Dolores Dorn

Some actresses have entered films via the stage while others walked the path of a successful modelling career. Dolores Dorn possessed the double-barreled endowment of being both a graduate of Chicago's Goodman Art Theatre as well as having been a place-getter (second and third, respectively, in 1950 and 1951) at the annual Miss Chicago contest. A blonde beauty with a sunny smile, she was also voted 'Miss Photoflash' of 1951 by the Chicago Press Photographers Association. Born Dolores Heft, she was the daughter of a well-to-do automobile dealer and first headlined before the footlights at the Chez Paris nightclub. In 1954, she joined the Schaffner Players repertory comedy troupe as 'lead ingénue' on tour through Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa. At some point she was spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout while sipping soda at a drug store. This led to her first (minor) film role in Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) as one of the beast's murder victims, to be followed by a second-billed