Dorothy Granger

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Dorothy Granger
Born	Dorothy Karolyn Granger November 21, 1912(1912-11-21) New London, Ohio U.S.
Died	January 4, 1995 (aged 82) Los Angeles, California U.S.
Years active	1929-1961
Spouse(s)	John Hilder (? - ?)

Dorothy Granger (November 21, 1912—January 4, 1995) was an American actress best known for her roles in short subject comedies in Hollywood.

1 Early life
2 Early career
3 Later years
4 Selected filmography
5 External links

[edit] Early life

There is some confusion as to the year of Dorothy’s birth. The Social Security Death Index lists it as 1911 as does her death certificate; most biographies say 1912, although at least one site lists the year as 1914. Nineteen twelve is the most likely. Dorothy, with her parents, two brothers, Richard and James, and their grandmother, Clara (Wilcox) Granger, moved to Los Angeles during the late 1920s. Dorothy apparently also had a step brother, named Elmer Cole who later went by the name Stephen Granger, but little is known about him and it is not know whether he went to Los Angeles with them.

Some motion picture history sites claim that the Grangers were a vaudeville family of actors and dancers, but that’s doubtful because Danis was well established as the postmaster of New London, Ohio from 1910 until about 1920. He must have gotten the acting “bug,” however, when he built and operated the Karolyn Theater, New London’s first movie house, in 1912. By 1930 he, too, is listed in the Federal census that year as “actor in motion pictures” and living on Hollywood Boulevard. Dorothy's mother, Lucile, was a student in the Music Conservatory at Oberlin College in 1900-1901 and 1902-1906, although she never graduated, and taught piano for many years. The Granger children probably received their appreciation for music from their mother.

Dorothy claimed during a 1968 interview with Leonard Maltin that she got her start in the entertainment industry when she won a beauty contest at the age of 13 at Silver Beach Summer Resort near Houston. Her family was then living in Houston where Danis operated a business that manufactured rubber heels. Dorothy and her brother, Richard, were attending Billy Truehart’s dance studio in Houston at the time and he encouraged them to form a family act and do “prologues” (live features that were performed in movie houses at the end of the full length movie). One of their shows was at a theater in Houston that was showing Red Grange in One Minute to Play and as the movie was running, Dorothy and Richard did a slow motion football game in front of the screen. From there the Granger kids went into vaudeville with their father as booking manager, advance man and m.c. of their shows. Danis Granger would continue as the Granger kids’ manager after the move to Los Angeles.

The family moved from Houston to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1928 and the Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle Telegram on November 28, 1928, reported that “Mrs. Clara Granger left Sunday for Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a few week’s visit with her son.” Dorothy and her brothers were in a stock company in Tulsa, Tom Lewis and His Players at the Lyric Theater, at the time as well as doing prologues on their own. One of Danis’ old school friends from the New London days named Charlie Monroe, then a photographer in Tulsa, caught the act of “The Granger Company” and put them in touch with Universal Studios. Universal wasn’t interested, but Dorothy made a movie at RKO-Pathe in 1929 named The Sophomore for which she was paid $7.50 a day. Her career in motion pictures had started. Dorothy’s grandmother Clara (Wilcox) Granger went to live with her son, Danis, and his family and the entire family moved to Los Angeles in 1929. Dorothy’s grandmother died there in 1931 and according to the Elyria (Ohio) newspaper on February 2, 1931, her remains were taken back to Ohio for burial. Danis and Lucile Granger are interred in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, not far from Dorothy’s great-granduncle, Harvey Henderson Wilcox, the man who founded Hollywood more than forty years earlier.

[edit] Early career

Dorothy’s comedic timing and talent were perfect for studios that made two-reelers and in 1930 her father took her to Hal Roach who was then testing talent for his upcoming comedy series, The Boy Friends. Dorothy’s natural gift for comedy got her the job immediately and she was put under contract to Hal Roach Studios, but was dropped in 1932 when she moved to other studios. She can be seen in movies such as The Dentist with W.C. Fields and Punch Drunks and Termites of 1938 with the Three Stooges. And yes, she really did take those rug beatings from Moe Howard in the latter film. She earned the unofficial title of “Queen of the Short Subjects” for her roles.

In 1930 Dorothy (a motion picture actress) was living as a lodger with her brothers, Richard (listed as a stage actor) and James (listed as a dancer) and Lucile (Richard’s wife) in Los Angeles, although during that year Dorothy and Richard were trying to sell themselves as a dance team.

