She Co-starred With the Stooges: Dorothy Granger of New London

"Punch Drunks" was only the second Three Stooges short.
That's Dorothy Granger between Moe and Curly

New London, the charming village in Huron County, Ohio, boasts of several famous people having grown up there, including renowned architect Philip Johnson and popular CNN Headline News anchor Robin Meade.

But there's one person who was born in New London (on November 21, 1911) that isn't mentioned on the village's Wiki page that should be: Dorothy Granger. She enjoyed a fine career in Hollywood, featured in short subjects with roles alongside some of the nation's most beloved comics.

When she was very young, her family moved to Texas, where she won a beauty contest at the age of thirteen. A move to Los Angeles lead to a screen test. Her distinctive beauty and natural comedy timing resulted in a contract with Hal Roach Studios.

Her list of co-stars reads like a Who's Who of comedy, including Laurel & Hardy, W. C. Fields, The Three Stooges, Abbott & Costello, Charley Chase and Leon Erroll (with whom she starred in a short subject series as his wife).

In a small roll as Mr. and Mrs. Hardy's maid in "Hog Wild"

Dorothy's laughing because Hardy is looking for his hat, unaware that it's on his head

With W. C. Fields in "The Dentist"

With Curly and Moe in "Punch Drunks"

With Charley Chase in "The Pip From Pittsburgh"

Here she is with W. C. Fields in hilarious short The Dentist (1932). Dorothy makes her entrance as a scared dental patient beginning around the 8:23 mark. Her sequence is both hilarious (when she screams so much she scares away a patient waiting outside) and a little risqué (as she shows W. C. Fields where a dog bit her). In fact, the whole pre-Code short is pretty shocking, especially the way W. C. Fields treats his patients with contempt!

Dorothy Granger made the front page of the Lorain Journal back on October 19, 1933 as part of a scandalous legal case. As the story notes, "Dorothy Granger, film actress and cousin of Don L. Granger, Elyria resident, alleged that Alfred C. Read, Jr. made "ardent love" to her and told her he was unmarried in an affidavit filed in Los Angeles by attorneys of Claire Windsor, as part of their fight to set aside a $75,000 verdict against Miss Windsor by Read's former wife, Mrs. Marian Read."

(Note that the photo of Dorothy Granger is similar to the one near the top of the post. On the Wiki page where that photo appears online, it says that she is holding a Hollywood contract. More likely it is the affidavit mentioned in the article!)

Even though Dorothy Granger was starring in Hollywood movies, she apparently did not forget her roots back here in Northern Ohio. In the fall of 1939, she made two appearances in South Amherst with her husband, both times presenting entertainment programs in the high school gym.

From Sept. 9, 1939 Lorain Journal

From September 20, 1939 Lorain Journal

From September 20, 1939 Lorain Journal 

Here's Dorothy as Leon Erroll's suspicious wife in one of the many comedies they made together. In this short, he has a twin brother, which creates many comic misunderstandings. 

Dorothy Granger enjoyed a long career in Hollywood from the 1930s through the 1950s with nearly 250 movie credits. This native of New London, Ohio deserves to be remembered for her contributions to movie comedy.

Dorothy Granger, 1911-1995

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This blog post was originally planned for February but was postponed when I got sick. I finally decided to work on it this past Sunday afternoon. Imagine my surprise on Saturday night when I noticed that the comedy short leading off MeTV's weekly Three Stooges series was none other than "Punch Drunks!" Now that's an omen.

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This blog provides a little background on how Dorothy Granger ended up in the entertainment field; her parents apparently ran a theater in New London. It also reveals that she had a career in vaudeville before she began making movies.

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UPDATE (March 17, 2024)

As pointed out in a comment left on this post, here's Dorothy in a cameo role in Westward the Women. She is one of a group of Chicago saloon performers deemed 'unworthy' to make the trip West to California to become brides for lonely cowboys.

Here, Dorothy (on the right) is expressing indignation to Roy Whitman (played byJohn McIntire), who rejected them without explanation.

After being turned down, Dorothy (shown looking back at Whitman) warns two other stage performer floozies (played by Denise Darcel and Julie Bishop) that they'll get rejected too, because "the old goat don't like the way we were dressed."

Of course, that sets the whole plot in motion as Denise Darcel and her friend change clothes so as to appear to be 'good women.' They don't fool Whitman, but he lets them come along on the trip anyway, as he believes that they are attempting to reform.