Biography of
Dorothy Lamour
Birth name
Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton
Date of birth (location)
10 December 1914,
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Date of death (details)
22 September 1996,
Los Angeles, California, USA.
Mini biography
In addition to being Miss New Orleans in 1931, she worked as a Chicago.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filmography as: Actress, Notable TV guest appearances
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actress - filmography
(1980s) (1970s) (1960s) (1950s) (1940s) (1930s)
Creepshow 2 (1987) .... Martha Spruce ("Old Chief Wood'nhead")
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) .... Visiting Film Star
Death at Love House (1976) (TV) .... Denise Christian
... aka Shrine of Lorna Love, The (1976) (TV) (USA)
Phynx, The (1970) .... Herself
Love Goddesses, The (1965) .... Herself
... aka Love Goddesses: A History of Sex in the Cinema, The (1965)
Pajama Party (1964) .... Head Saleslady
... aka Maid and the Martian, The (1964)
Donovan's Reef (1963) .... Miss Lafleur
Road to Hong Kong, The (1962) .... Herself
Road to Bali (1952) .... Princess Lala
Greatest Show on Earth, The (1952) .... Phyllis
Here Comes the Groom (1951) (uncredited) .... Herself
Moments in Music (1950) (uncredited)
Slightly French (1949) .... Mary O'Leary
Lucky Stiff, The (1949) .... Anna Marie St Claire
Manhandled (1949) .... Merl Kramer
Girl from Manhattan, The (1948) .... Carol Maynard
Lulu Belle (1948) .... Lulu Belle
On Our Merry Way (1948) .... Gloria Manners
... aka Miracle Can Happen, A (1948)
Unusual Occupations (1947/I) (uncredited) .... Herself
Wild Harvest (1947) .... Fay Rankin
Road to Rio (1947) .... Lucia Maria de Andrade
Variety Girl (1947) .... Herself
My Favorite Brunette (1947) .... Carlotta Montay
Road to Utopia (1946) .... Sal Van Hoyden
Duffy's Tavern (1945) .... Herself
Medal for Benny, A (1945) .... Lolita Sierra
Masquerade in Mexico (1945) .... Angel O'Reilly
And the Angels Sing (1944) .... Nancy Angel
Rainbow Island (1944) .... Lona
Riding High (1943) .... Ann Castle
... aka Melody Inn (1943) (UK)
Show Business at War (1943) .... Herself
... aka March of Time Volume IX, Issue 10, The (1943)
Dixie (1943) .... Millie Cook
They Got Me Covered (1943) .... Christina Hill
Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942) .... Tama
Fleet's In, The (1942) .... The Countess
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) .... Herself
Road to Morocco (1942) .... Princess Shalmar
Aloma of the South Seas (1941) .... Aloma
Caught in the Draft (1941) .... Tony Fairbanks
Road to Zanzibar (1941) .... Donna Latour
Moon Over Burma (1940) .... Arla Dean
Typhoon (1940) .... Dea
... aka Big Haircut, The (1940)
Chad Hanna (1940) .... Albany Yates/Lady Lillian
Johnny Apollo (1940) .... Mabel 'Lucky' DuBarry
Road to Singapore (1940) .... Mima
Disputed Passage (1939) .... Audrey, Hilton
Man About Town (1939) .... Diana Wilson
St. Louis Blues (1939) .... Norma Malone
... aka Best of the Blues (1939)
Tropic Holiday (1938) .... Manuela
Spawn of the North (1938) .... Nicky Duval
Hollywood Handicap (1938) (uncredited) .... Herself
Her Jungle Love (1938) .... Tura
Big Broadcast of 1938, The (1938) .... Dorothy Wyndham
Thrill of a Lifetime (1937) .... Specialty
Hurricane, The (1937) .... Marama
High, Wide, and Handsome (1937) .... Molly Fuller
Last Train from Madrid, The (1937) .... Carmelita Castillo
Swing High, Swing Low (1937) .... Anita Alvarez
Jungle Princess, The (1936) .... Ulah
College Holiday (1936) .... Coed
Footlight Parade (1933) (uncredited) .... Chorus Girl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filmography as: Actress, Notable TV guest appearances
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notable TV guest appearances
"Murder, She Wrote"
(1984) playing "Mrs. Ellis" in episode: "No Accounting for Murder" (episode # 3.19) 3/22/1987
"Crazy Like a Fox" (1984) in episode: "Rosie" (episode # 2.20) 4/12/1986
"Remington Steele" (1982) playing "Herself" in episode: "Cast in Steele" (episode # 3.9) 12/4/1984
"I Spy" (1965) in episode: "Honorable Assassins, The" (episode # 3.6) 10/16/1967
Nickname: The beautiful one
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 5' 5"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mini biography
