Biography
Dorothy Dickson first saw the light of day on 25 July 1893 in Kansas City, Missouri, and drew her final breath on 26 September 1995 in London, England. Her father, a celebrated Chicago newspaperman, secured an exclusive interview with the fugitive Jesse James that outpaced rival reporters, while her mother stood out as a prominent early voice in the American feminist cause. Despite that maternal legacy, the captivating performer came to embody sensuality through her refined features, graceful movement, and vocal delivery. At age 21 she wed Carl Hyson, born Heisen and then America’s foremost ballroom dancer; together they stepped onto the Broadway stage as a dance partnership in Jerome Kern’s Oh, Boy! during February 1917. That June they reappeared in the Ziegfeld Follies, after which Dickson earned positive notices for her choreography in Girl O’ Mine (1918), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1918), another Ziegfeld Follies edition (1918), The Royal Vagabond (1919), and Lassie (1920). The following year English producer Charles B. Cochran brought the couple to London for his 1921 revue London, Paris And New York. Later in 1921 she won West End hearts with her nuanced rendering of the title character in Kern’s Sally at the Winter Garden, where she premiered the buoyant “Look For A Silver Lining” (lyric Buddy De Sylva), a number thereafter linked inseparably to her. She sustained that momentum across two further Kern vehicles, The Cabaret Girl (1922) and The Beauty Prize (1923), plus Patricia (1924), before taking the title role in Peter Pan in 1925 and repeating it the next year. Also in 1926 she ventured into non-musical drama opposite Gerald Du Maurier in Edgar Wallace’s extended-run thriller The Ringer, then returned to song-and-dance in Tip-Toes, delivering George and Ira Gershwin’s “Looking For A Boy” and sharing “That Certain Feeling” with Allan Kearns. By this point she ranked among the West End’s most admired musical-comedy leads, moving in elevated social circles and maintaining friendships with figures such as Noël Coward. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s Peggy-Ann (1927), in which she originated the reflective “Where’s That Rainbow?,” formed merely one entry in a decade-long succession of successes that also embraced Coo-ee! (1929), Hold Everything! (1929, substituting for Mamie Watson), and the imported productions The Wonder Bar (1930) and Casanova (1932). Within the Irving Berlin revue Stop Press (1935), an adapted version of the composer’s Broadway hit As Thousands Cheer, she performed “Easter Parade,” while in the bookless Spread It Abroad (1936) she introduced the lasting standard “These Foolish Things” (Eric Maschwitz–Jack Strachey–Harry Link), whose British currency owed much as well to the urbane Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson. Late in the decade she resumed musical comedy, sharing the stage with Ivor Novello in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane triumphs Careless Rapture (1936) and Crest Of The Wave (1937); the same venue reunited them for Henry V (1938).
During the 1930s she also appeared in several films, Channel Crossing (1933) generally regarded as the strongest among them, with co-stars Matheson Lang, comedian Max Miller, and Constance Cummings. Soon after World War II began she performed in the revues Diversion (1940), Diversion No. 2 (1941), and Fine And Dandy (1942), then joined an ENSA tour of North Africa alongside Vivien Leigh and Beatrice Lillie. Upon her return she initiated plans that materialized in 1944 as the Stage Door Canteen, a Piccadilly gathering spot that furnished premier entertainment for Allied servicemen; Bing Crosby and Bob Hope numbered among the many headliners who performed there.
Thereafter Dickson made only occasional forays into straight plays, her final West End engagement occurring in Jack Buchanan’s lampoon of rock performers, As Long As They’re Happy (1953). Her last public outing took place in 1980 at the Duke of York’s Theatre during a gala marking the 75th anniversary of Peter Pan, where she received a deeply moving ovation. At 96 she was introduced to Prince Andrew at the National Film Theatre and surprised her companions by executing a traditional curtsey executed with notable poise. Her royal ties, however, stretched much farther back; she was reputedly the Queen Mother’s oldest acquaintance, their acquaintance dating to a 1923 performance of The Cabaret Girl. Family and friends struggled to persuade her to mark her 100th birthday, since, as a lifelong Christian Scientist, she acknowledged neither age nor ailment. Dickson divorced Carl Hyson in 1936; their daughter, also named Dorothy, later married the distinguished British actor Anthony Quayle.
Dorothy Hyson (born Dorothy Wardell Heisen on 24 December 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, and deceased 23 May 1996 in London, England) pursued an acting career focused chiefly on non-musical stage and screen roles, yet whenever she sang or danced her work drew favorable comparison with her mother’s. Her striking appearance prompted Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart to dedicate their widely embraced song “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” to her.
During the 1930s she also appeared in several films, Channel Crossing (1933) generally regarded as the strongest among them, with co-stars Matheson Lang, comedian Max Miller, and Constance Cummings. Soon after World War II began she performed in the revues Diversion (1940), Diversion No. 2 (1941), and Fine And Dandy (1942), then joined an ENSA tour of North Africa alongside Vivien Leigh and Beatrice Lillie. Upon her return she initiated plans that materialized in 1944 as the Stage Door Canteen, a Piccadilly gathering spot that furnished premier entertainment for Allied servicemen; Bing Crosby and Bob Hope numbered among the many headliners who performed there.
Thereafter Dickson made only occasional forays into straight plays, her final West End engagement occurring in Jack Buchanan’s lampoon of rock performers, As Long As They’re Happy (1953). Her last public outing took place in 1980 at the Duke of York’s Theatre during a gala marking the 75th anniversary of Peter Pan, where she received a deeply moving ovation. At 96 she was introduced to Prince Andrew at the National Film Theatre and surprised her companions by executing a traditional curtsey executed with notable poise. Her royal ties, however, stretched much farther back; she was reputedly the Queen Mother’s oldest acquaintance, their acquaintance dating to a 1923 performance of The Cabaret Girl. Family and friends struggled to persuade her to mark her 100th birthday, since, as a lifelong Christian Scientist, she acknowledged neither age nor ailment. Dickson divorced Carl Hyson in 1936; their daughter, also named Dorothy, later married the distinguished British actor Anthony Quayle.
Dorothy Hyson (born Dorothy Wardell Heisen on 24 December 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, and deceased 23 May 1996 in London, England) pursued an acting career focused chiefly on non-musical stage and screen roles, yet whenever she sang or danced her work drew favorable comparison with her mother’s. Her striking appearance prompted Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart to dedicate their widely embraced song “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” to her.