Dixie Dunbar

Biography

She was a vivacious, kewpie doll-like dancer/entertainer of 1930s Broadway and Hollywood musicals. Dixie Dunbar was born Christine Elizabeth Dunbar in Montgomery, Alabama on January 18, 1918, and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Nicknamed "Tootsie" by her mother, she took dancing lessons at an early age and it was quickly learned that Dixie had a natural talent. Her mom took her to New York where her heavy Southern drawl had her quickly renamed "Dixie." After dancing in big band orchestras, nightclubs and classy restaurants for a spell, the 16-year-old was signed for a featured role in the Fox film George White's Scandals (1934) and was coached by legendary musical master himself. She performed in two songs -- "So Nice" with Cliff Edwards (aka "Ukulele Ike") and "My Dog Loves Your Dog" with Alice Faye, Rudy Vallee and Jimmy Durante. In the same year Dixie shouldered up to "Wizard of Oz" legends Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr on Broadway in "Life Begins at 8:40." Twentieth Century-Fox was taken by the teenager's spunky demeanor and signed her up where she appeared in both dancing and non-dancing roles including Professional Soldier (1935), King of Burlesque (1936), The First Baby (1936), Pigskin Parade (1936), Girls' Dormitory (1936), One in a Million (1936), Sing, Baby, Sing (1936), Life Begins in College (1937), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Walking Down Broadway (1938). She also had different roles in two of the "Jones Family" film series -- Educating Father (1936) and Back to Nature (1936). Unable to rise above the "B" material into leading lady status, Dixie, unhappy with filmmaking and disappointed at the lack of success she had, abandoned movie-making altogether in 1939 and returned to the 'Great White Way' to appear in "Yokel Boy" with Buddy Ebsen, Phil Silvers and Judy Canova. In 1940, she met and married Gene Snyder, the co-director of the Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall. Dixie later toured in a nightclub act but things died down pretty quickly. One vision of Dixie, ironically, was of only her legs! From 1949 to 1951, she was "seen" dancing in the now-famous television commercials ads that featured her totally covered head to hips by a giant Old Gold cigarette box! Divorced from Snyder in 1953, she married twice more (Robert M. Herndon, an executive of Cinerama Corp., Jack L. King, who predeceased her), and had no children from any of her marriages. Once operating a restaurant in Florida, she began losing her eyesight to glaucoma in the late 1970's. Dixie died on August 29, 1991, age 72, following multiple heart attacks.