Actors should be overheard, not listened to, and the audience is 50 percent of the performance.

(2008). Booth first attracted major notice as the female lead in the comedy hit Three Men on a Horse which ran almost two years in 1935 to 1937. Director Frank Capra unsuccessfully attempted to bring Booth back to the screen with Pocketful of Miracles in 1961 but after viewing Capra's original version Lady for a Day (1933) Booth informed him there was no way Shirley Booth could match May Robson's moving Oscar-nominated performance in the original film.

She retired in 1974. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney in the drama Come Back Little Sheba for which Shirley Booth received a Tony Award in 1950. Primarily a theater actress Booth's Broadway career began in 1925.