Dorothy Collins

Dorothy Collins ranked among the most cherished figures on television during its golden era, achieving widespread fame through her regular appearances on the enduring variety program Your Hit Parade. Born Marjorie Chandler in Windsor, Ontario, on November 18, 1926, she captured first place at age twelve in a Detroit-area amateur contest, which earned her an appearance on the local WJKB children's radio broadcast; her performance proved so popular that the station kept her on the air for several subsequent years. Introduced in 1942 to innovative bandleader Raymond Scott, she followed his suggestion to study with a vocal coach for twelve months before trying out again, after which she joined his celebrated Quintette for nationwide jazz-club engagements. When Scott became musical director for the radio edition of Your Hit Parade in 1949, Collins kept performing with his previous ensemble. The following year their partnership resumed when he engaged her to record advertising jingles for the American Tobacco Company, sponsor of the broadcast. Impressed by her work, the company placed her in the cast once Your Hit Parade transitioned to television in late 1950, where she served both as a featured singer and as the on-air representative for Lucky Strike cigarettes.

Her approachable persona and trademark high-necked blouses quickly made Collins the standout performer on the television series; she and Scott married in 1952, and during the height of their popularity they issued the Coral album At Home with Dorothy & Raymond, one of several LPs she cut for the label. After leaving Your Hit Parade in 1957 she appeared on The Steve Allen Show, cutting the album Picnic with its versatile host. She returned to Your Hit Parade shortly thereafter and stayed until the program's final broadcast in 1959. Later she co-hosted the long-running series Candid Camera with Allen Funt. Following her 1965 divorce from Scott, she wed actor-singer Ron Holgate; in 1971 she made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim's Follies, winning critical praise and a Tony Award nomination for her rendition of "Losing My Mind." Throughout the rest of the decade she performed in regional stock productions and dinner theaters while also undertaking multiple cabaret tours across the United States. Chronic asthma ultimately led her to retire from performing in 1980, after which she devoted herself to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, serving as its vice president beginning in 1988. She died of respiratory failure at her home in Watervliet, NY, on July 21, 1994.