Editing Grayson Hall (section)

==Early life==
Grayson Hall was born Shirley Grossman in [[Philadelphia]] in 1922,<ref>Hall also gave 1923 and 1925 as her year of birth on various documents, but elementary school and census records substantively establish 1922 as the correct year.</ref> the only child of Eleanor and Joseph Grossman. Her father was from [[Latvia]] and her mother, who had acted in the [[Yiddish theatre]], was from South Africa. Both were from Jewish immigrant families.<ref name="hallbio">{{Cite book |last=Jamison |first=R.J. |title=Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow |publisher=iUniverse |year=2006 |isbn=0-595-40462-6 |pages=4–5}}</ref>

When Hall was eight, her parents separated, but they never divorced. Hall became interested in acting as an escape from a painful childhood, and auditioned for plays in [[New York City]] while still attending [[Simon Gratz High School]] in [[North Philadelphia]]. She enrolled at [[Temple University]] but did not matriculate. She landed her first professional job with a [[summer stock]] company on [[Long Island]] in 1942.

In 1946, she married fellow actor Ted Brooks in Philadelphia.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Marriage |first=announcement |title=Newspapers.com |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=26 May 1946 |page=35 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58375300/the-philadelphia-inquirer/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925003303/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58375300/the-philadelphia-inquirer/ |archive-date=2022-09-25}}</ref> They separated in 1949 and she returned to New York. In 1952, she married writer [[Sam Hall (writer)|Sam Hall]]. Their son Matthew was born in 1958. She had always used the stage name Shirley Grayson, but Sam Hall called her Grayson "like an old Army buddy," as she said in an interview. She eventually adopted Grayson Hall as her professional name.<ref name="hallbio" />