Dorothy Smoller

About Dorothy Smoller

Born Dorothy Schmoeller on October 3, 1898, in Memphis, Tennessee, Dorothy Smoller was the youngest of four girls. Following her father's institutionalization due to mental illness, her mother relocated the family, first to St. Louis, Missouri, and then to Long Beach, California. In her teenage years, Dorothy embarked on a professional dancing career in San Francisco. Her performance of the Bacchanale at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition garnered significant attention. Subsequently, she toured South America for two years alongside Anna Pavlova. Her Broadway debut occurred in the 1918 musical Head Over Heels. The year 1919 saw her appear in the film Out Of The Fog and grace the cover of Vogue magazine for its December issue. Dorothy continued to perform on Broadway in productions such as The Checkerboard, What's In A Name, and Up In The Clouds. A devastating diagnosis of severe pulmonary Tuberculosis in 1923 necessitated a two-year hiatus from her career, during which she recuperated at Cragmoor Sanitarium in Colorado Springs. While there, she formed a close bond with financier Benjamin Strong. Returning to New York City in 1926, Smoller underwent a screen test for Famous Players, but no contract materialized. Shortly thereafter, she secured a minor role in the Broadway musical Howdy King. However, during rehearsals, a hemorrhage forced her withdrawal from the production. This setback plunged her into a profound depression. Tragically, on December 9, 1926, at the age of twenty-eight, she died by suicide, having ingested three ounces of shoe polish. In her hotel room, she left farewell notes for her mother and for her close friend Benjamin Strong. She described her illness as "a chain of torture that pains all the time." Dorothy was cremated, and her ashes were entrusted to her mother, eventually being interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.