In addition to being Miss New Orleans in 1931, she worked as a Chicago elevator operator, band vocalist (for her first husband, bandleader Herbie Kaye) and radio performer. In 1936 she donned her
soon-to-be-famous sarong for her debut at Paramount, "The Jungle Princess" (1936), and continued to play a female Tarzan-Crusoe Gauguin-girl-with make-up through the war years and beyond. The most famous of
these was in the Hope-Crosby "Road to ..." movies - a strange combination of adventure, slapstick, ad libs and Hollywood inside jokes which became very popular. Of these she said "I was the happiest and
highest-paid straight woman in the business." Aging brought her into less popular efforts. Among her serious films were "Johnny Apollo" (1945) and "A Medal for Johnny" (1943).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mini biography
Dorothy Lamour was born with the birth name of Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton on December 10, 1914, in New Orleans,
Louisiana. She was a beautiful child who turned heads as a teenager with her long dark hair. However, her dreams were to become a professional singer not acting. After she won a beauty contest as Miss New Orleans in
1931, she headed to Chicago to find her work as a singer. For a while Dorothy worked as an elevator operator in a department store before going on to become a vocalist in the Herbie Kay band. Kay would become her first
husband in 1935, but the marriage would only last four years. In addition to the band, Dorothy also performed on a Chicago radio program as a singer. She not only performed with Kay but also Rudy Vallee and Eddie
Duchin. 1933 found Dorothy in Hollywood where she landed a bit part in a musical as a chorus girl entitled FOOTLIGHT PARADE. Her role went uncredited. She didn't appear in films again until 1936 when she landed a part
as a coed in COLLEGE HOLIDAY. Fame would not be elusive for long because she was about to land the role that would define her career. Later in 1936, Dorothy got the part of Ulah in THE JUNGLE PRINCESS produced by Lloyd
Shelton and filmed with Paramount. It was a sort of female Tarzan role. This film was a tremendous money maker as Dorothy stole the show in her wrap-around sarong. Dorothy became an instant star as the child of nature,
raised with a pet tiger among the tropical natives. Ray Milland starred opposite her as the man from civilization who woos and wins her. The scene where Milland is trying to teach her the word kiss is touching yet
humorous. When he kisses her and tells her that is a kiss she runs away. She went on to play similar parts in the sarong in productions such as THE HURRICANE (1937), TYPHOON (1940), and BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON (1942).
The sarong would stay with her in the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby ROAD series. The trio would star in THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE, THE ROAD TO TO UTOPIA and THE ROAD TO ZANZIBAR. The road series stated in 1940 and lasted until
1962. Hope and Crosby had the leads but Dorothy but not in her usual role. Joan Collins had that one. She actually only wore the sarong in six of her 59 pictures but it was to define her career. Dorothy was a
tremendously great actress with roles in DISPUTED PASSAGE (1939), DIXIE (1943), and ON OUR MERRY WAY (1948). She could show great range in comic or dramatic roles. After making three films in 1949, her career began to
trail off as she would only make ten films between 1951 and 1987. That last one was CREEPSHOW 2 where she played a housewife who gets murdered, a long way from the sarong and movies such as JOHNNY APOLLO and A MEDAL FOR
BENNYDorothy was 81 when she died of an undisclosed ailment on September 22, 1996 in Los Angeles, California.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spouse
'William Ross Howard III' (1943 - 1978) (his death); two sons
'Herbie Kay' (1935 - 1939) (divorced)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trivia
Femme
fatale in the Bing Crosby - Bob Hope "Road" series of Paramount Pictures offerings from 1941 to 1953. In the final, 1962 entry, 'Road to Hong Kong', Lamour appeared, yes, with Crosby and Hope but the f.f. this
time was Joan Collins.
