About Dorothy Gladys Smith (1896-1990)
Dorothy Smith was born Lancashire, England. She was born on May 3rd, 1896. Her father, the late Ernest Smith, died of lung cancer a year and a half later. Her mother, Ella Smith, returned to the family home in a suburb of Manchester with the child. This house contained Dodie's grandparents, 2 of her aunts, 3 of her uncles, 2 maids, not to mention Ella and Dodie. All of Dodie's aunts, uncles, and all of the inhabitants of the house adored her thouroughly and loved to entertain her. Dodie's uncle Harold was an amateur actor, and in 1904 he became the president of the Manchester Dramatic Club, AKA the 'Athenaeum'. Dodie first went to one of her uncle's plays when she was four years old, and she was on-stage, playing boy's parts, by the time she had turned 13.
In 1910, Dodie's mother got married again, and the three moved to London. In 1914, Dodie joined the Academy (later the Royal Academy) of Dramatic Art. That same year, her mother died of breast cancer. Dodie stayed in London and kept at her career in acting, while living in a club for female actors, dancers and musicians named the Three Arts Club. Dodie turned out as an unsuccessful actor. She made a movie script, 'Schoolgirl Rebels', under the pen name Charles Henry Percy, and also wrote a play she was not able to sell called 'Pirate Ships'. In 1923, she gave up on her acting career and took up a job in a furniture store called Heal's, where she managed a department & became a toy buyer. In 1929, she went to Germany for the Leipzig toy fair for business, and also spent some time with her friend Phyllis at an inn in a small village. Phyllis was an actor and a playwright, and when they returned to London, Dodie suggested a play set at the inn. She had already put together the plot and the characters in her head. Phyllis didn't quite think it was her thing, and some other friends encouraged Dodie to do the play on her own. The play (Autumn Crocus) was purchased for production and soon became a success, making newspaper headlines like "Shopgirl Writes Play". Jounalists who went to Heal's to take pictures of Dodie found that she didn't work at a counter, but actually at a desk as the head of the department. Even though she used the pen name C.L. Anthony for this play and the next 2, the journalists soon found her true identity and ignored the pen names. The 'girl playwright', as the papers called her, had 5 successful plays in a row, over a seven year period.
Dodie had several lovelifes, but the lasting one was with Alec Beesley, who had worked at Heal's at the same time as her. When she met Alec, Dodie was involved in a love affair with an already-married man (according to the biographer Valerie Grove, it was with the owner of Heal's, Ambrose Heal). Alec was devoted to her, and they became close friends. Some years later, Dodie finally decided that she loved Alec, and she broke the affair with Heal. Her and Alec lived in neighboring flats, and shared a country cottage with their Dalmations. They left London to go to America in 1938, seeing as a war was upcoming. As Alec was a pacifist, she decided they shouldn't stay in England, as it may be difficult on Alec, although she was rather interested to see the wartime. They also decided to get married, as Dodie had said "Married for seven years in every way but legally." They got married in Philidelphia on the 21st of February, 1939.
America ceased being a pacifist refuge in 1941. America was at war and, seeing as Alec was 39, he was elligable for draft. The situation for objectors seemed to be more complicated than in England. Without being a part of an established pacifist religion, like the Quakers, Alec was not accepted as a C.O. However, he found recourse by legally appealing the draft. Draft laws were so complicated that the draft board actually wasn't sure if Alec was right or not, and the appeals could take years. Eventually though, Alec recieved conscientious objector status, which means that if men his age were called up, he'd be drafted as an American forest-fighter. In the meantime he spent his time as a counseller for would-be objectors, as well as his normal job of managing his wife, Dodie's contracts. Dodie and him had also devoted an entire room of the house to the business making packages of various goods to send to family and friends in the now war-torn England. They also visited camps where Japanese-Americans were imprisoned during these years of war, and they brought supplies to the people there.
Sadly, the Beesleys' much loved dalmation, Pongo died in 1940. Knowing that only a new dog could really help them get over the loss of Pongo, they decided to get two more dalmations; Folly & Buzz. In 1943, Folly and Buzz became the parents of 15 dalmation puppies, one of which seemed to be dead at borth, but was quickly revived by Alec; a scene that Dodie put into 'The Hundred and One Dalmations'(1956). The war had ended, but the Beesleys stayed in America, because going back to England would mean having to quarantine the dogs in a kennel for half a year, as this is required by English law; the thought of putting their precious dogs through that experience wasn't tolerated with Dodie. Seeing how Dodie's career required her presence in England, to watch over the preparations for the production of one of her plays(Letter From Paris), she went back to England in 1951 while Alec stayed back in America with their dogs. This was the first time they had been apart for more than a few days in 13 years.
In 1953, Alec, Dodie and their dogs decided to go back to England for good. However, although Dodie was overjoyed with going back to England, she stopped to think back on what she had to thank America for, like "three great friendships with Christopher Isherwood, Charles Brackett, and John van Druten."
In 1941, screenwriter Charles Brackett was Dodie's colleague and friend when she started work at Paramount. Brackett had gotten many jobs for Dodie, sometimes even hiring her simply to get advice for a screenplay.
Playwright John van Druten was both a friend and a rival. He would go on to make plays like "I Remember Mama", and "Bell Book and Candle". He and Dodieread each other's work very often, and they kept a good correspondance throughout the years. And, one day in the early 1940's, he brought Christopher Isherwood in to meet Dodie and Alec.
In a try to start up a project that would get some money in for Isherwood, who was financially struggle, Alec got the idea that van Druten should create a play from "the Sally Bowles story" in Chris's 'Goodbye Berlin'. Dodie thought that the story couldn't be made into a good play, but she still encouraged Alec to make the suggestion. She added in that van Druten would it if she suggested it, but if Alec suggested it and Dodie said that it couldn't be done, that would perk van Druten's interest. That did the trick. Van druten wrote the play over the next 10 days, and entitled it "I Am A Camera". In 1952, as the first performances of the play were running in Philidelphia, Isherwood told Dodie that he didn't have high hopes for the royalty income for the play; he was wrong. The play was a major succes, and later became a movie.
In 1948, while she was living in Pensylvania, Dodie completed her first novel, "I Capture the Castle", a masterpiece that was inspired by her being homesick for England. The book was an incredible success, and reviewers very often quoted the opening line, "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." In 1956, Dodie had another achievement in this genre of novel, with "The Hundred and One Dalmations". She kept on writing books for both adults and children throughout the 1980's, not to mention her 4 autobiographies: "Look Back With Love", "Look Back With Mixed Feelings", "Look Back With Astonishment" and "Look Back With Gratitude" (she had also written a fifth volume, but it was never published...)
She died in November of 1990. She was ninety-four years old.
Note: All the information I got for this page, I got from this website. I would like to thank the creator of this website very much, because the information on their site helped me make mine!
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