Ruby Keeler started as a dancer on Broadway. After her marriage to Al Jolson she moved to Hollywood and become a star in Warners musicals opposite Dick Powell. After her divorce from Jolson she retired for almost 30 years, until she appeared in "No No Nanette" on Broadway in 1971 under the direction of Busby Berkeley.



She returned to Broadway in 1971, starring in "No No, Nanette", appearing in a run of 861 performances. Ruby, who was Irish, and her 24-years-senior husband Al Jolson, who was Jewish, could not conceive a child, so they adopted a baby boy who was half-Irish and half-Jewish. After she divorced Jolson she had four children with her second husband. Her adopted son, Al Jolson Jr., was a contented member of her new family. According to her mother, Al Jolson gave Ruby a dowry of $1 million when they were married. Ruby began appearing as a singer and dancer in nightclubs when she was 13 years old, after dropping out of the sixth grade at Catholic school. She would work at two or three clubs a night, making a minimum of $150 a week. Her iceman father, Ralph, had costly medical problems, and she became the Keeler family breadwinner. Older sister of Gertrude Keeler and Helen Keeler. Aunt of Ken Weatherwax. He was Pugsley Addams of "The Addams Family" (1964).