins, Neil Diamond, Peggy Lee, Beverly Sills and many more. These relationships and friendships allowed her to have a unique perspective into the entertainment industry and to those who were a part of it. She was able to stay on top of the Broadway scene by maintaining close friendships with Ethel Merman and Carol Channing.
Shirley had unlimited energy and had a passion for getting the story right. Her integrity and personal work ethic garnered the trust of celebrities, essential in her line of work. Her consistent need to maintain both integrity and the confidentiality of those stars who shared with her their innermost private thoughts and dreams allowed Shirley to write her stories in an entertaining and compelling way. However, this became more challenging as time passed because both the methods of obtaining and reporting "Hollywood gossip" drastically changed. The reporting style of many of her contemporaries was blatantly mean-spirited. However, Shirley's integrity and respect for those she wrote about allowed her to reign as a Hollywood reporter with both class and longevity.
Her acting career quickly faded away, but her dreams of working in show business never did. Her ability and gift to cover every aspect of show business with integrity became her claim to fame.
Shirley began her new career on radio station WINS in New York at the tender age of 17. She began doing daily radio programs focusing on women's issues. Her good friend Mitzi Green was an impressionist (as Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn) but in time celebrities began to come on her program. In 1944 she married Edward Slotkin, an executive of Hygrade Foods, a meat packing firm. Edward was serving in the Army at the time so she put her career on hold to go with him for two years. In 1946 she began working at WMCA in New York as an emcee of the variety show, "Mic About Town," which featured celebrity interviews. This forum allowed her to cultivate a wide circle of friends in the show business industry.
Shirley also brought "Mic About Town" to WOR TV and in 1951 she began hosting another program on WOR TV with Ilka Chase and Dorothy Ward called "Women Talk it Over". In 1956 she joined "Monitor" as a roving reporter and interviewer. By then, Shirley had moved to Detroit and began working as the Girl On The Go on the WJR Radio show, "Composite". In addition, she also did her own show, "Dear Shirley", giving advice to listeners who wrote her letters. In conjunction with the Bell Syndicate, she also wrote a weekly column which was featured in 175 newspapers throughout the United States and was also a guest columnist for Dorothy Kilgallen.
Twenty years into her busy career Shirley was courted by the Detroit Free Press and the Knight Ridder syndicate to write 4 weekly columns on the show business industry.
Shirley had great relationships with Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Sinatra, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, Bob Hope, Joan Rivers, Jacqueline Susann, Kathleen Winsor, Harold Robbins, Neil Diamond, Peggy Lee, Beverly Sills and many more. These relationships and friendships allowed her to have a unique perspective into the entertainment industry and to those who were a part of it. She was able to stay on top of the Broadway scene by maintaining close friendships with Ethel Merman and Carol Channing.
Shirley had unlimited energy and had a passion for getting the story right. Her integrity and personal work ethic garnered the trust of celebrities, essential in her line of work. Her consistent need to maintain both integrity and the confidentiality of those stars who shared with her their innermost private thoughts and dreams allowed Shirley to write her stories in an entertaining and compelling way. However, this became more challenging as time passed because both the methods of obtaining and reporting "Hollywood gossip" drastically changed. The reporting style of many of her contemporaries was blatantly mean-spirited. However, Shirley's integrity and respect for those she wrote about allowed her to reign as a Hollywood reporter with both class and longevity.
