Dorothy Arnold
Born
Nov. 21, 1917, in Duluth, Minn.
Died Nov. 13, 1984, in Palm Springs, Calif.
Dorothy Arnoldine Olson graduated from Denfeld
in 1935 and went on to become a Hollywood actress, using the stage name Dorothy Arnold. Her
20-year movie career began with 1937’s Freshies and
ended with 1957’s Lizzie.
At age 12 she performed on amateur nights at Duluth’s
Lyric Theater and with the local Salvation Army Band. Her first
theatrical job was with the Band Box Revue, traveling out of Chicago.
She studied at Paramount School in New York and played bits in pictures
as a dancer.
Arnold tested twice with Paramount Pictures, but
it was Universal Studios that offered her a stock contract. She
appeared in 15 films between 1937 and 1939. Her most memorable roles
were as the imperiled heroine Jean Drew in The Phantom Creeps
(with Bela Lugosi and Robert Kent) and the undercover chorus girl
Gloria DeVere in The House of Fear (with Irene Hervey and
William Gargan).
She met baseball star Joe DiMaggio in 1937 on
the set of Manhattan Merry-Go-Round. DiMaggio had a minor
speaking role in the film; Arnold had no lines. They soon became
a couple, and married on November 18, 1939 at SS Peter and Paul
Cathedral in San Francisco.
On October 23, 1941, the year of DiMaggio’s
famous 56-game hitting streak, Arnold gave birth to their first
child, Joe DiMaggio, Jr. The couple split up in 1942 and divorced
in 1944.
Following her marriage to DiMaggio, she quit acting.
A brief comeback in 1957 included her last film, MGM’s Lizzie
(with Eleanor Parker and Joan Blondell) and appearances on TV’s
The Adventures of Jim Bowie and Dragnet.
Arnold and her third husband, Ralph Peckovich,
owned and operated a supper club together in Palm Springs, California,
called Charcoal Charley's, where she performed until her death from
pancreatic cancer at the age of 66.
Hall
of Fame Members
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