DODY GOODMAN - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 315410

DODY GOODMAN
Vintage candid 3½x5½ photo from the collection of Francis and Violet Zane. Goodman is posed on a sidewalk in front of an ad for Once Upon a Mattress, in which she co-starred with Buster Keaton on the first road tour.
Photograph signed: "Dody Goodman". B/w, 3½x5½. Candid photo. Dody Goodman (1915-2008, born Dolores Goodman in Columbus, Ohio) was an American actress of the stage, TV and silver screen known for her persona as a ditzy, malapropism-dropping redhead. Goodman got her start in theatre. She made her Broadway debut in Viva O'Brien (1941) and went on to good reviews in Wonderful Town (1953-1954, 559 performances). She played Princess Winifred in the first road production of Once Upon a Mattress (1960), with Buster Keaton in the role of the King. Talk show host Jack Paar took a shine to her and, in 1957, made her a semi-regular on The Tonight Show. Paar dropped her by 1961, reportedly because she kept upstaging him, but she managed to keep her career going on Broadway, where she had a total of 13 performances, and on talk and game shows. Goodman's career enjoyed a renaissance in the 1970s with roles as Martha Shumway on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) and as Blanche in the film adaptation of Grease (1978). She was a frequent guest star on TV after that, with recurring roles on Diff'rent Strokes (1981-1984) and voice work on the TV cartoon Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983-1988). This photograph is from the collection of Francis and Violet Zane, Hawaii natives who moved to California in the 1920's. Francis Zane had a job at the historic Curran Theater and the San Francisco Opera House, which is where he began his massive collection, with photographs and materials ranging from the 1920's to 1960's. The location and luck of his occupation would land him smack dab in the middle of the celebrity world, allowing him to capture some of the most unique and interesting pieces of Hollywood history. Lightly bowed. Otherwise, fine condition.