Who is this woman? She's Florine McKinney, that's who. Who? Florine McKinney. I found this MGM picture of her a couple of years ago and never followed up on what this actress ever did. In fact, when I went to retrieve the photo from the Hollywood Dreamland "archives", I failed to even remember her name, typing it as Florence McKinney. She seemed destined for obscurity. She still is, but not entirely. It turns out that McKinney (1909-1975) was a glorified extra in a handful of movies in the 1930s and 1940s, including my beloved The Philadelphia Story. And as many times as I've seen that movie, I cannot recall Miss McKinney's appearance as the "Main Line Society Woman." She also had an uncredited bit in the Marx Brothers' Horse Feathers (1932). Her final film appearance (at age 33) was in a Johnny Mack Brown entry, 1942's Little Joe, the Wrangler, where she even got to play a character with a name, Mary Brewster. And that was the end of Florine McKinney's movie career.
Florine McKinney lived to be 65 and it got me thinking as to what stories she may have had to tell about her small taste of Hollywood. What this girl from the town of Mart, Texas did to leave her hometown to head for the promise of fame in Tinsel Town. I guess I'll never know, but the fact that this photo exists enabled me to become aware of her contribution to one of my favorite movies, however small it may be. I just would have liked to hear her story and know of her experiences in those heady days of Hollywood.
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