Ramona

Ramona was born on Mar 11, 1909 in USA. Ramona's big-screen debut came with Social Register directed by Marshall Neilan in 1934. Ramona is known for Paper Moon directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Ryan O'Neal stars as Moses Pray and Tatum O'Neal as Addie Loggins. The upcoming new movie Ramona plays is Paper Moon which will be released on May 09, 1973.

Estrild Raymona Myers, an unlikely show biz name, would become internationally known as "Ramona." Her mother simply wanted to name her after her father, 17-year-old Raymond P. Myers, and the nearest name to it was Ramona. Raymond's wealthy parents believed that his bride, Rachel DeCamp, was below the social level of their teenage son. They annulled the marriage, unaware that fifteen-year-old Rachel was carrying Raymond's child. Rachael and infant Ramona moved across the border to Ashland, Kentucky, where she met her future husband, Charles C. Payne. Ramona told a reporter that her professional début took place at the age of 12 in Kentucky, when she was asked to play with a dance orchestra. The Paynes soon made their home in Kansas City, Missouri, where young Ramona attended school at St. Agnes Academy. According to an old press release, the only black marks on her school record were for sneaking out from time to time to play piano in a Kansas City movie house. At station WDAF she became staff pianist for the Kansas City Night Hawk Frolic where, for a three-year period, she played in the company of many great performers. From there she went to Pittsburgh, Pa., and became 10 of the Twenty Fingers of Sweetness, a program sponsored by Swans Down Sugar on Westinghouse station KDKA. After hearing her on the radio, the renowned bandleader Don Bestor engaged 16-year-old Ramona as featured singer and pianist when he took his recording and stage orchestra on a coast-to-coast tour. Her appearances with Bestor's group led to her own stage act on vaudeville circuits such as Keith, Orpheum and Loew's. In February, 1931 Ramona joined WLW in Cincinnati, "The Nation's Station," along with singer Seger Ellis, where she played on such programs as King Edward Cigar Band, Sohio Night Club and Werk's Bubble Blowers. At this time Paul Whiteman had the most famous orchestra in the world. He was paying Mildred Bailey $350 a week, sweetened by $600 from NBC. In the spring of 1932 Whiteman was doing five shows a day at a theatre engagement in Cincinnati. While relaxing in his dressing room, he tuned in WLW and heard Ramona singing in Spanish. A short time later he tuned in and heard her accompanying an Irish singer. Another time he tuned in and caught her accompanying her own singing. At a meeting arranged with Ramona, Whiteman asked her to join him when he opened in New York. Meanwhile, Mildred Bailey, after singing "We Just Couldn't Say Good-bye" on a Whiteman record, left in a flurry of lawsuits and joined CBS. Ramona stepped in and accepted a two-year contract at $125 a week (about one third what Whiteman was paying Bailey). Whiteman's original intention was to pair Ramona with crooner