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Dagmars where it got its name.

Started by Bob Kielar, July 03, 2010, 07:35:55 PM

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Bob Kielar

I found this article on Dagmar (American actress) and thought I would share it.
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For other uses, see Dagmar (disambiguation).
Dagmar

Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed Dagmar for the July 16, 1951 issue of Life
Born    Virginia Ruth Egnor
November 29, 1921(1921-11-29)
Yawkey, West Virginia, U.S.
Died    October 9, 2001 (aged 79)
Ceredo, West Virginia, U.S.
Other name(s)    Virginia Lewis
Jennie Lewis
Occupation    Actress, model, television personality

Dagmar (November 29, 1921 â€" October 9, 2001) was an American actress, model and television personality of the 1950s. As a statuesque, busty blonde, she became the first major female star of television, receiving much press coverage during that decade.

Born in Yawkey, West Virginia as Virginia Ruth Egnor, she went to high school in Huntington, West Virginia where she was known as Ruthie. She attended Huntington Business School and worked at Walgreens as a cashier, waitress, sandwich maker and soda jerk.[1]
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Broadway bound
    * 2 Television
    * 3 Books
    * 4 Personal life
    * 5 Cultural legacy
    * 6 See also
    * 7 References
    * 8 External links

[edit] Broadway bound

After her marriage to Angelo Lewis in 1941, she moved to New York where he was a Naval officer, stationed at Navy Ferry Command on Long Island. She adopted Jennie Lewis as her stage name (taken from her real life married name, Virginia Lewis). To keep busy, she became a fashion photographer's model, and in 1944, other models encouraged her to audition for comedians Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. Although she had no show business experience, she was cast in their Broadway musical revue, Laffing Room Only, a Shubert production at the Winter Garden Theatre. With Olsen and Johnson, she performed in four sketches from December 23, 1944 to July 14, 1945.[1]

As a chorus girl named Bubbles, she appeared with Bert Lahr in the Broadway comedy Burlesque, which ran for 439 performances from December 25, 1946 until January 10, 1948. The play was set in the basement dressing-room of a midwest burlesque theater, a New York hotel suite, and a theater in Paterson, New Jersey.
[edit] Television

In 1950, when Lewis was hired by Jerry Lester for NBC's first late-night show Broadway Open House (1950-52), he renamed her Dagmar. Lester devised the name as a satirical reference to the huge success on television of the TV series Mama (1949-57), in which the younger sister, Dagmar Hansen, was portrayed by Robin Morgan. As Dagmar, Lewis was instructed to wear a low-cut gown, sit on a stool and play the role of a stereotypical dumb blonde. With tight sweaters displaying her curvy 5' 8" figure (measuring 42"-23"-39"), her dim-bulb character was an immediate success, soon attracting much more attention than Lester. Lewis quickly showed that regardless of appearances she was quite bright and quick-witted. She appeared in sketches, and Lester made occasional jokes about her "hidden talents." Her appearances created a sensation, leading to much press coverage and a salary increase from $75 to $1,250. With Dagmar getting all the attention, Lester walked off his own show in May 1951, and Dagmar carried on as host. On July 16, 1951, she was featured on the front cover of Life, and the show came to an end one month later.[2]

Dagmar became one of the leading personalities of early 1950s live television, doing sketch comedy on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater, The Bob Hope Show and other shows. On June 17, 1951, she appeared on the Colgate Comedy Hour with host Eddie Cantor and guests Milton Berle, Phil Foster and Jack Leonard. In 1951, she made a TV guest appearance with Frank Sinatra, which prompted Columbia Records producer Mitch Miller to record a novelty duet with Frank and Dagmar, "Mama Will Bark". That same year, she was featured in a Life cover story with Alfred Eisenstaedt's photo of her on the July 16, 1951 issue. For the interior photo essay, Life photographers followed her to rehearsals and accompanied her on a vacation back to her home town in West Virginia.

