Dorothy Page (March 4, 1904 – March 26, 1961), also known as The Singing Cowgirl, was a

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

film actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

during the 1930s.

Early life

Dorothy Page was born Dorothy Lillian Stofflett on March 4, 1904 in

Northampton, Pennsylvania Northampton is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Its population was 10,395 as of the 2020 census. Northampton is located north of Allentown, northwest of Philadelphia, and west of New York City. The borough is part of the Lehigh ...

, United States.

Education

In the 1920s, Page attended

Cedar Crest College Cedar Crest College is a private liberal arts women's college in Allentown, Pennsylvania. At the start of the 2015-2016 academic year, the college had 1,301 undergraduates (628 traditional age, 673 adult) and 203 graduate students. Men may pur ...

, where she majored in music.

Career

Modeling

Page was chosen by the Curtis Publishing Company in the 1920s as a model for a ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'' cover. Her portrait, painted by artist

Neysa McMein Neysa Moran McMein (born Marjorie Frances McMein; January 24, 1888 – May 12, 1949) was an American illustrator and portrait painter who studied at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League of New York. She began her ca ...

, dubbed her "One of America's Ten Most Beautiful Women".

Singing career

Page tried out for the "Youth of America" in a singing contest hosted by

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, W ...

, and won. With that, her radio and singing career began, and her stage name was created. By 1935, she was a regular on the ''Paducah Plantation'', written and hosted by Irvin S. Cobb.

Acting career

That same year,

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

signed her to a contract. Her first film was ''

Manhattan Blue Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. sta ...

'', starring opposite

Ricardo Cortez Ricardo Cortez (born Jacob Kranze or Jacob Krantz; September 19, 1900 – April 28, 1977) was an American actor and film director. He was also credited as Jack Crane early in his acting career. Early years Ricardo Cortez was born Jacob K ...

, which saw moderate success and placed a spotlight on her talent as a singer and an actress. She then starred in ''

King Solomon of Broadway ''King Solomon of Broadway'' is a 1935 American musical film directed by Alan Crosland and starring Edmund Lowe, Dorothy Page and Pinky Tomlin.Monaco p.139 A shady figure wins a nightclub during a card game. Cast * Edmund Lowe as King Solomon ...

'' opposite

Edmund Lowe Edmund Dantes Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film. Biography Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was a ...

and Pinky Tomlin. That film was only moderately successful, and it wasn't until 1938 that she starred in another film, this time alongside

Mary Boland Mary Boland (born Marie Anne Boland; January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boland was the daughter of repertory actor William Augustus Boland, and his wife M ...

and

Ernest Truex Ernest Truex (September 19, 1889 – June 26, 1973) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Career Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Truex learned acting at an early age after his father, a doctor, treated actor Edwin Melvin, who ...

in '' Mama Runs Wild''. That movie also was not successful, and Page was not given any singing parts in the film. In late 1938, Grand National Pictures announced its intention to do a series of cowboy based films utilizing a "Singing Cowgirl". The first of these was ''

Water Rustlers ''Water Rustlers'' is a 1939 American Western film directed by Samuel Diege. It was the first of three Dorothy Page singing cowgirl films for Grand National Films. Plot Mr. Weylan purchases land in order to keep the water supply for himself ...

'' in 1939, starring Page and Dave O'Brien. Unfortunately the movie-going public did not accept a woman in the lead role of a western. ''Ride 'Em Cowgirl'' was released next, that same year, and fared even worse than the first. Later that same year, '' The Singing Cowgirl'' was released, in which Page again starred with O'Brien. It would be the last film by Grand National Pictures, and shortly thereafter they went out of business. In 1947, Page appeared on Broadway in the drama ''Dear Judas''.

Retirement

Following the failure of the three "singing cowgirl" films, and the end of Grand National Pictures, Page retired from acting. Page began working in realty, buying old

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

houses, remodeling them and selling them at a profit. This second career proved very successful financially. She and husband Henry Clark McCormick lived at his ranch in

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

. Page purchased a cotton ranch near

Pecos, Texas Pecos ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Reeves County, Texas, United States. It is in the valley on the west bank of the Pecos River at the eastern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas and just so ...

. During the 1950s, she was diagnosed with cancer and began a long and painful battle against it. Page moved to

LaBelle, Florida LaBelle is a city in and the county seat of Hendry County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,640 at the 2010 census, up from 4,210 at the 2000 census. It was named for Laura June Hendry and Carrie Belle Hendry, daughters of pioneer cat ...

to be closer to

Fort Myers Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in ...

, where she was receiving cancer treatment.

Personal life

On July 3, 1925, at age 21, Page married Waldo Shipton of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, a doctor she met in college at

. The couple had two daughters by 1929. They divorced in 1932. Later, she married Los Angeles attorney Frederick D. Leuschner, and they resided at his ranch in

Tarzana, California Tarzana is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Tarzana is on the site of a former ranch owned by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is named after Burroughs' fictional jungle hero, Tarzan. Histo ...

. He died on December 6, 1941 at age 36 from

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...

. She then married Henry Clark McCormick of

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

. They divorced after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Death

Page died in

from cancer on March 26, 1961 at age 57.

Homage

In one of Columbo's episodes ("Ashes to Ashes",

Season 10 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

Episode 12), she may have been portrayed in the character of Dorothea Page, the deceased silent film star from whom

Patrick McGoohan Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. Born in the United States to Irish emigrant parents, he was raised in Ireland and Engla ...

(in his role as Eric Prince, funeral director to the stars) stole a valuable diamond off her deceased body. Portraying her in this episode as a silent movie star may have been to show the way society in the late 1930s wanted to silence the "Singing Cowgirl".

References

External links

* *
Dorothy Page
at b-westerns.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Dorothy Actresses from Pennsylvania Deaths from cancer in Florida American film actresses 1904 births 1961 deaths 20th-century American actresses People from Hendry County, Florida People from Fresno, California Cedar Crest College alumni People from Northampton, Pennsylvania