Dagmar
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Dagmar was a statuesque, well-endowed "dumb blonde" television personality, also known as Jennie Lewis (November 29, 1921 – October 9, 2001).
She was born in Huntington, West Virginia, United States, as Virginia Ruth Egnor . She married Angelo Lewis in 1941 and moved to New York City because her husband was a naval officer stationed at Navy Ferry Command on Long Island.
To keep busy, she became a fashion photographer's model and later entered show business. She adopted Jennie Lewis as her stage name (taken from her married name Virginia Lewis). In 1945, she had a role in Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson's broadway musical Laffing Room Only. In 1947, she was a chorus girl in a Broadway comedy Burlesque, starring Bert Lahr.
In 1950, Lewis was hired by Jerry Lester for NBC's first late night show Broadway Open House (1950-52) and given the name 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 act dumb. She was an immediate success, soon getting more press coverage than Lester.
Dagmar became one of the major personalities of 1950s live television, making guest appearances 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. She specialized in straight-faced, wide-eyed, fractured English monologues, combined with low-cut dresses or tight sweaters that displayed her curvy figure.
In 1951, she made a TV guest appearance with Frank Sinatra, and this prompted Columbia Records producer Mitch Miller to record a novelty duet with Frank and Dagmar - "Mama Will Bark". That same year, Alfred Eisenstaedt's photo of her appeared on the July 16, 1951 issue of Life.
In 1952, she hosted the short-lived, primetime Dagmar's Canteen in which she sang, danced, interviewed real servicemen and performed comedy. The basic premise of the show was that servicemen from the audience were given roles to act alongside Dagmar in sketches.
Dagmar's real-life sister Jean was a cast member of Dagmar's Canteen, credited with the stage name "Jeanne Lewis." Jean had previously worked as a chorus girl on Broadway and served as Dagmar's secretary, handling up to 2000 letters per week of fan mail.
When her television show ended, Dagmar performed in Las Vegas shows and summer stock theater. In the 1960's Dagmar occasionally had guest appearances on shows such as the Hollywood Squares and the Mike Douglas Show.
She is famous for giving her stage name to the Dagmar bumper, a chrome bullet-point bulge on the front bumpers of Cadillacs, Buicks and Lincolns built during the 1950s.
She was married three times, to Angelo Lewis in 1941, to bandleader Dick Hinds in 1957 and to actor Danny Dayton in 1980.
After playing the nightclub circuit for several years, she moved to Ceredo, West Virginia in June 1996 to be near her family. Five years later, she died there at the age of 79.
