Dorothy Lamour was an American actress and singer.
Background
Ethnicity:
Lamour was of French Louisianan, Spanish, and Irish descent.
Dorothy Lamour was born on 10 December 1914 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, the daughter of Carmen Louise and John Watson Slaton, both of whom were waiters. 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. That marriage also ended in divorce when Dorothy was a teenager.
Education
Lamour quit school at the age of 14.
Career
After taking a business course, she worked as a secretary to support herself and her mother. At Marshall Field's department store, she worked as an elevator operator at the age of 16. 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.
In 1936, Lamour moved to Hollywood. That same year, she did a screen test for Paramount Pictures and signed a contract with them. 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", solidified her fame. From 1937 to 1939, Lamour appeared in John Ford's "The Hurricane", "Spawn of the North", and "Disputed Passage". In 1940, Lamour co-starred in the first of several "Road to..." films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.
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 swan song 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" 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.
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."
Dorothy had the image of a “pinup” girl for thousands of American G.I.s during World War II. She was always eager to dance.
Connections
Lamour's first marriage was to orchestra leader Herbie Kay, whose orchestra Lamour sang with. The two married in 1935 and divorced in 1939. On April 7, 1943, Lamour married former Air Force Captain and advertising executive William Ross Howard III in Beverly Hills. The couple had two sons: John Ridgely and Richard Thomson Howard.In the 1960s and 1970s, Lamour and Howard lived in the Baltimore suburb of Sudbrook Park. She also owned a home in Palm Springs, California. Howard died in 1978.