By the time she was in her early twenties, Dorothy already had a reputation as an excellent foil for comedians. Movie producers cast her often, mostly in short-subject farce comedies. She performed in two-reelers with Laurel & Hardy, Andy Clyde, Charley Chase, Edgar Kennedy, Harry Langdon, and numerous others, but is best remembered as the sarcastic, suspicious and long-suffering wife in the comedian Leon Errol’s series of two-reelers for RKO. Short comedies, however, were not the only place that Dorothy worked and had a long career not only in them, but also in many full-length motion pictures, but never as a leading lady and she was seldom credited because many of the performers were part of stock companies and did not have individual contracts. George Cukor liked Dorothy and wanted to cast her in 1939’s Gone with the Wind as Belle Watling, but producer David O. Selznick wanted Ona Munson instead because she had better name recognition. She appeared with Broderick Crawford and Andy Devine in North to The Klondike in 1942 and in Roy Rogers’ Sunset in El Dorado in 1945. There was Hollywood gossip that she had an affair with Clark Gable, but it probably never happened.

An article in the Elyria newspaper on August 31, 1939, said that Dorothy Granger (Mrs. George Lollier) would appear for her hometown fans that night and the following night in her father's former movie theater, the Karolyn, in New London. Another article from the same time period stated that George Lollier, later an active assistant director on many Hollywood motion picture productions, was Dorothy's "partner." When Leonard Maltin interviewed her in 1968 she was married to John "Jack" Hilder.

Dorothy was always more “developed” than many of the young actresses with whom she worked and that was always a problem for her, she said in an interview, and that cost her a few roles. She related one story to Leonard Maltin in 1968 that during the filming of Nana in 1934 all the girls had to go to the director, Dorothy Arzner, to show her their costumes. Dorothy Granger was proud of the designer’s costumes for her because they all fit so well, but Arzner had a problem with the other girls’ costumes. She looked at all the girls’ costumes and, assuming that Dorothy had a padded bosom, said: “Now this is the only one that looks right [referring to Dorothy’s costume], pad the rest of them like this.” To which Dorothy responded, “I’m sorry, Miss Arzner, but that’s not padding!” During the filming of The Merry Widow in 1934, Dorothy’s costume fit her so perfectly that it got the attention of Maurice Chevalier who first kissed her during one scene in Maxim’s and then kissed her on the shoulder to get a better look. Many other movies followed during the 1940s, as well as her recurring roll after 1943 when she joined RKO’s Leon Errol series, first in character parts and then in the permanent role of Leon’s suspicious wife. The comedian was 31 years her senior, but their rapport was so good that visitors to the set actually thought they were married in real life.

Dorothy’s brothers, James and Richard, also appeared in movies, and all three of the Granger siblings appeared together in the second of The Boy Friends comedy series with Edgar Kennedy, Mickey Daniel and Mary Kornman. Its title was The Boy Friends: Bigger and Better, released on October 25, 1930. It was Jim’s only credited movie, but brother Richard appeared in several movies between 1930 and 1933.

Dorothy returned to her hometown of New London to a hero’s welcome several times, but was often promoted as “Danis Granger’s daughter.”

From the Elyria Chronicle Telegram, August 31, 1939:

Troupers Return to New London With Show NEW LONDON -- New London will have an opportunity to see, as well as hear, one of her “favorite daughters”, in person this week, when Dorothy Granger, (Mrs. Geo. Lollier), will appear on the stage of the Karolyn Theatre here, with her troupe of artists, in a musical extravaganza sponsored and produced by Miss Granger on Thursday and Friday, August 31, and Sept. 1.

For a great many years, the Granger family were residents of New London, and conducted business here. Mr. Granger served as postmaster here, relinquishing his post only when business interests took the family farther West.

A few years ago, Miss Granger and her brother Jim went to Hollywood, the former joining the Hal Roach studios, the latter as part of a Hollywood dance team. Miss Granger has appeared in a number of pictures and has appeared on the screen before local fans a number of times. Her last major picture was Dramatic School, with Luise Reiner.

The Grangers still have a number of relatives in and around New London. Members of the A.C. White family, and the F. G. Gilbert family here, claim this distinction.

From the Elyria Chronicle Telegram, September 7, 1939:

ATTENTION...OLD PALS OF DANIS GRANGER! MISS DOROTHY GRANGER HOLLYWOOD MOTION PICTURE ACTRESS WILL MAKE A PERSONAL APPEARANCE AT AMHERST HIGH SCHOOL

[edit] Later years

Dorothy Granger and Leon Errol were negotiating with the new television networks to do a thing called a “situation comedy,” or “sitcom” when Leon died in 1951 and the plans fell through. Dorothy worked on a wide variety of television shows through the 1950s, including Abbott & Costello, I Married Joan, Father Knows Best, Topper, Lassie, Death Valley Days, Wells Fargo and many others, as well as television commercials, but she never had a series of her own. Her last television performance was a live show on CBS, Face The Facts, in 1961. Dorothy finally gave up show business in 1963, calling it an “ulcer factory.”

Dorothy made her last public appearance in 1993 for the Screen Actors Guild’s 60th anniversary celebration. She was an honored guest at the celebration because she was one of SAG’s first members. In later years she helped her husband run an upholstery shop in Los Angeles.

Dorothy (Granger) Hilder died of cancer on January 4, 1995 in Los Angeles, California.