The Dorothy Loudon Centennial

Born 100 years ago today, Broadway star Dorothy Loudon (1925-2003).

Loudon’s time in the sun clustered around several big moments, none of which succeeded in pushing her into widespread recognition outside of New York. Trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, in the early 1950s the popular night club singer began to be featured on variety shows like The Steve Allen Show and The Arthur Murray Party, and was cast as a regular in the sit-com It’s a Business on the Dumont Network. This show featured Dick Haymes’ brother Bob Haymes, and was set in the office of Tin Pan Alley songwriters during vaudeville days. In 1955 she began to work with (and date) musical director and accompanist Norman Paris, who became her husband in 1971.

In 1959, the record Dorothy Loudon at the Blue Angel (with the Norman Paris Trio) was released, and this ushered in a second period of heat. She was booked for The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show with Jack Paar, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, et al. and then was hired as the replacement for Carol Burnett on The Garry Moore Show in 1962. Around the same time, she starred in the off-Broadway The World of Jules Feiffer, directed by Mike Nichols, and made her Broadway debut in the short-lived Nowhere to Go But Up, with the incredible cast of Martin Balsam, Tom Bosley, Frank Campanella, Bert Convy,Phil Leeds, and Marty Allen. She also replaced Eileen Rodgers in the 1962 off-Broadway revival of Anything Goes with Hal Linden, Mickey Deems, and Kenneth Mars. She was a pretty frequent sight on tv throughout the ’60s, on game shows like Password, and variety programs like The Dean Martin Show and The Jonathan Winters Show.

Loudon’s next hot period started in 1977 with her Tony winning performance as Miss Hannigan in the original Broadway production of Annie. This led to her own short-lived sit-com Dorothy (1979) and a starring part in an equally short-lived musical sequel Annie 2: Miss Hannigan’s Revenge in 1990, but sadly Carol Burnett (whom she’d replaced on The Garry Moore Show) got the plum role of Miss Hannigan in the 1982 film version of Annie. Burnett would return to bedevil Loudon yet again a decade later when she took her role in the 1992 screen version of Noises Off (Loudon had played Dotty Otley in the original 1983 Broadway production).

Loudon did very little screen acting work, but almost half of it was during the mid ’80s. She was in the 1984 movie Garbo Talks, and episodes of Magnum P.I., and Murder She Wrote.

Mostly she was a creature of the stage. Other notable Broadway (and Broadway-bound) productions included prominent but shortlived revivals of Three Men on a Horse (1969) and The Women (1973), the aborted Lolita, My Love (1971), the original production of Sweeney Todd (1980, as a replacement for Angela Lansbury), and the Jerry Herrman revue Jerry’s Girls (1985). Two short-lived shows she appeared in garner additional Tony noms: The Fig Leaves Are Falling (1969), and Ballroom (1978).

Loudon’s last screen role was a small role in Clint Eastwood’sMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Eastwood’s a jazz buff; surely he was a fan of Loudon’s records. Her last professional credit was in the 2002 Broadway revival of Dinner at Eight, though ill health forced her to drop out (she was replaced by Marian Seldes.) Loudon passed away a few months later. She was 78.

For more on show biz history consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.