Born in New Orleans, Dorothy Lamour (December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) started her career by entering beauty pageants to support herself after leaving school in her teens. She was crowned “Miss New Orleans” in 1931. Lamour used her pageant prize money to move to Chicago and then New York, singing with the Herbie Kay Orchestra (whom she briefly married in 1935) in nightclubs and on popular NBC radio shows like the Rudy Vallée program.
Her radio work and sultry singing voice brought her to the attention of Hollywood studios, and she signed a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1936. Her breakthrough role came the same year in The Jungle Princess (1936), where she played a jungle native named Ulah and wore her signature sarong, designed by Edith Head. This role cemented her image as an exotic beauty and the “Sarong Queen,” a look that became iconic and a favorite pin-up for troops during World War II.
Throughout the rest of the decade, she starred in several more adventure films and musicals, including The Hurricane (1937) and Her Jungle Love (1938). By the end of the 1930s, she was a major star, ready for her next big phase.
Here, below is a gallery of 50 gorgeous photos of a young and beautiful Dorothy Lamour in the 1930s:
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