Brief by Central Staff
Local Lore – November 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
It often happens that you find something interesting when you’re looking up something else. This time around, the research diversion took us to Sally Blane, an actress who appeared in many low-budget movies of the 1930s, ranging from Once a Sinner in 1930 to This is the Life in 1935 before she married director Norman Foster and pretty much retired from the screen.
Blane, however, was perhaps best known for being the older sister of Loretta Young, who was a big star.
We ran across Sally Blane, whose real name was Elizabeth Jane Young, because she was born in Salida on July 11, 1910. Sister Loretta was born on Jan. 6, 1913, in Salt Lake City, and another sister, Polly Ann, was born Oct. 25, 1908 in Denver.
Their father was an auditor for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. The parents separated after Loretta’s birth, and the mother took the children and moved in with her sister in Hollywood.
According to the Movie Guide biography of Sally, the Young children “were all quite photogenic, and had no trouble securing $3.50 per day extra work in the movies.”
But as an adult, Blane only appeared on screen with her sisters once, when she, Polly Ann, Loretta, and their half-sister Georgianna (who married Ricardo Montalban), were cast as sisters in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell in 1939.
Sally Blane died in 1997, as did her sister Polly Ann. Loretta lived until 2000.