NSM:  Well, I just wanted to ask you some questions about your career and about the boys.

DL:     Well, I'd be glad to help you, just ask me a question.

NSM: Okay, I'm going to fire away now.  First of all, where were you born?

DL: Los Angeles.

NSM:  You're an LA girl.

DL: Uh huh.
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NSM: What did your parents do?

DL: My father was a lawyer and my mother was a housewife.

NSM:  Where and how did you first break into show business?

DL: Well, I was always crazy about---my Mother took me to the Orpheum once when I was a little girl and when I left I said, "Momma, that's what I want to be a show lady."  And then, I think I had an uncle that a had a school for theatrical things and so they used to put shows on, and when I was two....I still have my dancing shoes my mother had kept....so they said, "Do you want to go on?"  "Oh yes" My mother said, "She'll be so frightened."  Well, they almost had to get a hanger to pull me off.

NSM: Give you the hook, huh?

DL:  Oh gosh.  So then my mother and father had a friend and they were on the Orpheum circuit in those days.  That was top drawer and this was in the '20s.  So his wife was ill...they were sort of like a Burns and Allen I think.

 NSM: Or a Block and Sully

DL: So this friend said, "Oh I don't know what to do.  Here I am booked 6 or 8 weeks and my wife is so ill.  I am trying to find someone to take over."  I am now 14.  I said, "I can do it!" So he sat down at the piano and played a few things. So anyway....

NSM: So that was your debut.

DL: That was the beginning.

NSM: Wow, right on the Orpheum Circuit.

DL: Yeah, wasn't bad.

NSM:   Not bad.  What did you do in the act, do you remember?

DL:  I just played a young....like a Gracie Allen....Only I was dressed like a young kid.  You know I wasn't grown up.  I played just about the way a teenager would act and look.

NSM: So that must have been easy for you.  When did the Pennsylvanians come into it?

DL: Waring's.....Well, in the meantime I did chorus jobs and tried out.  I was an only child and I would come home and I'd say, "I knew I could do it, but I didn't get the part."  My grandmother was so sweet and she'd say, "Don't forget, when it's your turn you will get it."  Later I'm about 15 and I had quite a lot of experience.  It was good playing four shows a day so I tried out for a New York show.  There were 250 gals and out of 250 two of us got it.  I was lucky enough to be one of them.  So we went to New York and that's where it was starring Waring's Pennsylvanians.

NSM: What was the name of the show?

DL:  Hello Yourself

NSM: Hello Yourself....Do you remember what songs you did?

DL: Oh yes, I started out with practically nothing and Fred Waring saw me and thought, "This nut, she doesn't know which foot to kick, but I think she might make it."  So he rehearsed me and taught me phrasing.  I didn't have too much, "I Want The World to Know" and "Somebody Loves Me, Somebody Loves Me So." My God, do you know how old I am?

NSM:  I think so

DL:  Tell me

NSM:  Are you 85?

DL:  84

NSM: 84

DL: Now that's enough

NSM: OK, sorry about that

DL: Sometimes my buttons work and sometimes they don't

NSM: I don't mean to rush you

DL: No, but how I could remember that song right off, maybe tomorrow dear, I couldn't.

NSM: Oh boy. Lets get to the next one.

DL: Then Bert Wheeler and Bob Woolsey were playing....that was their first time together in the original Rio Rita in New York in 1928 or 1929.  Bert Wheeler, he knew a lot of the people in those days.  Everybody knew everyone.  We did this movie Syncopation...

NSM:  You were with Morton Downy

DL: Morton Downy, Barbara Bennet.  Anyway, Bert Wheeler saw me in this movie.  He was at a bar one night with one of the young men in our show.  He said, "I'm looking for a little girl I saw in Syncopation named Dorothy Lee and I'd like to find her because we're going to do the movie."  It was the first musical Rio Rita.  You see, he was very short and I'm 4'11 (now).  My goodness.....This man said, "I do a number with her in "Hello Yourself" Of course Bert came by....that's the way we met.  I got my agent and was signed up for Rio Rita, but they had to wait quit a while because Bert and Bob had a run of the play and so did I.  So when our plays were over we did New York, Chicago.  Anyway, then we wound up in Hollywood together and that's how it started.

NSM:...he requested you.

DL: Yes

NSM: That was nice of him, did you hit it off right away?

