Dorothy Smoller

Dorothy Smoller (circa 1898-9 December 1926) was an actress and dancer known for the 1919 film Out of the Fog. She was also featured on the 1919 US Vogue cover in a photograph taken by photographer Adolph de Meyer.

Early life and career

Smoller was born in Memphis, Tennessee, circa 1898.[1] Early in her career, she was a dancer at the Palace and St. Francis hotels in San Francisco[2] and in 1914 she toured internationally, demonstrating the tango.[1][3][4][5][6][7] She then studied dance with Ruth St. Denis.[8][9] In 1915, she was engaged as a solo dancer at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition,[2] where she "danced a bacchanale with such grace that it created a sensation".[10] She then spent two years as a support dancer with Anna Pavlova[11] during her tour of South America and on her return to New York.[2][7] In 1919 and 1920, she had dancing roles in several plays and musicals, including See-Saw (produced by Henry W. Savage),[7] What's In a Name (produced by John Murray Anderson),[12] and Checkerboard,[2][13] and also appeared in operetta in 1921, at the Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco, and on tour.[2] In 1919, she appeared as a dancer in the film Out of the fog,[14] and was featured on the cover of the December 1919 issue of Vogue magazine, photographed by Adolphe de Meyer.[15][16]

Illness and death

Smoller was diagnosed with severe pulmonary tuberculosis in 1923. She spent two years at the Cragmor Sanitarium in Colorado Springs to seek treatment, where she met Benjamin Strong, who was also suffering from tuberculosis. Against the advice of doctors, she went back to New York to resume her dancing career, but suffered a hemorrhage during rehearsal for the Broadway play "Howdy, King". She committed suicide on December 9, 1926, in her room at the Hotel Shelton, New York City, four days before the play's opening,[17] writing letters addressed to her mother, Mrs Rose Smoller, and to Benjamin Strong.[18][9] The cause of death was suicide by drinking liquid shoe polish which contained potassium cyanide.[19][20] A New York newspaper speculated[19] that another factor contributing to her suicide was her "failure to get work in the films .. Miss Smoller had a screen test at the Famous Players studio .. and .. was informed she "would be considered".[19]

References
  1. "Dainty Los Angeles Girl Tangoing Around World". The Los Angeles Times. June 28, 1914. Retrieved February 17, 2019. Dainty Dorothy Smoller, an exquisite little Los Angeles girl, not yet 17 years old, is tangoing around the world.
  2. "Dances Into Wide Fame - California Girl Home With Success". The San Francisco Examiner. March 15, 1921. p. 14. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  3. "News From All Quarters". The Japan Daily Mail. 62: 75. 1914. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  4. "Untitled". The North-China Herald and Supreme Court and Consular Gazette. 113: 721. 1914. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  5. "News From Fort McKinley, Philippines". Army-Navy-Air Force Register and Defense Times. 56: 460. October 10, 1914. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  6. "Girl Dances Before Royalty - Career Began In Oakland". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. January 17, 1915. p. 28. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  7. "Miss Dorothy Smoller "Arrives" as a Dancer in New Comedy, "See-Saw"". El Paso Herald. El Paso, Texas. December 13, 1919. p. 7. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  8. "Modern Out, Ancient In, Fair Dancer's Repertory - Miss Dorothy Smoller to Show New-Old Art at Greek Theater". Oakland Tribune. July 22, 1915. p. 14. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  9. "Own Life Taken by Dancing Girl of Long Beach". The Los Angeles Times. December 10, 1926. p. 12, Part 2. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  10. "College Women Talk Usefulness". San Francisco Chronicle. July 25, 1915. p. 20. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  11. Money, Keith (1982). Anna Pavlova: her life and art. Collins. p. 261. ISBN 9780002163668. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  12. "Village Follies Closing Set" (PDF). The New York Clipper. LXII (48): 5. January 7, 1920. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  13. "'The Checkerboard', New Hatton Play, Is Only Mediocre". New York Herald. August 20, 1920. p. 7. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  14. "Following the Films". Camera! The Digest of the Motion Picture Industry. II (1): 11. April 6, 1919. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  15. Devlin, Polly (1979). Vogue Book of Fashion Photography, 1919-1979. Simon & Schuster. p. 34. ISBN 9780671243715.
  16. Baron De Meyer, Adolf (1976). DeMeyer. Knopf. ISBN 9780394497440. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  17. Hischak, Thomas (2009). Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows through 2007. United States: McFarland. p. 535. ISBN 9780786453092.
  18. "Actress a Suicide by Poison in Hotel - Girl Leaves Note to Benjamin Strong, Banker, Once a Patient in Hospital With Her". New York Times. New York Times Archives. December 10, 1926. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  19. Dolan, Frank (December 10, 1926). "Actress, Ill, Ends Life With Shoe Polish - Begs Forgiveness of Mother, Youth, as Ambition Fails". Daily News. New York, New York. p. 6. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  20. Frasier, David (2002). Suicide in the Entertainment Industry. United States: McFarland. p. 297. ISBN 9780786410385.
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