Did you knowDolores Goodman? You probably knew her by her stage name of "Dody" Goodman. Dody was Born October 28,1914. Dolores lived in Columbus, Ohio, Goodman was notoriously secretive about her age, successfully shaving off 15 years (giving a birthyear of 1929) for many years before the discrepancy was publicly debunked.
Dody Goodman first struck out in show business as a dancer, hoofing it through a series of 1940s Broadway musicals including Viva O'Brien, Something for the Boys, One Touch of Venus, Laffing Room Only and Miss Liberty (all as Dolores Goodman). The 1950s brought her Call Me Madam, Wonderful Town and My Darlin' Aida.. In 1955, she made a splash in Off Broadway's Shoestring Revue with the novelty song called "Someone's Been Sending Me Flowers" by Sheldon Harnick and David Baker.Her airhead persona, buttressed by curly hair, wide childlike blue eyes and a long, loopy grin, attracted the attention of Jack Paar, then the host of "The Tonight Show." Beginning in 1957, he had Ms. Goodman on the show as a regular several times, in with she essentially played herself. She parlayed a distracted air, and a hesitant, befuddled delivery into laughter and soon became very popular with audiences. Ms. Goodman was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1957 as Best Continued Performance in a Series by a Comedienne. According to accounts, however, her willingness to upstage Paar and ad-lib too freely got her banished from the show soon after.Ms. Goodman kept up her visibility with appearances on "Toast of the Town," "The Phil Silvers Show" and "The Merv Griffin Show." She headlined the 1960 Off-Broadway revue Parade, which first brought the songs of Jerry Herman to the public's attention. In 1970, she returned to "The Tonight Show," then under the control of Johnny Carson. She infrequently returned to Broadway, appearing in such flops as A Rainy Day in Newark, My Daughter, Your Son and a 1969 revival of The Front Page. She provided support as Mrs. Ella Spofford to Carol Channing's Lorelei Lee in the 1974 musical Lorelei. Fame and good fortune returned in the late '70s when she took on the role of Martha Shumway in the widely praised, if short-lived,
mock soap opera "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," and made a much-commented-upon supporting turn in the film of "Grease."
A semi-regular role on "Diff'rent Strokes" followed. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her performance in an 1984 revival of Ah, Wilderness!. She also spent a great deal of time in productions of Nunsense and its sequels. Nunsense creator Danny Goggin called Ms. Goodman "totally irreplaceable." He told Playbill.com on June 23, "I first met Dody when she starred in the national tour of Nunsense in 1989. She played Sister Amnesia and toured for two years. Dody and I became fast friends and when she said she'd like to play Mother Superior, we put her in the New York company Off-Broadway. She went on to play Mother Superior in companies all over the country and toured in Nuncrackers, our Christmas musical, at age 85.
In a comic scene portraying the Sugar Plum Fairy she was still able to get her leg up over her head! We gave her her own nun's habit, shoes and rosary and was always ready to perform at a moment's notice. Her comedy was unique and her timing was impeccable. And she was the ultimate professional. As I told a friend, she was the only performer I knew who could walk on stage as Mother Superior and say, 'Are you ready to start?,' and have the audience in stitches. She didn't even need a funny line. She was the embodiment of comedy."
Adopting the guise of a fey airhead, Goodman was good for a few off-the-wall quotes whenever she submitted to an interview. She came to the attention of nighttime talkshow host Jack Paar who, after becoming enchanted with her ditzy persona and seemingly spontaneous malaprops, invited the lady to become a semi-regular on The Tonight Show.
As Goodman's fame grew, she became difficult to handle on the show, and Paar was not happy with her upstaging habits. Commenting on another guest one evening, Paar quipped "Give them enough rope." "And they'll skip!" ad-libbed Goodman brightly. Dropped summarily by Paar in 1958, Goodman spent the next decade showing up on other talk programs, game shows and summer stock as a "professional celebrity."
Following Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Goodman's career gained momentum with regular appearances on TV's Diff'rent Strokes and Texas, movie roles Grease and cartoon voiceover work on Alvin and the Chipmunks and it's movie The Chipmunk Adventure.
Goodman posed for photographs by Cris Alexander in the Patrick Dennis mock-biography First Lady, as Martha Dinwiddie's sister Clytie, who in the story married a European Count Przyzplätcki (pron. "splatsky") and perished on the RMS Titanic. She also helped produce another book with Alexander's photography entitled Women, Women, Women!
Dody Goodman died on June 22, 2008 she was 93, at the Englewood, New Jersey Hospital and Medical Center, after having lived at Englewood's famed Lillian Booth Actors' Home, since October 2007.
mock soap opera "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," and made a much-commented-upon supporting turn in the film of "Grease."
A semi-regular role on "Diff'rent Strokes" followed. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her performance in an 1984 revival of Ah, Wilderness!. She also spent a great deal of time in productions of Nunsense and its sequels. Nunsense creator Danny Goggin called Ms. Goodman "totally irreplaceable." He told Playbill.com on June 23, "I first met Dody when she starred in the national tour of Nunsense in 1989. She played Sister Amnesia and toured for two years. Dody and I became fast friends and when she said she'd like to play Mother Superior, we put her in the New York company Off-Broadway. She went on to play Mother Superior in companies all over the country and toured in Nuncrackers, our Christmas musical, at age 85.
In a comic scene portraying the Sugar Plum Fairy she was still able to get her leg up over her head! We gave her her own nun's habit, shoes and rosary and was always ready to perform at a moment's notice. Her comedy was unique and her timing was impeccable. And she was the ultimate professional. As I told a friend, she was the only performer I knew who could walk on stage as Mother Superior and say, 'Are you ready to start?,' and have the audience in stitches. She didn't even need a funny line. She was the embodiment of comedy."
Adopting the guise of a fey airhead, Goodman was good for a few off-the-wall quotes whenever she submitted to an interview. She came to the attention of nighttime talkshow host Jack Paar who, after becoming enchanted with her ditzy persona and seemingly spontaneous malaprops, invited the lady to become a semi-regular on The Tonight Show.
As Goodman's fame grew, she became difficult to handle on the show, and Paar was not happy with her upstaging habits. Commenting on another guest one evening, Paar quipped "Give them enough rope." "And they'll skip!" ad-libbed Goodman brightly. Dropped summarily by Paar in 1958, Goodman spent the next decade showing up on other talk programs, game shows and summer stock as a "professional celebrity."
Following Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Goodman's career gained momentum with regular appearances on TV's Diff'rent Strokes and Texas, movie roles Grease and cartoon voiceover work on Alvin and the Chipmunks and it's movie The Chipmunk Adventure.
Goodman posed for photographs by Cris Alexander in the Patrick Dennis mock-biography First Lady, as Martha Dinwiddie's sister Clytie, who in the story married a European Count Przyzplätcki (pron. "splatsky") and perished on the RMS Titanic. She also helped produce another book with Alexander's photography entitled Women, Women, Women!
Dody Goodman died on June 22, 2008 she was 93, at the Englewood, New Jersey Hospital and Medical Center, after having lived at Englewood's famed Lillian Booth Actors' Home, since October 2007.
Dolores "Dody" Goodman October 28,1914-June 22, 2008. Thanks Dody we will miss you.
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