Dorothy Lamour
David Vermillion
Monday September 23 2:57 AM EDT
UPDATE 1: Actress Dorothy Lamour Dead At 81
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuter) - Actress Dorothy Lamour, best known for her role as the
sultry, romantic sidekick in the string of ''Road'' movies starring Bob Hope
and Bing Crosby, has died. She was 81 years old.
Lamour died at St Vincent Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday
evening, just a few hours after bring admitted with stomach pains, spokesman
Ward Grant said Sunday. Another spokesman erroneously said earlier that
Lamour died Sunday at her modest North Hollywood home.
Grant said the exact cause of death was not known. However she had been in
reasonably good shape and recently was a guest star on a cruise ship that
went to South Africa.
The image of Lamour that endures from movies of the 1930s and 1940s is of a
breezy, seductive heroine clad in a colorful sarong. She first donned one of
the sexy wraparound skirts in her film debut in ``Jungle Princess'' in 1936,
and she would find herself in similar attire in many movies to come.
Lamour's big break came with her first role in a Hope-Crosby film, ``The Road
to Singapore'' in 1940, and she went on to make a series of ``Road'' pictures
with the legendary comic duo.
Apart from her ``Road'' movie roles, her career as a Hollywood star was
relatively shortlived. But her seductive beauty and lively, self-mocking
humor brought her continued popularity in nightclubs and on stage and
television.
Bob Hope and his wife Dolores paid tribute to Lamour in a statement, calling
her ``one of the grandest ladies on or off the screen.''
The daughter of a New Orleans waiter and waitress, Lamour was born Mary Leta
Dorothy Kaumeyer. She later adopted the name Lamour, a variation of her
stepfather's name, Lambour.
In 1931, she was voted Miss New Orleans and moved to Chicago where she
operated a department store elevator before signing as a singer with
bandleader Herbie Kay, who became her first husband.
A show at New York's Stork Club led to singing contract with NBC radio and,
eventually, her own radio program in Los Angeles. She caught the attention of
Paramount studios which, because of her dark, somewhat exotic looks, cast her
in 1936 as ``The Jungle Princess.''
Lamour won praise for her acting, but she made the biggest splash for how
well she wore a sarong. She later confided to an interviewer that she was
mortified when she was first asked to wear one.
``I had to bite my lip to keep from crying,'' she said. ``I'd been
embarrassed to wear a bathing suit in the Miss New Orleans contest, and now
Paramount Pictures wanted millions of people to see me in a little strip of
cloth. I'd throw a robe over my sarong on the set.''
Lamour's first big movie year, 1937, was mainly spent in supporting roles to
other stars, but she also returned to the jungle in ``The Hurricane,'' with
John Hall, an early special effects extravaganza. In 1940 she played a
gangster's girlfriend in ``Johnny Apollo'' and appeared in ``The Road to
Singapore,'' the first musical comedy with Hope and Crosby.
It was as the foil to Hope and Crosby in the ``Road'' movies -- films that
combined adventure, slapstick and zany humor -- that Lamour shone. Some of
her other movies with them included ''Road to Morocco'' (1942), ``They Got Me
Covered (1943),'' ``Road to Utopia'' (1946), and ``Road to Rio (1947).''
It was in ``Road to Rio'' that Hope took one look at Lamour's tight-fitting
sarong and quipped: ``How did you get into that dress -- with a spray gun?''
Of Hope and Crosby, Lamour would later say, ``Mostly they would ad lib,
playing with the lines I'd worked so hard to memorize.''
In 1953 Paramount reunited her with Hope and Crosby in the successful ``Road
to Bali.'' She then announced her retirement to raise her two sons by
advertising executive William Ross Howard III, who died in 1978 after 35
years of marriage.
In 1961 Hope and Crosby teamed up again for a final ``Road'' picture, ``Road
to Hong Kong,'' which Lamour labeled ``a terrible end to a wonderful
series.'' The female lead went to the younger Joan Collins. Lamour, though
obviously hurt, took a guest spot, which grew in size during the film's
shooting.
She appeared in John Ford's ``Donovan's Reef'' (1963) and ``Pajama Game''
(1965) and appeared as late as 1987 in ``Creepshow II,'' as a woman who is
brutally murdered.
She also enjoyed success in a tour of ``Hello Dolly!'' and in nightclub
appearances into the 1980s.
Lamour's husband William R. Howard died in 1978 after the couple had been
married for 35 years. She is survived by their two sons, Tom and Ridgely, as
well as stepson William R. Howard IV.
Her funeral will take place on Thursday at St. Charles Catholic Church in
North Hollywood, and she will be buried at the nearby Forest Lawn Cemetery,
Grant said.
Reuters/Variety