Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour | |
---|---|
Born | Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton December 10, 1914 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
Died | September 22, 1996 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 81)
Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1933–1995 |
Known for | |
Spouses | Herbie Kay
(m. 1935; div. 1939)William Ross Howard III
(m. 1943; died 1978) |
Children | 2 |
Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the
Lamour began her career in the 1930s as a big band singer. In 1936, she moved to Hollywood, where she signed with Paramount Pictures. Her appearance as Ulah in The Jungle Princess (1936) brought her fame and marked the beginning of her image as the "Sarong Queen".
In 1940, Lamour made her first Road series comedy film Road to Singapore. The Road series films were popular during the 1940s. The sixth film in the series, Road to Bali, was released in 1952. By this time, Lamour's screen career began to wane, and she focused on stage and television work. In 1961, Crosby and Hope teamed for The Road to Hong Kong, but actress Joan Collins was cast as the female lead. Lamour made a brief appearance and sang a song near the end of that film.
In the 1970s, Lamour revived her nightclub act, and in 1980, released her autobiography My Side of the Road. She made her final movie appearance in 1987.
Lamour married her second husband, William Ross Howard III, in 1943. They had two sons and remained married until Howard's death in 1978. Lamour died at her home in 1996 at the age of 81.
Early life
Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton[2] was born on December 10, 1914, at Charity ward at New Orleans East Hospital in New Orleans,[3][4] the daughter of Carmen Louise (née LaPorte) and John Watson Slaton,[i] both of whom were restaurant servers.[5] Lamour was of Spanish descent, with some English, French and possibly also distant Irish as well. Her parents' marriage lasted only a few years. Her mother married for the second time to Clarence Lambour, whose surname Dorothy later adopted and modified as her stage name.[6] That marriage also ended in divorce when Dorothy was a teenager.
Lamour quit school at age 14. After taking a business course, she worked as a secretary to support herself and her mother. She began entering beauty pageants, was crowned Miss New Orleans in 1931, and went on to compete in Galveston's Pageant of Pulchritude.
Career
In 1936, Lamour moved to Hollywood. Around that time, Carmen married her third husband, Ollie Castleberry, and the family lived in Los Angeles.[9] That same year, she did a screen test for Paramount Pictures and signed a contract with them.[10]
Lamour made her first film for Paramount, College Holiday (1936), in which she has a bit part as an uncredited dancer.
The Jungle Princess and "sarong" roles
Her second film for Paramount, The Jungle Princess (1936) with Ray Milland, solidified her fame. In the film, Lamour plays the role of "Ulah", a jungle native who wore an Edith Head-designed sarong throughout the film. The Jungle Princess was a big hit for the studio and Lamour would be associated with sarongs for the rest of her career. It also gave her a hit song "Moonlight and Shadows".[11]
She followed it with a support role in a Carole Lombard–Fred MacMurray musical Swing High, Swing Low (1937) where she got to sing "Panamania". She was top billed in The Last Train from Madrid (1937).
Lamour supported
Lamour had a cameo in
Paramount reunited her with Milland and a sarong for Her Jungle Love (1938). Tropic Holiday (1938) cast her as a Mexican alongside Bob Burns, Raye and Milland, then she supported George Raft and Henry Fonda in the adventure film Spawn of the North (1938). Raft was meant to be Lamour's leading man in St. Louis Blues (1939) but he turned down the part and was replaced by Lloyd Nolan.
Lamour was Jack Benny's leading lady in the musical Man About Town (1939) then played a Chinese girl in a melodrama, Disputed Passage (1939).
The "Road" movies
In 1940, Lamour starred in Road to Singapore, a spoof of Lamour's "sarong" films. It was originally meant to co-star Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie, then George Burns and Gracie Allen, before Paramount decided to use Bob Hope and Bing Crosby; Lamour was billed after Crosby and above Hope. The two male stars began ad-libbing during filming. "I was trying to follow the script but just couldn't get my lines out", she said later. "Finally, I realised that I should just get the general idea of a scene rather than learn the words by heart, then go along with the boys." Said Hope, "Dottie is one of the bravest gals in pictures. She stands there before the camera and ad-libs with Crosby and me knowing that the way the script is written she'll come second or third best, but she fears nothing."[13]
The movie was a solid hit and response to the team was enthusiastic.
It was back to sarongs for Typhoon (1940). Her male co-star in the latter was Robert Preston who was also with Lamour in Moon Over Burma (1940). Fox borrowed her again for Chad Hanna (1941) with Henry Fonda.
Response to Road to Singapore had been such that Paramount reunited Lamour, Hope and Crosby in Road to Zanzibar (1941) which was even more successful and eventually led to a series of pictures (although from this point on Lamour was billed beneath Hope). She and Hope then did Caught in the Draft (1941) which was one of the biggest hits of the year.[14]
Lamour was reunited with her old Hurricane star, Jon Hall, in Aloma of the South Seas (1941). She did a popular musical with Eddie Bracken, William Holden and Betty Hutton, The Fleet's In (1942), which gave her a hit song, "I Remember You".
