Born in Chicago, she attended Northwestern University. After college, she joined the National Touring Company of Brigadoon. Paula next signed on as understudy to Anne Crowley in the production of Seventeen at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway in June, 1951. She then starred in the George White Review, Nice to See You, at the Versailles Club in 1953. Paula would then perform in over 35 musicals and plays on Broadway and in Summer Stock productions across the country. This would include her performing in Kismet for a month at the Music circus in Lambertville, New Jersey, co-starring with Donald O'Connor in Little Me, Gordon McRae and Howard Keel in Carousel and with Jack Carter (whom she later married) in Operation Mad Ball, Born Yesterday and Critic's Choice. Her replacing Jo Sullivan in T