DL: Oh yes, he was one of the nicest men I ever worked with.  Real easy to work with.

NSM: He seems that way.

DL: I sure miss him.

NSM: When you were on Broadway at the time did you know of Wheeler and Woolsey?  I mean were they considered a team yet?

DL: I knew who Bert Wheeler was.

NSM: You didn't know who Robert Woolsey was?

DL: No, because Bert Wheeler had been in Vaudeville.  I had never seen him but I had heard of him.  They were a lot older than I was. In those days you didn't pay any attention to how old.  I was 16 and Bert was in his (30s)

NSM: At that time you went to Hollywood and began Rio Rita. Who choreographed that number, "Sweetheart We Need Eachother" ?  Was that Bert, or did you work that out together?

DL: We did it together.

NSM: Oh you did.

DL: Yes

NSM:  It's a great number

DL: Yes it is kind of cute.

NSM: I think it's my favorite.

DL: The other day on 74, that's the new Turner station, they had Rio Rita.  But unfortunately there is an awful lot of stuff they cut out.

NSM: Yes

DL: One was "The Kinkajou" that was a cute dance.

NSM: Also there was a number that you did, "Are You There?"

DL: "Are You There?"  My gosh, young man are you with it...

NSM:  I'm a big fan and I'm watching you right now as we're speaking.  You're about to "Dance The Devil Away" in The Cuckoos.

DL: Wasn't that the worst?  The way it was photographed.  The color that was a great deal and half the time you can't tell if I'm in the chorus or standing out front.

NSM: I have a very nice copy of it with restored footage. So you can see you very clearly.

DL:  How do you find things that are restored?

NSM: I actually found it off of Turner's station.  If you'd like I will send you a copy.

DL:  I would love to pay you for it.

NSM: Don't worry about it please, I will send one off to you.  In The Cuckoos, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby wrote the music, were they ever on the set?

DL: Oh yes, well....not always on the set, but when they'd write these songs we'd go and they'd play them for us....They were wonderful.

NSM: I am a big fan of theirs

DL: I think you have good taste young man.

NSM: Well, thank you.  I'm a fan of yours. In "Hook, Line and Sinker" you appeared with Hugh Herbert. You also did the film, "Laugh and Get Rich" with him.  What was he like to work with?

DL: Oh, gosh...he was a riot.  Just like he was when you saw him on the stage, you know in the movie, on the stage.  Of course I've been so lucky.  Everyone I ever worked with have been just so wonderful.

NSM: I wanted to ask you that too.  I know you worked with Joe E. Brown in "Local Boy Makes Good"

DL:     Oh, he was wonderful

NSM: I noticed you mentioned in an interview that you worked with Eddie Cantor, The Ritz Brothers and John Barrymore, Bob Hope....

DL: No

NSM: No?

DL: You see a lot of the things they say I say or said is not true.  I knew all those people. I might have made an appearance or just taking a bow but no I never worked with them.

NSM: What was Joe E. Brown like?

DL: Oh, just like you see him.

NSM: I am a big fan of his too.

DL: He was great

NSM: Why don't you think "Dixiana" worked?

DL: Oh, we just though it was a dog from the beginning. Pardon my expression.

NSM: That's okay....I like your number in that too..."My One Ambition Is You."

DL: "My One Ambition Is You." Yeah that was cute.

NSM: I have written here, Everett Marhsall....

DL: Oh yes, he was opposite Bebe Daniel's.  He was a nice person and he had only been on the stage and sang Opera on the stage.  He didn't know how to face the camera and what's his name Reed was the director...

NSM: Luther Reed

DL: Luther Reed.  It was terrible the way they would photograph this poor man.  The bad part was when he was trying to sing.

NSM: That kind of sabotaged him

DL: We thought it was terrible that nobody helped him.  Of course you don't go to someone and say, "Look, face the camera the other way."  It took us a long time to learn that.

NSM: Well, that's technique

DL: Yeah.  He was a very nice man and I think he could have been a big star like John Boles had he known.  Well, this was his first movie..or his only movies.  I wonder what happened to him, do you know?

NSM: I think he went back to the stage.  He made a couple of movies and he went back to the stage.

DL: He was a very good looking man and they never photographed him right.