There was another sarong movie, Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942). Both were well liked by the public but neither was as popular as her third "Road" movie, Road to Morocco (1942).[15]
Lamour was one of many Paramount stars who did guest shots in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942). She and Hope were borrowed by Sam Goldwyn for a comedy They Got Me Covered (1943), then she did one with Crosby without Hope, Dixie (1943), a popular biopic of Dan Emmett.
During World War II, Lamour was among the more popular
Lamour made
Lamour played a Mexican in A Medal for Benny (1945), based on a story by John Steinbeck, co-starring Arturo de Córdova. She was one of many Paramount stars to cameo in Duffy's Tavern (1945), then did a fourth "Road", Road to Utopia (1945), then Masquerade in Mexico (1945) with de Cordova.
She was in three big hits in a row: My Favorite Brunette (1947), a comedy with Hope; Wild Harvest (1947), a melodrama with Alan Ladd and Preston; and Road to Rio (1947). She also sang a duet with Ladd in Variety Girl (1947). Then she left Paramount.
After Paramount
Lamour emceed Front and Center, a 1947 variety comedy show, as a summer replacement for The Fred Allen Show, with the Army Air Force recruiting as sponsors.[3] The show changed to The Sealtest[16] Variety Theater in September[17] 1948.
After leaving Paramount, Lamour made a series of films for producer Benedict Bogeaus: the all-star comedy On Our Merry Way (1948); Lulu Belle (1948), a melodrama with George Montgomery; and The Girl from Manhattan (1948), also with Montgomery.
She tried two comedies:
Lamour played a successful season at the London Palladium in 1950 then was in two big hits:
She also began working on television, guest starring on
1960s
Lamour returned to movies with a cameo in the final "Road" film, The Road to Hong Kong (1962); she was replaced as a love interest by Joan Collins because Bing Crosby wanted a younger actress. However, Bob Hope would not do the film without Lamour, so she appeared in an extended cameo.
She had a bigger part in John Ford's Donovan's Reef (1963) with John Wayne and Lee Marvin, and made guest appearances on shows like Burke's Law, I Spy and The Name of the Game, and films such as Pajama Party (1964) and The Phynx (1970).
Lamour moved to Baltimore with her family, where she appeared on TV and worked on the city's cultural commission. Then David Merrick offered her the chance to headline a road company of Hello Dolly! which she did for over a year near the end of the decade.[18]
Singing
Lamour starred in a number of movie musicals and sang in many of her comedies and dramatic films as well. For several years beginning in the late 1930s,
Later years
1970s
In the 1970s, Lamour was a popular draw at dinner theatres and in shows such as Anything Goes.[20]
She guest starred on shows such as
Her husband died in 1978, but she continued to work for "therapy".[22]
1980s
In 1980, Lamour published her autobiography My Side of the Road and revived her nightclub act.[23]
During the remainder of the decade, she performed in plays and television shows such as Hart to Hart, Crazy Like a Fox, Remington Steele, and Murder, She Wrote.
In 1984, she toured in a production of Barefoot in the Park.
In 1986 she said "I'm still as busy at 71 as I was when I was just a slip of a girl. I do concerts, television and a lot of dinner theatre, where I sing old songs and talk about Bob and Bing and starting out at Paramount at $200 a week and working myself up to $450,000 a picture...I feel wonderful. Age is only in the mind and I'm grateful that God has taken care of me. And I'm very grateful for that sarong. It did a lot for me! But to be truthful, the sarong was never my favorite wearing apparel."[22]
In 1987, she made her last big-screen appearance in the movie Creepshow 2, appearing with George Kennedy as an aging couple who are killed during a robbery. The wooden, Native American statue in front of their general store comes to life to avenge their death. The 72-year-old Lamour quipped: "Well, at my age you can't lean against a palm tree and sing 'Moon of Manakoora'", she said. "People would look at that and say 'What is she trying to do?'"[1]
1990s
During the 1990s, she made only a handful of professional appearances but remained a popular interview subject for publications and TV talk and news programs. Lamour's final stage performance was as "Hattie" in the Long Beach Civic Light Opera's 1990 production of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies".
