Dorothy Lamour

Dorothy Lamour

circa 1940
Born Mary Leta Dorothy Kaumeyer
(1914-12-10)December 10, 1914
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Died September 22, 1996(1996-09-22) (aged 81)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Nationality American
Occupation Actress, Singer
Years active 1933–1995
Spouse(s) Herbie Kay (m. 1935; div. 1939)
William Ross Howard III (m. 1943; d. 1978)
Children 2
Website dorothylamour.com

Dorothy Lamour (December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.[1]

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 to... comedy film, Road to Singapore. The Road to... films were popular during the 1940s. The sixth film in the series, Road to Bali, was released in 1952. By that time, Lamour's screen career began to wane, and she focused on stage and television work. In 1961, Crosby and Hope teamed up for one more, 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 onscreen 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

Born Mary Leta Dorothy Kaumeyer[2] or Slaton[3] in New Orleans,[4] the daughter of Carmen Louise (née LaPorte) and John Watson Slaton, both of whom were waiters. Lamour was of French Louisianan, Spanish, and Irish descent. 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.[5] That marriage also ended in divorce when Dorothy was a teenager.

In Road to Bali (1952)

Lamour quit school at the age of 14 and, after taking a business course, worked as a secretary to support herself and her mother. She began entering beauty pageants and was crowned "Miss New Orleans" in 1931. Lamour used the prize money to support herself while she worked in a stock theatre company. She and her mother later moved to Chicago where Lamour found a job working at Marshall Field's department store. She was discovered by orchestra leader Herbie Kay when he spotted her in performance at a Chicago talent show held at the Hotel Morrison. Kay hired her as a singer for his orchestra and, in 1935, Lamour went on tour with Kay. Her work with Kay eventually led Lamour to vaudeville and work in radio.[6] In 1935, she had her own fifteen-minute weekly musical program on NBC Radio. Lamour also sang on the popular Rudy Vallee radio show and The Chase and Sanborn Hour. On January 30, 1944, Lamour starred in "For This We Live," an episode of Silver Theater on CBS radio.[7]

Career

In 1936, Lamour moved to Hollywood. That same year, she did a screen test for Paramount Pictures and signed a contract with them.[6] Lamour began appearing regularly in films for Paramount Pictures. She made her first film for Paramount, College Holiday, in which she has a bit part as an uncredited dancer. Her second film for Paramount, The Jungle Princess (1936), 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.[8] From 1937 to 1939, Lamour appeared in John Ford's The Hurricane (1937), Spawn of the North (1938; with George Raft, Henry Fonda, and John Barrymore), and Disputed Passage (1939).

In Road to Bali (1952)

In 1940, Lamour co-starred in the first of several Road to... films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. The movies were enormously popular during the 1940s, and they regularly placed among the top moneymaking films each year. While the films centered more on Hope and Crosby, Lamour held her own as their "straight man", and sang some of her most popular songs. The series essentially ended with the release of Road to Hong Kong, in 1962, in which Lamour only made a cameo appearance. Actress Joan Collins was the female lead in that picture.

During World War II, Lamour was among the most popular pinup girls among American servicemen, along with Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, and Veronica Lake. Lamour was also known for her volunteer working selling war bonds during tours in which movie stars would travel the country selling U.S. government bonds to the public. Lamour reportedly sold $300 million worth of bonds earning her the nickname "The Bombshell of Bombs". She also volunteered at the Hollywood Canteen where she would dance and talk to soldiers. In 1965, Lamour was awarded a belated citation from the United States Department of the Treasury for her war bond sales.[1]

With Bing Crosby in Road to Bali (1952), a pinnacle after which Lamour's career declined.

Some of Lamour's other notable films include Johnny Apollo (1940; with Tyrone Power), Aloma of the South Seas (1941), Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942), Dixie (1943; with Bing Crosby), A Medal for Benny (1945), My Favorite Brunette (1947; with Bob Hope), On Our Merry Way (1948), Slightly French (1949) and a supporting role in the best picture Oscar-winner The Greatest Show on Earth (1952; with Charlton Heston). Her other leading men included William Holden, Ray Milland, James Stewart, Jack Benny, and Fred MacMurray.

