page_title: Shirley Jones
section_title: Early stage career
hierarchical_section_title: Shirley Jones / Career / Early stage career
caption_attribution_description: English: White House entertainment program, January 29, 1957, during Eisenhower's presidency, featuring Martyn Green, Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy. Source: http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/small_exhibition.cfm?key=1267&amp;exkey=863&amp;pagekey=889
context_page_description: Shirley Mae Jones is an American actress and singer. In her six decades in show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of musical films, such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Music Man. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry. She played the lead role of Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children, in the musical situation-comedy television series The Partridge Family, which co-starred her real-life stepson, David Cassidy, son of Jack Cassidy.
context_section_description: Her first audition was for an open bi-weekly casting call held by John Fearnley, casting director for Rodgers and Hammerstein and their various musicals. At the time, Jones had never heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Fearnley was so impressed, he ran across the street to fetch Richard Rodgers, who was rehearsing with an orchestra for an upcoming musical. Rodgers then called Oscar Hammerstein at home. The two saw great potential in Jones. She became the first and only singer to be put under personal contract with the songwriters. They first cast her in a minor role in South Pacific. For her second Broadway show, Me and Juliet, she started as a chorus girl, and then an understudy for the lead role, earning rave reviews in Chicago.
caption: A program featuring Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy at the White House in 1957
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