In 1995, the musical
Personal life
Lamour's first marriage was to orchestra leader Herbie Kay, with whose orchestra Lamour sang. The two married in 1935 and divorced in 1939.[24][25]
Early in her career, Lamour met J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to Hoover's biographer Richard Hack, Hoover pursued a romantic relationship with Lamour, and the two spent a night together at a Washington, D.C., hotel. When Lamour was later asked if she and Hoover had a sexual relationship, she replied: "I cannot deny it."[26] In her autobiography My Side of the Road (1980), Lamour does not discuss Hoover in detail; she refers to him only as "a lifelong friend".[27]
On April 7, 1943, Lamour married Air Force captain and advertising executive William Ross Howard III [1] in Beverly Hills.[28] The couple had two sons: John Ridgely (1946–2018[29]) and Richard Thomson Howard (born 1949).[30][31]
In 1957, Lamour and Howard moved to the Baltimore, Maryland, suburb of Sudbrook Park.[32] In 1962, the couple and their two sons moved to Hampton, another Baltimore suburb in Dulaney Valley, with their oldest son, John, attending Towson High School.[33][34] She also owned a home in Palm Springs, California.[35] Howard died in 1978.[1]
Lamour was a registered Republican who supported the presidency of Ronald Reagan as well as Reagan's re-election in 1984.[36]
Death
Lamour died at her home in North Hollywood on September 22, 1996, from a heart attack, at the age of 81.[37][1] Her funeral was held at St. Charles Catholic Church in North Hollywood, California, where she was a member.[38][39] She was interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.[40]
For her contribution to the radio and motion picture industry, Lamour has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her star for her radio contributions is located at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard, and her star for her motion picture contributions is located at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard.[41]
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1936 | College Holiday | Dancer | Film debut; uncredited |
The Jungle Princess | Ulah | ||
1937 | Swing High, Swing Low | Anita Alvarez | |
The Last Train from Madrid | Carmelita Castillo | ||
High, Wide, and Handsome
|
Molly Fuller | ||
The Hurricane | Marama | ||
Thrill of a Lifetime | Specialty | ||
1938 | The Big Broadcast of 1938 | Dorothy Wyndham | |
Her Jungle Love | Tura | ||
Tropic Holiday | Manuela | ||
Spawn of the North | Nicky Duval | ||
1939 | St. Louis Blues | Norma Malone | |
Man About Town | Diana Wilson | ||
Disputed Passage | Audrey Hilton | ||
1940 | Road to Singapore | Mima | |
Johnny Apollo | Lucky Dubarry | ||
Typhoon | Dea | ||
Moon Over Burma | Arla Dean | ||
Chad Hanna | Albany Yates / Lady Lillian | ||
1941 | Road to Zanzibar | Donna Latour | |
Caught in the Draft | Antoinette "Tony" Fairbanks | ||
Aloma of the South Seas | Aloma | ||
1942 | The Fleet's In | The Countess | |
Star Spangled Rhythm | Herself | ||
Beyond the Blue Horizon | Tama | ||
Road to Morocco | Princess Shalmar | ||
1943 | They Got Me Covered | Christina Hill | |
Dixie | Millie Cook | ||
Riding High | Ann Castle | ||
1944 | And the Angels Sing | Nancy Angel | |
Rainbow Island | Lona | ||
1945 | A Medal for Benny | Lolita Sierra | |
Duffy's Tavern | Herself | ||
Road to Utopia | Sal Van Hoyden | ||
Masquerade in Mexico | Angel O'Reilly | ||
1947 | My Favorite Brunette | Carlotta Montay | Alternative title: The Private Eye |
Variety Girl | Herself | ||
Wild Harvest | Fay Rankin | ||
Road to Rio | Lucia Maria de Andrade | ||
1948 | On Our Merry Way | Gloria Manners | Alternative title: A Miracle Can Happen |
Lulu Belle | Lulu Belle | ||
1949 | The Girl from Manhattan | Carol Maynard | |
The Lucky Stiff | Anna Marie St. Claire | ||
Slightly French | Mary O'Leary | ||
Manhandled | Merl Kramer | ||
1951 | Here Comes the Groom | Herself | Uncredited |
1952 | The Greatest Show on Earth | Phyllis | |
Road to Bali | Princess Lala | ||
1962 | The Road to Hong Kong | Herself | |
1963 | Donovan's Reef | Miss Laflour | |
1964 | Pajama Party | Head Saleslady | |
1970 | The Phynx | Herself | |
1976 | Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood | Visiting Film Star | |
1987 | Creepshow 2 | Martha Spruce | (segment "Old Chief Wood'nhead"), (final film role) |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1955 | Damon Runyon Theater | Sally Bracken | Television debut
Episode: "The Mink Doll" |
1967 | I Spy | Halima | Episode: "The Honorable Assassins" |
1969 | The Name of the Game | Stella Fisher | Episode: "Chains of Command" |
1970 | Love, American Style | Holly's Mother | Segment: "Love and the Pick-Up" |
1971 | Marcus Welby, M.D. | Mary DeSocio | Episode: "Echos from Another World" |
1976 | Death at Love House | Denise Christian | Television movie Alternative title: The Shrine of Lorna Love |
1980 | The Love Boat | Lil Braddock | Episode: "That's My Dad/The Captain's Bird/Captive Audience" |
1984 | Hart to Hart | Katherine Prince | Episode: "Max's Waltz" |
1984 | Remington Steele | Herself | Episode: "Cast in Steele" |
1986 | Crazy like a Fox
|
Rosie | Episode: "Rosie" |
1987 | Murder, She Wrote | Mrs. Ellis | Episode: "No Accounting for Murder" |
Broadway musicals
Year | Show |
---|---|
1958 | Oh, Captain! |
1995 | Swinging on a Star |
Books
- My Side of the Road. Autobiography. Prentice-Hall. 1980. )
In popular culture
Lamour is the heroine of Matilda Bailey's
She was featured in a brief print run of 2-3 issues during the 1950s, in Dorothy Lamour Jungle Princess Comics, a series of comic books dedicated to her on-film Jungle Princess persona (featuring screenshots from past movies as the covers).[43]
References
- ^ a b c d e Severo, Richard (September 23, 1996). "Dorothy Lamour, 81, Sultry Sidekick in Road Films, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0132185943.
