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Showing posts with label Provine (Dorothy). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Provine (Dorothy). Show all posts

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Provine returned to the "wild west"

This really isn’t so much South Dakota history as it is South Dakota trivia.

While doing a bit of research on the now-defunct print version of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, I happened across an old photo of a damsel cheering for the University of Washington in a 1954 football game against the Oregon State “Ducks.” She was identified only as “Dotty” Provine.

Provine is not your everyday surname in Seattle – or in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where one-time actress “Dorothy” Provine was born. After checking further, I became convinced that the cheering Miss Provine at UW was the same attractive blonde as the gal from Deadwood who went on to have a fairly successful career in motion pictures and television. Her TV credits included a lead in the 1960 series “The Roaring ‘20s.”

For me, her most memorable performance was in the Blake Edwards film “The Great Race,” a segment of which is offered below. It not only refreshed my memory about Dorothy Provine, it was a reminder of what a fun movie this was. The 1965 musical (Henry Mancini) comedy starred – among others – Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Keenan Wynn, Denver Pyle, Peter Falk, Larry Storch, and – my favorite – Jack Lemmon as the irrepressible Dr. Fate. Dorothy Provine is featured here as Lily Olay.

Somehow, I can imagine Dorothy Provine singing in a Deadwood dance hall similar to what's seen here (without the smoking, of course!)