Ruth's mother Mary Ruby was in the silent movies with Mary Pickford and instilled her love of movies in her daughter Ruth. They lived in Los Angeles, and sometimes went to funerals of Hollywood stars together. They also went to see lots of movies. They gave Ruth a camera at the age of 10, and a movie camera when she was 14. Ruth started keeping a record of every film she saw, and gave it her own star rating. Some of her favorite films were "How Green Was My Valley", "Pygmalion", "Grand Illusion", "Bicycle Thief" and "Citizen Kane." She wrote to Orson Welles, and he wrote her back on Mercury Theater letterhead, and said "I do hope you like "Citizen Kane" when you see it. She later photographed him in Venice in 1951. However, back in 1938 she got a job at MGM Studios which she loved, and went back five years later in 1943 and did a picture story with messenger Vee Carson to show what it was like when she was there. She had wanted to be a cinematographer, but they didn't let women into the union. Her stills included many series and sequences because she was trying to show the world that the influence of film was always with her.