Red-haired girl from Pueblo, actress Arleen Whelan, dies

With a shock of flaming red hair, a 22-year-old girl from Pueblo exploded onto American movie screens in the 1930s.

Over two decades, Arleen Whelan starred in 26 movies and was described as "one of Hollywood's leading ladies."

Her first movie was "Kidnapped," starring opposite Warner Baxter in 1938, only a year after she was discovered working as an $18-a-week manicurist in a Hollywood barbershop.

"In the memory of studio veterans, only one other girl -Loretta Young - ever was whirled into the prominence of a leading role without previous grooming in bits and small parts," gushed MDRV The Pueblo Chieftain when "Kidnapped" was released.

Born in Salt Lake City in 1916, she was the daughter of Arthur and Kathleen Whelan, who moved to Pueblo when Arleen was very small.

Her dad, an electrician at CF&I, was "well-known in every Southern Colorado town," the paper said, calling him "one of the best ballplayers in the state" on the CF&I team.

Arleen also was the niece of Dey Whelan, senior vice president and 60-year-long banking veteran at Minnequa Bank, and the granddaughter of Anna B. Whelan.

But it was in her own right -in a story hailed as truly Cinderella-like - that Arleen made headlines.

While she was still at Central High School, the family moved to Los Angeles where her father opened a small electric shop.

After high school, she attended beauty college, got the manicurist's job and a week later was discovered by 20th Century-Fox director H. Bruce Humberston, who happened in for a shave.

Arleen couldn't make the opening of "Kidnapped," the Chieftain wrote, because "production is now being rushed on a new picture in which she is cast opposite Don Ameche, romantic idol of the screen."

During her career, she starred opposite Henry Fonda in "Young Mr. Lincoln" and with Jack Benny in the 1941 version of "Charley's Aunt."

Among her other credits were "Stage Door Canteen" during World War II, "Ramrod" in 1947, "The Sun Shines Bright" in 1953 and two films in 1957, the last year of her career: "Raiders of Old California" and "The Badge of Marshal Brennan."

Arleen Whelan died April 8 in Orange, Calif., following a stroke. She was 78.