Lillian Roth, a talented songstress, was born Lillian Rutstein on December 13, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents, stage parents who groomed her and her younger sister Ann for stardom from an early age, named her after singer Lillian Russell.
The girls did not disappoint, and in 1916, Lillian moved with her family to New York City, where they found work as extras in films. Lillian's precocious talent was quickly recognized, and at the age of six, she made her Broadway debut in "The Inner Man."