Miss New Orleans 1931.
Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Enduring Faith section, lot 387, space 2.
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Actress. (b. Dec. 10, 1914, New Orleans, as Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton.) The erstwhile "sarong girl" of 1930s-vintage Hollywood exotica such as The Jungle
Princess (1936), The Hurricane (1937), Her Jungle Love (1938), and others, Lamour enjoyed a lengthy screen career, during which time she was one of the movie industry's most popular stars, both on- and offscreen. While
she always seemed most at home in lighthearted musicals and comedies (such as the "Road" pictures in which she costarred with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope), Lamour occasionally delivered skillful, heartfelt
performances in dramatic pictures as well.
Named "Miss New Orleans" in 1931, Lamour entered show business as a bigband vocalist. She made her screen debut, in fact, in a Vitaphone big-band short
subject. Signed by Paramount in 1936, she made her feature debut in College Holiday that year, playing a bit part, but it was her chance casting in the title role of Jungle Princess (also 1936) that changed the course
of her career and made her a star. When director John Ford cast her and Jon Hall as the juvenile lovers in his South Seas spectacular The Hurricane (1937) her future was assured-and her screen image, with long dark
tresses and a sarong, was cemented forever. Paramount kept her busy throughout the rest of the decade in Swing High, Swing Low, Last Train From Madrid, Thrill of a Lifetime (all 1937), The Big Broadcast of 1938, Her
Jungle Love, Spawn of the North, Tropic Holiday (all 1938), St. Louis Blues, Man About Town and Disputed Passage (all 1939).
Oddly enough, Lamour got her best dramatic opportunities on loan to 20th Century-Fox
for a brace of big-budget 1940 productions: the crime drama Johnny Apollo which costarred her with Tyrone Power, and the circus story Chad Hanna pairing her with Henry Fonda. Later that year, back at Paramount, she was
cast in another South Seas role, this time opposite Crosby and Hope, in a modest programmer titled Road to Singapore The surprise success of that buoyant comedy launched one of moviedom's most popular (and profitable)
series, which reunited the starring triumverate on the Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1945), Road to Rio (1947), Road to Bali (1952), and, much later, The Road to Hong Kong (1962).
Lamour made an engaging straight woman for the duo, and got to introduce some popular songs along the way (including "Personality," in Road to Utopia). Lamour and Hope also worked together in Caught in the
Draft (1941), They Got Me Covered (1943), and My Favorite Brunette (1947), and she became a mainstay of his later TV specials, whenever he'd gather former leading ladies around him.
When movie work dwindled in
the 1950s, Lamour turned to nightclubs and the stage, and toured successfully in "Hello, Dolly!" Her autobiography, "My Side of the Road," was published in 1980.
OTHER FILMS INCLUDE: 1941:
Aloma of the South Seas 1942: The Fleet's In, Beyond the Blue Horizon 1943: Dixie, Riding High 1944: And the Angels Sing, Rainbow Island 1945: A Medal for Benny, Duffy's Tavern, Masquerade in Mexico 1947: Wild Harvest,
Variety Girl 1948: On Our Merry Way, Lulu Belle, The Girl From Manhattan 1949: The Lucky Stiff 1951: Here Comes the Groom (making an unbilled cameo appearance in this Bing Crosby vehicle); 1952: The Greatest Show on
Earth (playing a supporting role in this Cecil B. DeMille circus spectacular); 1963: Donovan's Reef 1964: Pajama Party 1976: Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood 1987: Creepshow 2
|
