Dorothy Lamour Biography
Mary Leta Dorothy Stanton (or Kaumeyer), 10 December 1914, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 22 September 1996, Los Angeles, California, USA. An actress and singer particularly remembered for the series of "Road" films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in which she invariably wore her trademark sarong. Crowned Miss Orleans at the age of 14, she moved to Chicago in the early 30s and worked in clubs and on radio, becoming known as the "Sultry Songstress of the Airwaves" even though the listeners were unaware that she had "a stunning statuesque figure". She married band leader Herbie Kay in 1934 and they were divorced in 1939. A subsequent marriage to millionaire business William Ross Howard survived for 35 years until his death in 1978. She made her breakthrough into films in 1936 with The Jungle Princess, the first of what she calls "those silly, but wonderful jungle pictures", which included Her Jungle Love and Moon Over Burma. In the late 30s she appeared in several musical films, including Swing High Swing Low, College Holiday, High Wide And Handsome, Thrill Of A Lifetime, The Big Broadcast Of 1938, and Tropic Holiday. One of her best roles came in St. Louis Blues (1939), in which she played an ex-Broadway star and sang several appealing numbers such as "Blue Nightfall", "I Go For That", "Let's Dream In The Moonlight", and the title song. She joined Crosby and Hope on The Road To Singapore in 1940, and continued to travel with them along other "Roads" to Zanzibar (1941), Morocco (1942), Utopia (1946), Rio (1947), and Bali (1953). Rumour has it that she nearly did not make the trip to Hong Kong in 1962, but Hope is said to have insisted on her presence in the picture, although Joan Collins played the main female role. Over the years, in between the "Roads", she made several other mostly entertaining musicals including The Fleet's In, Star Spangled Rhythm, Dixie, Riding High, And The Angels Sing, Rainbow Island, Duffy's Tavern, Variety Girl, Lulu Belle, Slightly French, and The Greatest Show On Earth (1952). This was in addition to films in which she played straight roles - a total of more than 60 in all. She was still making the occasional feature film and television appearance into the 80s. In her one-woman show she poked fun at her image - the sarongs and all that - and told of the occasion when she received a standing ovation from 5,000 people while heading a touring company of Hello, Dolly! in the late 60s. All the sarongs have been auctioned off for charity.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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