NSM: So they sabotaged him

DL: They didn't help him

NSM: In the movie, "Caught Plastered"....you play a great drunk

DL: Oh yeah

NSM: You really did a nice job

DL: In front of the microphone

NSM: Yes, but you did a very nice job in that.  It was a very funny performance.  Tell me about Edna May Oliver.

DL: Well, she was a real sweet, nice lady.  I used to go to her house and have dinner and she would come to mine.  She was a very nice lady.  In fact, I've been so lucky with all the people I worked for.  I never had anyone that was difficult or sort of rude to you or looking down on you or anything.  In those days I think we all tried to get along.  It helped our work.

NSM: Right, it seemed to be more of a family atmosphere.

DL: Right

NSM: Now why did they use other leading ladies in their films?  Why weren't you in the full series?

DL: Well, one time I did go to London.  When I had time off in those days...Bert or Bob didn't have anything to say....the studio ran our lives.  When they said jump, we jumped.  And we had to go to openings, we had to do whatever the studio wanted us to do.  They probably thought well....it wasn't Bert and Bob.

NSM:   Right, they were employees just like you were.

DL:      That's right.

NSM:    I noticed that you mentioned "Hips, Hips Hooray" and "Cockeyed Cavaliers" were your favorites.  Were those your favorite films?
 

DL:      Well, I guess so, I thought "Hook Line and Sinker was kind of a dog.  After all they handed you scripts and you did it.

NSM:    Right, no questions asked.

DL:       That is correct

NSM:     How about Thelma Todd?

DL:       Oh, she was great too

NSM:    And working with Mark Sandrich?

DL:      Great, one of the greatest directors we ever had

NSM:    Yeah, I think he did a wonderful job on your films.

DL:       I think he died awfully young didn't he?

NSM:    Yes he did.  It was a shame.

DL:       He was a great man

NSM:    Now your last film with the boys was "Silly Billies."  You did "The Rainmakers" and then "Silly Billies."

DL:      What was "Silly Billies"....Was that the western?

NSM:    Yeah, the western

DL:       That was kind of a dog too

NSM:    What changed.....Why were the films dogs?

DL:       Maybe because of the writers, I don't know.  We knew when we thought we had a good one.  We sort of felt like "The Cuckoos" and "Half Shot At Sunrise".....we knew those were sort of us and then of course the sound kept improving first.  Because at first our voices were pitched.  (speaks with high pitched voice) You know sound just came in.  Then by "I'd Like to Dilly Dally" I think that was '31, that was the beginning to sound more like us, well you know.   If you ever come to California let me know.

NSM: I will definitely drop in if you don't mind.

DL:     Well, I'd love to have you because I know Watz...well all my boys in Chicago, they are all in their 30s which is so cute.  I don't even have a son that young.

NSM: How many kids do you have?

DL:    3 boys and 1 gal

NSM: So you have 4 children.  3 boys and 1 girl, so does my Mother.

DL:    Well good

NSM: Now tell me about the rest of your career after Wheeler and Woolsey.  First of all in "Silly Billies" lets say your last work with Wheeler and Woolsey, what was Bob's health like?  At that point was he starting to deteriorate?

DL:     Well we didn't pay too much attention.  I was married and moved to Chicago and I spent my adult life in Chicago.  It was while I was in Chicago that he passed away.  He hit the bottle a bit, not too much; he was never drunk on the set or anything.  Of course I didn't drink or smoke till I was over 35.  One thing I thought was so wonderful was my family always had cocktails and I would taste them and I hated the taste of liquor.  I guess that's why I never drank till later in life.  I don't smoke now but I do have a cocktail now and then.

NSM: Now and then.....you do indulge now and then.  So after the Wheeler and Woolsey movies you moved to Chicago and spent your adult life there.

DL:    Yes

NSM: So when was the last time you saw Bob Woolsey?

DL:      Oh heavens

NSM:    That was when you left California?

DL:       Yes, that was the last time I saw him.  Then the next thing I read in the paper of course.....all the papers called me up.

NSM:    Describe to me, as best you can, what he was like.  We don't hear too much about Bob Woolsey.

DL: He was feisty.  I never had any trouble.  He and Bert used to have a go.  He always thought he was better than Bert. Bert was kind of a happy go lucky and I was too.  Nothing was right except the way Woolsey.....We should do everything the way Woolsey thought we should.  Well, that's all right.  That was his way.

NSM: He was demanding that way.
 

