Dagmar (American actress)

Dagmar

Publicity photo, 1958
Born Virginia Ruth Egnor
(1921-11-29)November 29, 1921
Yawkey, West Virginia, U.S.
Died October 9, 2001(2001-10-09) (aged 79)
Ceredo, West Virginia, U.S.
Other names Virginia Lewis
Jennie Lewis
Occupation Actress, model, television personality

Dagmar (born Virginia Ruth Egnor, November 29, 1921 – October 9, 2001) was an American actress, model, and television personality of the 1950s. As a statuesque, busty blonde, she became one of the first major female stars of television, receiving much press coverage during that decade.

Early life

Egnor was born in Yawkey, West Virginia, and went to high school in Huntington, West Virginia,[1] where she was known as Ruthie. She attended Huntington Business School and worked at Walgreens as a cashier, waitress, sandwich maker, and soda jerk.[2] 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.

Broadway

Egnor 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.[2]

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.

Television

In 1950, when Lewis was hired by Jerry Lester for NBC's first late-night show Broadway Open House (1950–51), he renamed her Dagmar. Lester devised the name as a satirical reference following 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.[3]

Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed Dagmar for the July 16, 1951, issue of Life

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,[4] 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, late Saturday evening Dagmar's Canteen (which aired on NBC at 12:15 am Eastern Time, unsponsored), 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 was a regular panelist on the NBC game show, Who Said That?, along with H. V. Kaltenborn, Deems Taylor, Frank Conniff, Peggy Ann Garner, and Boris Karloff. She 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.[2]

Dagmar 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.

In 1950s auto design, the slang term "Dagmar bumper" emerged to describe dual chrome pointed projections on the front ends of Cadillacs, Buicks, Packards, and other U.S. automobiles, an allusion to the actress' physique and trademark attire.

Personal life

After her marriage to Angelo Lewis ended, she was married to actor Danny Dayton through much of the 1950s, and then to bandleader Dick Hinds in 1967. 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.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "WV Film Office – Famous WV Connections". Welcome to West Virginia. West Virginia Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Delightful Dagmar," Huntington Quarterly 35, 1999.
  3. ↑ Life. July 16, 1951.
  4. ↑ The Frank Sinatra Show 1951 CBS on YouTube
  5. ↑ Martin, Douglas (2001-10-11). "Dagmar, Foxy Blonde With First-Name Status in 50's". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
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