surrounding Parker's birth have been reported with little consistency. Secondary sources regarding her birth year range from 1912 to 1916, and some claim she was born in Butte, not Deer Lodge. Furthermore, some sources state her birth name as Lois Mae Green, while others indicate she was born Luise Stephanie Zelinska. Despite these discrepancies, Parker's son, Robert, insisted she was born Lois May Green in Deer Lodge in 1915, which is consistent with contemporaneous Montana birth records from the United States Census Bureau. Parker's parents were unemployed and experienced poverty. At some point in her early childhood, between ages 6 and 10, she was adopted by the Spickard family of Pasadena, California. She relocated there, and attended elementary school before graduating from Pasadena's John Muir High School. Her original aspirations were in the fine arts and illustration. In 1932, at age 17, Parker—then known as Lois Mae Green—entered a poster illustration competition, which resulted in her photograph appearing in a Los Angeles newspaper. Ida Koverman, an assistant to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) executive Louis B. Mayer, saw this photo and persuaded Mayer to give Parker a screen test. By Parker's account: "My ambition was to be an artist. I had no thought of acting." 1932–1937: Career beginnings Following a successful screen test, Parker was signed to MGM and given her stage name of Jean Parker. She made her feature film debut in the drama Divorce in the Family (1932), followed by an uncredited role in Rasputin and the Empress (1932). She subsequently appeared in minor roles in the political fantasy film Gabriel Over the White House (1933), and the drama The Secret of Madame Blanche (also 1933). In 1933, MGM loaned Parker to Columbia Pictures, who provided her with larger parts in their films, beginning with a major supporting role in Frank Capra's comedy-drama Lady for a Day, playing the estranged daughter of an indigent saleswoman in New York City. The same year, Parker was loaned to RKO Pictures to appear in George Cukor's film adaptation of Little Women, portraying Elizabeth March opposite Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, and Frances Dee. She later reflected: "Playing Beth was the hardest thing I ever did. I was scared stiff, for I had no real training in acting. To make it harder still, I was only 16 while the others were all over 24. I was terribly shy then... but all the girls did everything they