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.

Winter Storm Finale – March 10, 1964

Were you as surprised as I was to realize that winter isn't quite over yet? 

Despite Punxsutawney Phil's prediction of an early spring, and the fact that people were wearing shorts and T-shirts just last week, winter isn't over until Mother Nature sez so. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the much ballyhooed total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 gets snowed under.)

Sixty years ago, the good citizens of Lorain County were probably just as perturbed as we are now, if the headline of the March 10, 1964 Journal is an indication. At least the storm is seen as the finale of winter.

The other photo on the front page shows an original painting by Stevan Dohanos that was donated to the Lorain Community Hospital, as well as the cover of The Saturday Evening Post cover on which it appeared.

There's also foreshadowing of two big events in Lorain's future, including the proposal of a high school for South Lorain, and a new City Hall.

Deutschof Becomes Danny's – March 1954

Do you remember the Deutschof? 

The restaurant known as "the Fun Spot of Lorain" held its Grand Opening at its original location at 571 Broadway in 1933. It moved to its new location at 651 Broadway in the late 1940s. There, it continued its fine reputation as a place to enjoy fine food and the best in entertainment.

(I did a multi-part series on the Deutschof, featuring some great photos of its interior provided by a reader, starting waaaaay back here in 2011.)

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Joseph L. Deutsch, the owner of the Deutschof, passed away in late May 1949. The business kept on for a few more years before a major change took place in March 1954 – a new name, new approach and (I'm assuming) a new owner.

Here's the ad announcing the transition from the Deutschof to Danny's Bar (or just Danny's for short). It ran in the Lorain Journal back on March 12, 1954.

The ad is interesting in that it appears (via the illustration of the grinning worker punching his time card) that Danny's was trying to be the place where a working man could stop after work – sort of a 1950s version of "Miller Time." But the ad counteracts this theme by pointing out that the 'whole family is welcome.'

But it appears that Danny's didn't last very long. The building would be the home of Ben Hart Show Bar about a year later.

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Stopping for a drink after work apparently was a big thing in a working man's town like Lorain, judging by the number of bars located all in a row on a major street, especially across from a factory or plant (like U. S. Steel).

Even my grandfather was known to stop every night on his way home from his job at the Journal for a drink at the Elks Club. Mom told me that a few times she was sent to fetch him there, and she remembered the boisterous singing of bawdy songs, like Roll Me Over.

I'm (*hic*) guilty of the practice myself. While in my 20s, I worked for an architect on E. Ninth Street in Downtown Cleveland for a short while in the early 1980s. Very conveniently, there was a bar with a very nice lounge located in our building at street level. (Our office was in the basement.) So naturally, the other two guys I worked with (a draftsman and a landscape architect) and I stopped for a quick snort each night. It gave the draftsman time to flirt with the cocktail waitress, as well as regularly providing me an opportunity to almost miss my bus home. I remember many times running like Dagwood Bumstead from E. Ninth to Public Square trying to get there in time.

House Hunters, Lorain Edition – March 6, 1954

For many years, the local newspapers have published local real estate transactions, usually on Saturday or Sunday, listing the addresses, sellers and buyers of properties organized by city and county. There are usually dozens of them and it's fun to be nosy and look for addresses and names that you might recognize.

That's why I thought it was interesting that the Lorain Journal published the pair of photos of the two houses above, one at 623 West 30th Street and the other at 1442 West 34th Street. The photos of the two recently-sold homes appeared in the paper on March 6, 1954.

So why did these homes receive special attention? Well, a lucky realtor had just helped a Lorain couple sell the house on W. 30th Street and then purchase the brick house on W. 34th.

These days, it's probably not unusual for a realtor to do double duty. We did the same thing when selling our 1940s colonial on Nebraska Avenue; the same realtor was used to find another house, which ended up being in Sheffield Lake less than a mile away. 

But what's interesting to me is that my parents made almost the same move that the couple in the ad did. My parents' first house (which was given to them by my father's grandfather) was on W. 30th Street near Broadway, not far from the one in the top photo. When they sold it (it was simply too small) they built a new house on West 30th St., west of Ashland Avenue and not far from the house on W. 34th in the photo.

I guess there must have been a strong urge by homeowners living in the older neighborhoods to be a part of the rapid growth on the West Side. Many iconic businesses (like Willow Hardware and Whalen Drug) and shopping centers were springing up to replace farmland, and it was probably hard to resist the new roads, schools, etc.

And what about the two homes in the 1954 article? They both still look great and are in neighborhoods that remain nice, seventy years later.

Did you move around within a city as well, in search of a better home and corresponding better life?

American Ship Building Article – March 8, 1954

Did you ever see a ship get launched in the American Ship Building Lorain yards during its heyday?

It's quite a spectacle, and exciting as well, watching a huge ship slide sideways down to the water, followed by a giant splash. Consequently, it's been a favorite subject of Lorain postcards for a long time.