It does get a little confusing; for example, my full name would be Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton Lambour Lamour Kay Kaumeyer Howard if you keep count. But at this point, I was just terribly happy to be Mrs. Herbie Kay.
- ^ ISBN 978-0415943338.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-1850-0.
- ^ LoBianco, Lorraine. "Starring Dorothy Lamour". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0786457632.
- ^ The Rosenberg Library Collection – Pageant of Pulchritude and Oleanders (1931). Rosenberg Library and Texas Archive of the Moving Image. 1931.
- ^ "Drama". Nebraska State Journal. January 30, 1944. p. 36. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ 1940 United States Federal Census
- ISBN 978-0415937757.
- ISBN 978-0-762-44173-0.
- ISBN 978-0-813-16624-7.
- ProQuest 312518321.
- ^ "Film Money-makers Selected by Variety: 'Sergeant York' Top Picture Gary Cooper Leading Star". The New York Times. December 31, 1941. p. 21.
- ^ "101 Pix Gross in Millions". Variety. November 21, 1943 – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-0199770786– via Internet Archive.
Front and Center | Sealtest Variety Hour Dorothy Lamour.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Sealtest Boris Karloff Halloween Party 1948" – via www.youtube.com.
- ProQuest 155831793.
- ^ Johnson, Erskine (April 4, 1951). "In Hollywood". Dixon Evening Telegraph. NEA. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
- ProQuest 156644159.
- ProQuest 169621710.
- ^ ProQuest 435476804.
- ProQuest 424302078.
- ISBN 978-0634080548.
- ISSN 0093-7673.
- ^ Ackerman, Kenneth D. (November 9, 2001). "Five myths about J. Edgar Hoover". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
- ^ Lamour 1980, p. 33.
- ^ "Indoors Setting For Wedding Of Dorothy Lamour". Ottawa Citizen. April 6, 1943. p. 19. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
- Fresno Bee– via Legacy.
- ^ "Son Is Born To Dorothy Lamour". Ellensburg Daily Record. January 8, 1946. p. 1. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
- ^ "Dorothy Lamour Gives Birth to Her Second Son". The Milwaukee Journal. October 21, 1949. p. 22. Retrieved December 11, 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Dorothy Lamour" (PDF). Baltimore Magazine: 53. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 1, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
- ^ "Dorothy Lamour at Home in Maryland". Sunday Sun Magazine (Rotogravure). September 8, 1963. pp. 16–17 – via Newspapers.com.
- Towson Times.
- ISBN 978-1479328598.
- ^ "Mixing politics with show business makes for star wars in Hollywood". United Press International.
- ^ Nolasco, Stephanie (September 5, 2018). "Dorothy Lamour never forgot her impoverished childhood, loved honoring troops, says son". Fox News.
- ^ Kasten, Patricia (September 19, 2015). "Where actors go to pray". The Compass. Green Bay.
- ^ "From the Archives: Dorothy Lamour, Sultry Movie Star, Dies". Los Angeles Times. September 23, 1996.
- ISBN 978-1-423-60522-5.
- ^ "Hollywood Star Walk: Dorothy Lamour". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
- ^ "Whitman Authorized Editions for Girls". Whitman Publishing. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
- ^ "Dorothy Lamour". Grand Comics Database. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ State of Louisiana, Parish of Orleans, First City Court of New Orleans marriage license states name of groom as "John Wilson Slaton". His mother's was Leta Wilson (also noted on license).
External links
- Dorothy Lamour at the Internet Broadway Database
- Dorothy Lamour at IMDb
- Dorothy Lamour at the TCM Movie Database
- "Dorothy Lamour at the Singer Sports Gala". Post-Blitz Clydebank. 1950. Archived from the original (mov) on July 26, 2008.
- "Dorothy Lamour". Virtual History. Photographs.