Lamour emceed Front and Center, a 1947[9] variety comedy show, as a summer replacement for The Fred Allen Show, with the Army Air Force recruiting as sponsors. The show changed to The Sealtest[10] Variety Theater in September[11] 1948.

Lamour starred in a number of movie musicals and sang in many of her comedies and dramatic films as well. She introduced a number of standards, including "The Moon of Manakoora", "I Remember You", "It Could Happen to You", "Personality", and "But Beautiful".

The Road To Bali would prove to be the swansong of Lamour's film career. Afterwards, she began a new life as a nightclub entertainer and a stage actress. In the 1960s, she returned to the screen for secondary roles in three films, including John Ford's Donovan's Reef (1963) with John Wayne and Lee Marvin, and became more active in live theater, headlining a road company of Hello Dolly! for over a year near the end of the decade.

Later years

With Bob Hope in Road to Bali (1952)

In the 1970s, Lamour was a popular draw on the dinner theatre circuit.

In 1980, Lamour published her autobiography, My Side of the Road, and revived her nightclub act. 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 1987, she made one 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?'"[12]

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. In 1995, the musical Swinging on a Star, a revue of songs written by Johnny Burke (who wrote many of the most famous Road to ... movie songs as well as the score to Lamour's film And the Angels Sing (1944)) opened on Broadway and ran for three months; Lamour was credited as a "special advisor". It was nominated for the Best Musical Tony Award; the actress playing her in the road movie segment, Kathy Fitzgerald, was also nominated.

Personal life

In The Hurricane (1937)

Lamour's first marriage was to orchestra leader Herbie Kay, whose orchestra Lamour sang with. The two married in 1935 and divorced in 1939.[13][14]

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."[15] In her autobiography, My Side of the Road (1980), Lamour does not discuss Hoover in detail; she only refers to him as "a lifelong friend".[16]

On April 7, 1943, Lamour married former Air Force Captain and advertising executive William Ross Howard III in Beverly Hills.[17] The couple had two sons: John Ridgely (born January 1946) and Richard Thomson Howard (born October 1949).[18][19]

In the 1960s and 1970s, Lamour and Howard lived in the Baltimore suburb of Sudbrook Park.[20] She also owned a home in Palm Springs, California.[21] Howard died in 1978.[1]

Death

Grave of Dorothy Lamour, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills

Lamour died at her home in North Hollywood on September 22, 1996, at the age of 81.[1] She was interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.[22]

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.[23]

Selected filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1936 College Holiday Dancer Uncredited
1936 The Jungle Princess Ulah
1937 Swing High, Swing Low Anita Alvarez
1937 High, Wide, and Handsome Molly Fuller
1937 The Hurricane Marama
1938 The Big Broadcast of 1938 Dorothy Wyndham
1938 Her Jungle Love Tura
1938 Tropic Holiday Manuela
1938 Spawn of the North Nicky Duval
1939 St. Louis Blues Norma Malone
1939 Man About Town Diana Wilson
1939 Disputed Passage Audrey Hilton
1940 Road to Singapore Mima
1940 Johnny Apollo Lucky Dubarry
1940 Chad Hanna Albany Yates/Lady Lillian
1941 Road to Zanzibar Donna Latour
1940 Typhoon Dea
1941 Caught in the Draft Antoinette "Tony" Fairbanks
1941 Aloma of the South Seas Aloma
1942 Beyond the Blue Horizon Tama
1942 The Fleet's In The Countess
1942 Road to Morocco Princess Shalmar
1942 Star Spangled Rhythm Herself
1943 They Got Me Covered Christina Hill
1943 Dixie Millie Cook
1943 Riding High Ann Castle
1944 And the Angels Sing Nancy Angel
1945 A Medal for Benny Lolita Sierra
1945 Duffy's Tavern Herself
1945 Masquerade in Mexico Angel O'Reilly
1946 Road to Utopia Sal Van Hoyden
1947 My Favorite Brunette Carlotta Montay Alternative title: The Private Eye
1947 Variety Girl Herself
1947 Wild Harvest Fay Rankin
1947 Road to Rio Lucia Maria de Andrade
1948 On Our Merry Way Gloria Manners Alternative title: A Miracle Can Happen
1948 Lulu Belle Lulu Belle
1949 The Lucky Stiff Anna Marie St. Claire
1949 Manhandled Merl Kramer
1949 Slightly French Mary O'Leary
1951 Here Comes the Groom Herself
1952 The Greatest Show on Earth Phyllis
1952 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"
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1955 Damon Runyon Theater Sally Bracken 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 film
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 Dorothy Lamour 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

