Singer and actress Dorothy Lamour earned recognition for wearing a signature sarong across numerous screen roles and shared billing with such icons as Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton, she received the Miss New Orleans title in 1930; her father worked as a waiter while her mother waited tables, and the couple separated shortly after her arrival. She left high school early by signing her mother’s name to an exit form, later attending secretarial school and mastering typing—an ability she retained even after achieving stardom. Seeking a singing career, she relocated with her mother to Chicago, where an elevator-operator post at Marshall Field’s preceded her entry into performance; she soon served as female vocalist for bandleader Herbie Kay. Those engagements produced collaborations with Rudy Vallée and Eddie Duchin. Her radio work began in 1934 on The Dreamer of Songs, followed by The Chase and Sanborn Show in 1937 and The Sealtest Variety Theater in 1947.
Lamour launched her film career in 1936 with The Stars Can’t Be Wrong and The Jungle Princess, quickly becoming identified with her sarong, charm, beauty, and long, flowing brown hair. She appeared in more than fifty pictures, among them Duffy’s Tavern, Typhoon, Pajama Party, and Johnny Apollo. Her greatest visibility arrived through the seven “Road” comedies, broad slapstick vehicles pairing her with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby: Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar, Road to Morocco, and Road to Utopia. She stepped away from the screen in the late 1960s yet continued performing, headlining a touring production of Hello Dolly in 1968 and, during the 1980s, singing film songs on the cabaret circuit. Her final screen appearance came in 1987’s Creepshow 2, in which she played a housewife who is murdered; additional prime-time credits included Remington Steele, The Love Boat, and Murder, She Wrote.
Dorothy Lamour died on September 22, 1996, at age 81 in Los Angeles. She bore two sons with her second husband, William Ross Howard III, and gained one stepson; her first marriage, to bandleader Herbie Kay, concluded in divorce in 1939.
