June Mary MacCloy was born in Sturgis, Michigan on June 2, 1909. When she was a child her family moved to Toledo, Ohio. With her radiant smile, her tall, blonde, good looks and unusual voice, she brightened many a film and stage with her talent. After her retirement in 1940 she became an obscure part of Hollywood and Broadway history.
When she was a deep-voiced, 5' 71/2" teenage girl, she was chosen by song writer Lew Brown (of the prolific team DeSylva, Brown & Henderson) to do an impersonation of Broadway star Harry Richman, singing "I'm On The Crest of a Wave" in the ninth edition of George White's Scandals (Apollo Theater, July 2, 1928; 230 performances). The review starred Richman, Frances Williams, Willie & Eugene Howard and Ann Pennington.  MacCloy and her mother moved to New York, and  before embarking on a film career she was featured in the Parkington unit vaudeville shows, designed by Vincente Minnelli.
In 1930 she was signed by Paramount Pictures to make film shorts in Astoria, L.I.  Before making any features for Paramount, she was loaned out to United Artists to make her first feature, "Reaching for the Moon" with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Bebe Daniels.  She's the tall, pretty blond with the deep voice, singing 16 measures of "When the Folks High Up Do The Mean Low Down!" by Irving Berlin.  That same year, Paramount played a part with Frances Dee and Jack Oakie in "June Moon" (based on the Lardner-Kaufman play). Next came "The Big Gamble" (R-K-O Pathe) starring Bill Boyd, with Dorothy Sebastian, Warner Oland and ZaSu Pitts.
In the early 1930s MacCloy made at least nine film shorts, including  a series called "The Gay Girls" with Marion Shilling and Gertrude Short. Their titles were: "June First" (July 1931), "Take 'Em & Shake 'Em" (September 1931), "Easy to Get" (December 1931), "Only Men Wanted" (February 1932), "Gigolettes" (May 1932), "Niagara Falls" (June 1932). For Warner Bros./Vitaphone, she made a color two-reeler with Leon Erroll,ß "Good Morning, Eve," directed by Roy Mack (September, 1934).
In 1932 she appeared with Lupe Velez, Bert Lahr, Buddy Rogers and June Knight in Hot-Cha, Florenz Ziegfeld's last production (Ziegfeld Theater, March 8, 1932; 119 performances). Her featured song was "Little Old New York" (unpublished) by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson. Her understudy, who never had the chance to replace MacCloy, was the mellow-voiced Marjory Logan, who later made records and film appearances with Johnny Green's Orchestra.
When Hot-Cha closed, June sang on the cruise ship, "SS Transylvania," and spent the rest of the decade performing in Chicago, New York and San Francisco clubs and theaters, with the orchestras of Johnny Hamp (In June, 1933 she was featured singer with Hamp at the “Hangar” atop the Hotel LaSalle), Henry King, Ben Pollock and Griff Williams (with whom she recorded for Decca). Some of these spots included New York's Paramount Theater, Chicago's Chez Paree, and San Francisco's Hotel Mark Hopkins. In the mid-thirties she married Chicago trumpeter Claude Harrison (“Otts”) Whiteman, who was not related to Paul Whiteman. Whiteman is heard on Jack Teagarden’s 1933 record of “I’ve Got It.” The marriage ended in an amicable divorce. Because of her contralto voice, she felt radio producers overlooked her.  She suspected, many years later, that film producers may have thought she was a Lesbian.
At Columbia Studios, she made "Glamour for Sale" in 1940, with Anita Louise and Roger Pryor. Her last film was "Go West" (MGM, 1940) in which she tried to seduce Groucho Marx, and sang a song, "You Can't Argue With Love" (unpublished) in the beer hall.
She retired from performing when she married California architect Neal Wendell Butler, with whom she raised two children in Southern California.  She met her husband through their mutual love of jazz music.  She was widowed in 1985.
-Peter Mintun, November, 1999

The Complete June MacCloy 1930-1940

1932 You Didn't Have To Tell Me (I Knew It All The Time) (Walter Donaldson)

1930 When The Folks High Up...(Berlin) "Reaching For The Moon"

MacCloy Songs

1934 Twenty Four Hours In Georgia

June MacCloy, with Williams-Walsh Orchestra, San Francisco, 1934

1934 Because Of Once Upon A Time (Maltin-Stride-Young)

Peter Mintun