Evelyn Venable's first dramatic appearance was in a Cincinnati high school production of Romeo and Juliet; this led to her professional debut in a civic center production of Dear Brutus. Venable won a scholarship to Vassar, then briefly attended the University of Cincinnati before joining a stock company supervised by Broadway star Walter Hampden, an old friend of the Venable family. She received generous critical praise for her performance as Roxanne opposite Hampden's Cyrano de Bergerac. While appearing with the Hampden troupe in Los Angeles, Venable was signed by Paramount Pictures. During her brief reign as a movie star, Venable was subject to reams of publicity coverage: she was billed as "the kissless girl," purportedly because her father had insisted that a clause be inserted in her contract preventing her from being kissed onscreen (Venable's dad found this studio-fabricated legend as perplexing as she did). Reportedly, she was the model for Columbia Pictures' "Torch Lady," though other likely candidates for this honor include Claudia Dell and Viola Dana.