I hadn't thought too much about other ways that a ship might be launched until I saw this front page of the March 8, 1954 Lorain Journal. The photo is of a new ship under construction in drydock at the American Ship Building Company. 

As the article notes, "An easier and safer way of method of launching will be utilized by the American Ship Building Company for its Hull No. 871 now under construction in the Lorain yards. Instead of the usual side launching the new hull will be floated from the dry dock in which it is being built.

"This method has its disadvantages since it monopolizes the drydock for a lengthy period. But this new 710 foot long freighter is so big that company officials explained there was no other safe way to build it.

"The craft's keel was laid in the drydock early last November. In ten weeks almost the entire bottom, tank top, side tanks, and part of the spar deck were erected. Also in place is the stern frame.

"When the vessel is finished it will be just a few feet shorter than the dock and just a few feet narrower than the dock width."

Elsewhere on that same front page: a robbery at Four Corners Tavern, located at Elyria Avenue and North Ridge Road; vandalism at two schools in the Grove Avenue area in Lorain; a crackdown on Communism in Puerto Rico: and a thief's humorous justification for his crimes.

Post Cereals Ad – March 4, 1964

Post Cereals has shown up as a topic on many of my blog, er, posts over the years.

Why? Mainly for sentimental reasons. My siblings and I used to watch the Linus the Lionhearted show, which featured the Post advertising cereal mascots in their own cartoon segments: Linus (for Crispy Critters); Sugar Bear (for Sugar Crisp); So-Hi (for Rice Krinkles); Lovable Truly (for Alpha Bits); and Rory Raccoon (for Post Toasties). Although we were mainly a Kellogg's family, Mom did buy a few Post cereals from time to time, mainly Crispy Critters and Alpha Bits.

Here's the introduction to the Linus show.

Need proof that I enjoyed the show? Here's a drawing I made of some of the characters back in 1965. (By George, my mother saved almost all my doodles from the time I picked up a crayon.)

Just like my drawing, Linus was overshadowed by his friends on his own TV show

But back in March 1964, the Linus show wasn't on the air yet. It wouldn't debut until September of that year. Perhaps in anticipation of the unveiling of the show, Post Cereals was aggressively marketing its cereals, doing battle with Kellogg's and General Mills.

And here's a good example of its marketing strategy: a coupon good for 12 cents off any two Post cereals. The almost 3/4 page ad ran in the Journal on March 4, 1964.

The ad is kind of neat as it is a roll call of all of the Post cereals at that time and how the packages looked.

Of particular interest is the Sugar Crisp box (below). It had a bear on it, but the beady-eyed bruin wasn't quite the well-known Sugar Bear that we all know.

The box would keep this look for a while even after Sugar Bear debuted on the Linus show. Eventually, the box was redesigned (below) to highlight the most popular character on the show.

Sugar Crisp (now called Golden Crisp, with Sugar Bear still on the box) is one of the few surviving Post cereals from the 1964 ad. Crispy Critters, Post Toasties, and Alpha Bits have all been discontinued. 

Rice Krinkles is gone as well, but was reformulated into the Pebbles cereals – Fruity and Cocoa.

Even though these days I eat a lot of Post Shredded Wheat, as well as Cream of Wheat (since I got sick last month), I still keep a box of Golden Crisp on hand. I guess I'm just a kid at heart.

I buy a box of Post Grape Nuts about once a year. But just like Corn Nuts (which I love), Grape Nuts can be hazardous to your dental health. 

Harry's Men's Wear Ad – March 3, 1954

Here's a great ad for that Harry's Men's Wear, that venerable Lorain institution that every man visited at some time or another. It ran in the Lorain Journal back on March 3, 1954.

(I've featured Harry's on several occasions, including this 1950 Grand Opening ad, and this 1972 profile of the man.)

The theme of the ad is "Hi Style," which points out the similarities between the men's fashion of 1851 and that of 1954. That's freckle-faced Mr. Sharp on the right, who looks like he might be Archie Andrews' cousin.

As usual in these types of ads, it's fun to see what was in style back then. Suits were available in Gabardines, Rayon Flannels, Wool Serges, All-Wool Flannels, Sharkskins, and Rayon Acetate. (I had a lime green gabardine suit made for me at Ricci Taylors during my senior year of high school!)

I'd never heard of a "web jacket" before. It doesn't seem to be a phrase in common usage. The only reference I found in the Journal's 1954 archives was a reference to a 'web jacket' worn by someone in the Lorain Easter parade. Where did they get it? You guessed it – Harry's.

The part of the ad that did catch my eye was the Pork (suddenly I'm kinda hungry) Pie Hats for $2.98. I had always heard of a pork pie hat as being the type that Buster Keaton wore in his silent comedies. 

But this Wiki entry for Pork Pie Hat explains it all pretty well. In addition to Buster (the comic, not our resident blog contributor), architect Frank Lloyd Wright wore one as well. This article compares pork pie hats and fedoras.

Today, pork pie hats are favored by musicians and retro hipsters.