Toby Wing

Toby Wing
Paramount Pictures

Stars

Toby Wing
Film: North side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard
Actress | Dancer
Born Martha Virginia Wing on July 14, 1915 in Amelia Court House, Va.
Died March 23, 2001 in Mathews, VA

Toby Wing was known as the original Goldwyn Girl "with a face like the morning sun" who wore diamond rings from a string of celebrated fiances before marrying pioneering aviator Henry Tindall "Dick" Merrill. Wing was the epitome of the platinum blond beauty embraced by 1930s Hollywood.

The saucy sex symbol began her career in Samuel Goldwyn's 1931 "Palmy Days" and spent the next decade before the cameras appearing in 38 motion pictures, often in memorable moments.

As a Goldwyn Girl, Wing appeared in Busby Berkeley extravaganzas, including "Palmy Days," starring Eddie Cantor and George Raft. The film garnered praise for Berkeley's overhead camera shots, a precursor to his musical productions. In 1998, she was one of the dancers interviewed for the television special "Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof."

Wing also worked at Warner Bros. and Paramount, often with Cantor and Berkeley. In Berkeley's original "42nd Street" (1933), she was the beauty costumed in a white fox bra to whom Dick Powell warbled "Young and Healthy."

She also starred in "True Confession" (1937), with Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard and John Barrymore.

Although Wing dazzled the camera wherever she appeared, her roles were brief and often uncredited. Still, she boasted more fan mail than Claudette Colbert or Marlene Dietrich at one point, reigned as America's favorite pinup through World War II, along with Jean Harlow and Betty Grable, and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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