Lamour's autobiography, My Side of the Road (1980), was published by Prentice-Hall.[24]

Lamour is the heroine of Matilda Bailey's young adult novel, Dorothy Lamour and the Haunted Lighthouse (1947), whose "heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." The story was written for a young teenage audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that each featured a film actress as heroine.[25]

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).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Severo, Richard (September 23, 1996). "Dorothy Lamour, 81, Sultry Sidekick in Road Films, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  2. ↑ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 98.
  3. ↑ Lamour herself remarks "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." My side of the road page 39
  4. ↑ James Robert Parish, Michael R. Pitts (2003). Hollywood Songsters: Garland to O'Connor. p. 477. ISBN 0415943337.
  5. ↑ Room, Adrian (2010). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (5 ed.). McFarland. p. 273. ISBN 0-786-44373-1.
  6. 1 2 Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (2003). Hollywood Songsters: Singers Who Act and Actors Who Sing: A Biographical Dictionary. 2. Taylor & Francis. p. 447. ISBN 0-415-94333-7.
  7. ↑ "Drama". The Nebraska State Journal. January 30, 1944. p. 36. Retrieved March 31, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ Jorgensen, Jay (2010). Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer. Running Press. pp. 50–51. ISBN 0-762-44173-9.
  9. ↑ Hollywood Songsters: Garland to O'Connor – James Robert Parish, Michael R. Pitts – Google Books
  10. ↑ On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio – John Dunning – Google Books
  11. ↑ Sealtest Variety Theater (Episode: "Boris Karloff Throws a Halloween Party") October 28, 1948
  12. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/23/us/dorothy-lamour-81-sultry-sidekick-in-road-films-dies.html?scp=66&sq=murder%20she%20wrote&st=cse
  13. ↑ Lee, William F. (2005). American Big Bands. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 119. ISBN 0-634-08054-7.
  14. ↑ Adelson, Suzanne (1982-02-22). "It's Toujours Lamour—Dorothy Is Back on the Road Again at Age 67". People. 17 (7). ISSN 0093-7673.
  15. ↑ Ackerman, Kenneth D. (2001-11-09). "Five myths about J. Edgar Hoover". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  16. ↑ Lamour, Dorothy; McInnes, Dick (1980). My Side of the Road. Prentice-Hall. p. 33. ISBN 0-132-18594-6.
  17. ↑ "Indoors Setting For Wedding Of Dorothy Lamour". Ottawa Citizen. 1943-04-06. p. 19. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  18. ↑ "Son Is Born To Dorothy Lamour". Ellensburg Daily Record. 1946-01-08. p. 1. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  19. ↑ "Dorothy Lamour Gives Birth to Her Second Son". The Milwaukee Journal. 1949-10-21. p. 22. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  20. ↑ "Dorothy Lamour" (PDF). Baltimore Magazine: 53.
  21. ↑ Meeks, Eric G. (2012). The Best Guide Ever to Palm Springs Celebrity Homes. Horatio Limburger Oglethorpe. p. 151. ISBN 978-1479328598.
  22. ↑ Keister, Douglas (2010). Forever L.A.: A Field Guide to Los Angeles Area Cemeteries & Their Residents. Gibbs Smith. p. 167. ISBN 1-423-60522-5.
  23. ↑ "Hollywood Star Walk: Dorothy Lamour". latimes.com. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  24. ↑ My Side of the Road by Dorothy Lamour on Goodreads.com, accessed April 17, 2010
  25. ↑ "Whitman Authorized Editions for Girls". series-books.com. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
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