In 1952, she hosted the short-lived, prime time Dagmar's Canteen, in which she sang, danced, interviewed servicemen and performed comedy routines. The basic premise of the show was that servicemen from the audience were given roles to act alongside Dagmar in sketches. One of Dagmar's sisters, Jean, was a member of the cast of Dagmar's Canteen. Jean, who had previously worked as a chorus girl on Broadway, also served as Dagmar's secretary, handling her sister's fan mail, which sometimes soared to 8000 letters a month. When her television show ended, Dagmar performed in Las Vegas shows and summer stock theater. Liberace spoke glowingly of her in an interview, stating that she had given him his big break as her accompanist early in his career. In the 1950s, Dagmar occasionally made guest appearances on such shows as What's My Line?, The Mike Wallace Interview and Masquerade Party (disguised as John L. Lewis) and during the 1960s she appeared on Hollywood Squares, The Mike Douglas Show and other shows.[1]
[edit] Books

She was one of a number of performers who posed for pictures in the Patrick Dennis novel First Lady, published in 1965, as the soubrette and Presidential courtesan Gladys Goldfoil.
[edit] Personal life

After her marriage to Angelo Lewis, she was married to actor Danny Dayton through much of the 1950s, followed by a marriage to bandleader Dick Hinds (1957). After years on the nightclub circuit, she moved to Ceredo, West Virginia in June 1996 to be near her family. In her last years, she lived with her brother, Bob Egnor, and his wife. Dagmar died in Ceredo, West Virginia on October 9, 2001 of undisclosed causes. She was survived by three sisters, three brothers, an aunt and numerous nieces and nephews.[3]
[edit] Cultural legacy

The Dagmar bumper is a chrome bullet-point bulge on the front bumpers of Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Buicks and Lincolns built during the 1950s. During the Korean War, a 40 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft tank was named Dagmar's Twin 40's.
[edit] See also

    * Mononymous persons
    * Faye Emerson

[edit] References

   1. ^ a b c "The Delightful Dagmar," Huntington Quarterly 35, 1999.
   2. ^ Life. July 16, 1951.
   3. ^ Martin, Douglas (2001-10-11). "Dagmar, Foxy Blonde With First-Name Status in 50's". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E1D8163FF932A25753C1A9679C8B63. Retrieved 2009-02-03.

[edit] External links

    * Dagmar at the Internet Movie Database
    * Dagmar at the Internet Broadway Database
    * Huntington Quarterly 35 (1999): "The Delightful Dagmar" (full text)
    * Dagmar at Find a Grave
    * Dagmar interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview (August 11, 1957)

Persondata
NAME    Dagmar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES    Egnor, Virginia Ruth; Lewis, Virginia; Lewis, Jennie
SHORT DESCRIPTION    Actress, model, television personality
DATE OF BIRTH    November 29, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH    Yawkey, West Virginia, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH    October 9, 2001
PLACE OF DEATH    Ceredo, West Virginia, U.S.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagmar_(American_actress)"
Categories: 1921 births | 2001 deaths | Actors from West Virginia | American stage actors | American television personalities | People from Huntington, West Virginia | American television talk show hosts
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n Dagmar
Keep Cruzin
1955 Cadillac Fleetwood

Alan Harris CLC#1513

It is legendary that once Dagmar hit it big on the Jerry Lester show, she quickly became insufferable. Her salary demands kept escalating and she kept demanding star treatment. Lester felt that he had created a monster and soon quit his show to get away from her.

Her stardom really only lasted about 8 months or so and her fall was as meteoric as her rise. Aside from her two great assets she really had no discernable talent. She was one the first examples of the kind of throw-away celebrity that was spawned by the new medium of television.

Maynard Krebs

#2
Quote from: Alan Harris CLC#1513 on July 04, 2010, 12:53:03 AM
It is legendary that once Dagmar hit it big on the Jerry Lester show, she quickly became insufferable. Her salary demands kept escalating...

Perhaps so.   But according to the obit in the NYTimes, her salary DID increase quite a bit... from $75 a week, to over a grand.. in a fairly-short amount of time!   

59-in-pieces

Guys,
With all due respect, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Have fun,
Steve B.
S. Butcher

packrat

In 1959 I was working in a Texaco station in Penfield, N.Y. These were the days when we would pick up your car, service it and return it. My fellow employee returned a 1958 (as I remember) Cadillac and put the Dagmars thru the back wall of the guy's garage! My boss was not pleased.
1933 Cadillac 355C
1930 Ford Model A 2-door sedan
!934 Ford Panel Truck "Old" Hot Rod with built Flathead
1937 Buick Series 90 7-passenger sedan
1957 Corvette (almost done)
1972 Corvette survivor/driver
1974 Corvette project
1955 Caterpillar D8 Cable!

59-in-pieces

We call that, passing the elbow test.

Have fun,
Steve B.
S. Butcher