New York Times, January 30, 1984View transcription
Ray Dooley, Vaudeville Star And Comedienne, Dies at 93
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Ray Dooley, a star of vaudeville and a successful comedienne until she retired to family life in the mid-1930's, died early Saturday at home in East Hampton, L.I. She was 93 years old.
Miss Dooley, born Rachel Rice Dooley in Glasgow, took to the stage as a little dancing girl in a family act presented by her father, Robert Rogers Dooley, a well-known Irish-born circus clown. Her debut was made in a minstrel show in Philadelphia.
She went on to play babies and brats in the "Ziegfeld Follies" after World War I to such stage "parents" as W. C. Fields, Will Rogers, Leon Carroll and Fannie Brice. She tired of the act and its tantrums early on, but Florenz Ziegfeld kept her at it until she managed to escape the two-a-day world of vaudeville for the musical stage.
She was the widow of Eddie Dowling, himself an entertainer, director and award-winning producer who died in 1976. Miss Dooley had eloped to marry him at age 15 and from 1919 to 1934 often teamed up with him, from the Follies to Mr. Dowling's revue "Thumbs Up" in 1934, after which she devoted herself to her family.
Miss Dooley returned briefly to the stage in 1948 to tackle a straight dramatic role in one of three one-acters presented by Mr. Dowling under the title "Hope's the Thing." Appearing in "Home Life of a Buffalo," she played opposite Mr. Dowling, who portrayed a vaudeville ham unable to admit to himself or his wife that vaudeville was through.
Her baby impersonations began quite by chance in 1918 when Raymond Hitchcock, the actor-producer, put on "Kitchy Koo" and a baby buggy used for an incidental gag in a drugstore scene turned out to be too small for another performer. The elfin-faced Miss Dooley, 100 pounds and 5 feet tall, substituted and launched her comedic career.
She soon wanted out of the act, but—the story goes—Mr. Ziegfeld talked her into signing contracts with promises that she would be given another part. Once the show came together, he then devised some "emergency" and asked her to "help out" with yet another baby act.
Once free of vaudeville, Miss Dooley starred in Mr. Dowling's production of "Sidewalks of New York" in 1927. The following year, she appeared with W. C. Fields in the seventh edition of "Earl Carroll's Vanities."
Miss Dooley is survived by a daughter, Mary Maxine Dowling Clark of East Hampton, and three grandchildren.
The funeral will be private.
Edward Thayer Monroe
Ray Dooley as she appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies.
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Ray Dooley, a star of vaudeville and a successful comedienne until she retired to family life in the mid-1930's, died early Saturday at home in East Hampton, L.I. She was 93 years old.
Miss Dooley, born Rachel Rice Dooley in Glasgow, took to the stage as a little dancing girl in a family act presented by her father, Robert Rogers Dooley, a well-known Irish-born circus clown. Her debut was made in a minstrel show in Philadelphia.
She went on to play babies and brats in the "Ziegfeld Follies" after World War I to such stage "parents" as W. C. Fields, Will Rogers, Leon Carroll and Fannie Brice. She tired of the act and its tantrums early on, but Florenz Ziegfeld kept her at it until she managed to escape the two-a-day world of vaudeville for the musical stage.
She was the widow of Eddie Dowling, himself an entertainer, director and award-winning producer who died in 1976. Miss Dooley had eloped to marry him at age 15 and from 1919 to 1934 often teamed up with him, from the Follies to Mr. Dowling's revue "Thumbs Up" in 1934, after which she devoted herself to her family.
Miss Dooley returned briefly to the stage in 1948 to tackle a straight dramatic role in one of three one-acters presented by Mr. Dowling under the title "Hope's the Thing." Appearing in "Home Life of a Buffalo," she played opposite Mr. Dowling, who portrayed a vaudeville ham unable to admit to himself or his wife that vaudeville was through.
Her baby impersonations began quite by chance in 1918 when Raymond Hitchcock, the actor-producer, put on "Kitchy Koo" and a baby buggy used for an incidental gag in a drugstore scene turned out to be too small for another performer. The elfin-faced Miss Dooley, 100 pounds and 5 feet tall, substituted and launched her comedic career.
She soon wanted out of the act, but—the story goes—Mr. Ziegfeld talked her into signing contracts with promises that she would be given another part. Once the show came together, he then devised some "emergency" and asked her to "help out" with yet another baby act.
Once free of vaudeville, Miss Dooley starred in Mr. Dowling's production of "Sidewalks of New York" in 1927. The following year, she appeared with W. C. Fields in the seventh edition of "Earl Carroll's Vanities."
Miss Dooley is survived by a daughter, Mary Maxine Dowling Clark of East Hampton, and three grandchildren.
