Dorothy Lamour

 "I made 60 motion pictures and only wore the sarong in about six pictures, but it did become a kind of trademark. And it did hinder me. They expect you to always be the young girl leaning against the palm tree. Why should you want to act?"

Dorothy Lamour got the part of Ulah in "The Jungle Princess" (1936) produced by E. Lloyd Sheldon and filmed at Paramount. This film was a tremendous moneymaker as Dorothy stole the show in her wrap-around sarong. Dorothy became an instant star as the child of nature/female Tarzan, raised with a pet tiger among the tropical natives. Ray Milland starred opposite her as the man from civilization who woos and wins her. The scene where Milland is trying to teach her the word kiss is touching yet humorous. When he kisses her and tells her that is a kiss, she runs away.

She went on to play similar parts in the sarong in productions including "The Hurricane" (1937), "Typhoon" (1940), "Beyond the Blue Horizon" (1942) and her final big-screen sarong feature, "Donovan's Reef" (1963).

"After the first 'Road' film, I never studied dialogue. Never. I'd wait to get on the set to see what they (Bob Hope and Bing Crosby) were planning. I was the happiest and highest paid straight woman in the business."

The sarong stayed with her in the Hope/ Crosby "Road" pictures for Paramount. The trio starred in "Road to Singapore" (1940), "Road to Zanzibar" (1941), "Road to Morocco" (1942), "Road to Utopia" (1945) and "Road to Bali" (1952, below). The final completed "Road" picture, "The Road to Hong Kong" (1962), had Hope and Crosby in their usual roles, but no Dorothy this time; Joan Collins had the female lead in it. A final "Road" picture, "Road to the Fountain of Youth" was in the works in 1977, until Bing Crosby's sudden death.

Said Hope, "Dottie is one of the bravest gals in pictures. She stands there before the camera and ad-libs with Crosby and me knowing that the way the script is written she'll come second or third best, but she fears nothing."