The Brief But Notable Career of Dorothy Jordan

Dorothy Jordan (1906-1988) was one of those lucky lookers plucked from the chorus and groomed for movie stardom. She’s only in about two dozen films, but enough of them are sufficiently notable to have made her significant in Hollywood for a time.

Hailing from the Monkee-tastic town of Clarksville, Tennessee, Jordan attended Southwestern Presbyterian University, then moved to New York to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her dance abilities and good looks got her cast in a succession of Broadway musicals: The Garrick Gaieties (1926), Twinkle, Twinkle (1926) with Joe E. Brown, and Funny Face (1927) with Fred and Adele Astaire. Treasure Girl (1928) with Gertrude Lawrence and Clifton Webb, gave Jordan her first speaking part.

A supporting role in the now-lost Fox film (1929) Black Magic starring Josephine Dunn provided her film debut. It was followed by a chorus part in Words and Music (1929). This marked the end of her short apprenticeship, after which she was elevated to better and better roles. She was Bianca to Mary Pickford’s Kate in the 1929 The Taming of the Shrew, the adopted daughter of Marie Dressler in Min and Bill (1930), the star of The Wet Parade (1932, notable for Jimmy Durante’s screen debut and the dialogue that Jim Backus parodies in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World), Will Rogers’ Down to Earth (1932), and the early Bette Davis vehicle The Cabin in the Cotton (1932).

Following One Man’s Journey (1933) with Lionel Barrymore, Jordan was slated to appear opposite Fred Astaire in Flying Down to Rio (1933) but backed out in order to marry Merian C. Cooper, then at the top of the world (or the Empire State Building) with King Kong. (She is thus indirectly responsible for the teaming of Astaire with Ginger Rogers!) After that point, Jordan didn’t pursue any roles until she tested for the part of Melanie in Gone with the Wind in 1937. Other than this, she was officially retired until Cooper formed Argossy films with John Ford, who cast her in supporting roles in three films: The Sun Shines Bright (1953), The Searchers (1956), and The Wings of Eagles (1957).

To learn more about show biz history, please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.