Christina Elizabeth "Dixie" Dunbar (January 19, 1919 – August 29, 1991) was an American singer, film actress, and dancer.

Early life and career

Born in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...

, Dunbar grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She began studying dancing as a child and went on to sing and dance in nightclubs. In 1934, she was

Ray Bolger Raymond Wallace Bolger (; January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and stage performer (particularly musical theater) who started his movie career in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major B ...

's dancing partner in the revue ''Life Begins at 8:40'', which was staged in Boston. She also performed in that show on Broadway in 1934-35 and the Broadway productions of ''Yokel Boy'' (1939–40) and ''George White's Scandals'' (1934). Dunbar's film debut also came in ''George White's Scandals'' (1934). During the 1930s she appeared in a number of

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

films, including two

Jones Family The Jones Family film series is seventeen 20th Century Fox second feature family comedies produced between 1936 and 1940. Somewhat similar to the mildly comic tone of MGM's ''Andy Hardy'' and Columbia Pictures '' Blondie'' films, the Joneses sta ...

films. After she left Broadway and films, she returned to nightclubs, performing for a while before she retired. In the early 1950s, she performed in television commercials for Old Gold cigarettes, dancing enclosed in a representation of a cigarette pack with only her legs visible.

Personal life and death

Dunbar married three times: to choreographer Gene Snyder from 1941 to 1952, to Robert M. Herndon from 1954 to 1957, and to Jack L. King from October 1958 until his death."Florida Marriage Index, 1822–1875 and 1927–2001," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VJKS-3BM : 28 November 2014), Jack L King, Oct 1958; from "Florida, Marriage Collection, 1822–1875 and 1927–2001," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2006); citing Florida Department of Health, Jacksonville, Florida; and Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research. She died on August 29, 1991, in Miami Beach, Florida, aged 72. She had had a series of heart attacks.

Selected filmography

* ''

George White's Scandals ''George White's Scandals'' were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modeled after the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W. C. ...

'' (1934) * ''

Educating Father ''Educating Father'' is a 1936 American comedy film directed by James Tinling and starring Jed Prouty, Shirley Deane, and Dixie Dunbar. It was part of the Jones Family series of films.Drew p.180 Plot Cast * Jed Prouty as John Jones * Shirle ...

'' (1936) * '' Sing, Baby, Sing'' (1936) * '' One in a Million'' (1936) * ''

King of Burlesque ''King of Burlesque'' is a 1936 American musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Warner Baxter, Alice Faye and Jack Oakie. It is about a former burlesque producer played by Baxter who moves into a legitimate theatre and does very wel ...

'' (1936) * ''

Girls' Dormitory ''Girls' Dormitory'' is a 1936 American romance film directed by Irving Cummings based upon the 1934 play ''Mature'' by Ladislas Fodor, and adapted for the screen by Gene Markey. Plot Set in the fictional Montreaux School for Girls in Switzer ...

'' (1936) * ''

Pigskin Parade ''Pigskin Parade'' is a 1936 American musical comedy film which tells the story of husband-and-wife college football coaches who convince a backwoods player to play for their team so they can go to the big game. It was written by William M. Co ...

'' (1936) * '' Sing and Be Happy'' (1937) * ''

Walking Down Broadway Walking Down Broadway is a 1938 American film drama made by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation and directed by Norman Foster. Plot A quintet of New York City chorus girls plan a reunion for the one-year anniversary of their show's closin ...

'' (1938) * ''

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her aunts, one stern and one kind, in the fictional village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's j ...

'' (1938) * ''

Alexander's Ragtime Band "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a Tin Pan Alley song by American composer Irving Berlin released in 1911; it is often inaccurately cited as his first global hit. Despite its title, the song is a march as opposed to a rag and contains little sync ...

'' (1938)

References

External links

* * * 1919 births 1991 deaths American film actresses 20th-century American singers Actresses from Montgomery, Alabama Musicians from Montgomery, Alabama 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American actresses {{US-film-actor-1910s-stub