Dorothy Lamour

In addition to being Miss New Orleans in 1931, 'Dorothy Lamour' (qv) worked as a Chicago elevator operator; band vocalist for her first husband, band leader 'Herbie Kaye' (qv); and radio performer. In 1936 she donned her soon-to-be-famous sarong for her debut at Paramount, _The Jungle Princess (1936)_ (qv), and continued to play female Tarzan-Crusoe-Gauguin-girl-with make-up parts through the war years and beyond. The most famous of these was in the popular 'Bob Hope' (qv)/'Bing Crosby' (qv) "Road" pictures - a strange combination of adventure, slapstick, ad-libs and Hollywood inside jokes. Of these she said, "I was the happiest and highest-paid straight woman in the business." As she aged, however, the quality of her films dropped. Among her serious films were _Johnny Apollo (1940)_ (qv) and _A Medal for Benny (1945)_ (qv).::Ed Stephan <[email protected]>