Biography
Dorothy Page was born on March 4, 1904, in Northampton, Pennsylvania. While attending college in Pennsylvania, she was chosen by Curtis Publishing Co. to be a cover model for the "Saturday Evening Post." In 1925, she married a medical student, and after he became a doctor, they relocated to Detroit, his hometown, to establish his medical practice. During the 1930s Depression, many families needed extra income, so Dorothy—who had majored in music—auditioned for a singing position with the Paul Whiteman band. She secured the role and soon performed on Whiteman's NBC Radio show, gaining popularity with audiences. In 1935, she was a regular on Irvin S. Cobb's "Paducah Plantation" radio program. That same year, Universal Pictures signed her to a contract, casting her in the low-budget musical Manhattan Moon (1935) alongside Ricardo Cortez, which was well received. However, her next film, King Solomon of Broadway (1935), was less successful, leading to her release from Universal.
A few years later, Dorothy returned to film with Republic Pictures in Mama Runs Wild (1937), a Charles Ruggles and Mary Boland comedy. She did not sing in this film, which failed critically and financially. Nevertheless, Grand National Pictures, a "B" studio struggling after the costly failure of the James Cagney musical Something to Sing About (1937), signed Dorothy to star in a series of medium-budget musical westerns featuring her as a singing cowgirl. Despite the "medium budget" label, these films were very low budget by industry standards, and the three movies produced did not resonate with audiences, who preferred singing cowboys to a singing cowgirl. After the third film, Grand National ended the series, dropped Dorothy, and soon went out of business.
Dorothy retired from acting to focus on her family. Her first marriage ended in divorce, and in 1939 she married an attorney who died of a heart attack in 1941. She remarried a third time to a rancher in Fresno, California, and moved there to help manage his ranching business for many years. The 1950s were difficult for her; her marriage ended, and she was diagnosed with cancer. She relocated to Florida to be closer to the hospital providing her treatment but passed away from the disease in 1961.