DL:      Yes he was.  I never had any trouble with him.  He was always good to me because I always did what he said.
 

NSM: So the two of you had a good relationship.
 

DL:    Oh yes.

NSM: I understand you said he was kind of tight fisted.
 

DL:    Oh yes....Bert and I never ever had an argument.  We would rehearse dances together and songs.  He'd say, "Now what do you think?" or I'd say, "What do you think?"  And the two of us would work it out and do it the way we thought it was better.

NSM:   The two of you have incredible chemistry on screen

DL:     Well he was such a nice man.  He had a darling wife and had one daughter.  Of course I've lost touch with all of them.

NSM: I believe his daughter passed away.

DL: Yeah, that's what I heard, Patsy.  My, why are you interviewing me, you know more of what's going on than I do.

NSM: There are a lot of fans out there who want to know the answers to these questions.

DL: Oh my goodness.

NSM: You mentioned in the book you went back with Bert in the early 40's just to do a Vaudeville appearance or something like that.  Do you remember that?

DL:  In the 40s

NSM: Yeah, in like the early '40's he was having a rough time....your husband didn't want you to do it but you said, "Bert needs me."

DL: Well, I don't even know what we did.  We probably did a few shows. I was married on December 9, 1941 In Chicago.

NSM:  Right after Pearl Harbor

DL: I had already taken my Mother, my dog and my darling son.  We had gone back to Chicago to get married.  How'd we know Pearl Harbor was going to hit.

NSM: When was the last time you saw Bert?

DL:     While I was living in Chicago, it was about Christmastime and he was living at the Lambs Club or the club that all the actors in New York....

NSM: I believe it was the Lambs.

DL:     How'd they come up with that....I called him up and they gave me his....he was in some....like a veterans hospital.  He wasn't well and we said, "Oh, we'd love to send you a ticket to come and spend Christmas with us," and he said....He always called me Lee...he said "Gee, I'm not doing too well."  And shortly after I think I heard he passed away.

NSM: I just acquired an interview he did late in life.  I believe it was about 1965 or '66.  He speaks so nicely about you.  He said the sweetest things about you.

DL: Well, I couldn't say anything but the nicest things about him because he was such a sweet, kind, wonderful person to work with.

NSM: Do you get a lot of letters?

DL: Oh yes

NSM: From fans?

DL: Yes.  I don't know how they ever find me.  There is a book that has a Solana Beach address and I am so embarrassed because these darling people that bought my house...I don't know how many times I've sent a change of address.  They still send me a lot of the fan letters to San Diego which is about 20 minutes away.

NSM: Where are you exactly now?

DL:  San Diego

NSM:  It's a beautiful area

DL: It is.

DL:  Old granny they call me

NSM: Oh let me tell you something.  You're still a swell kid.

DL:   Well, I tell you, I may be an old bag, but I think young.

NSM:  Well, you sound young to me

DL: I love young people and I love to listen to them and I have seven grandchildren and I'm about to be a great-grandmother.  That is the most important thing in my life.

NSM:  Congratulations!  One more thing and I'm going to let you go.  What do you think about this whole thing, the popularity of  Wheeler and Woolsey and yourself?

DL: It astounds me.  Two weeks ago I received a fan letter from Paris.

NSM:  Wow

DL:  Yeah and I have the letter with, well I have to mail it back to him.  In this fan letter he sent a picture of me and it was on a postcard.  I had all my clothes on too.  Whenever I hear about a Paris postcard...you know.

NSM:  Yes, you think of dirty postcards.

DL:  Well, this was very nice and two weeks later from New York I received a fan letter from a man who had found the postcard from Paris.  He didn't send it to me but he sent me some faxes and blew up the picture to 8X10.  Isn't that surprising that it happened within two weeks?

NSM:  Two weeks, what are the chances of that happening?

DL:  I'm always astounded at anything like this because here I am about to be an old great-grandmother and people are asking what did you do, it was so long ago, old granny can hardly remember it.  You keep on doing what you're doing and I wish you success and dear, if there's anyone I might know or anything....because almost all my friends are all dead.

NSM: Well, there's one in South Florida that isn't.

DL: Well, darling...I wish you lots of luck.

NSM: Well, thank you.

DL: And anything I can do, well let me know.

NSM: I sure will.

DL:  Thank you again.