Dumb Dora
{{Short description|American comic strip}}
{{infobox comic strip
| title = Dumb Dora
| image = Dumb Dora 1925.png
| caption = 1925 sample of the comic strip
| author = Chic Young (1924–1930)
Paul Fung (1930–1932)
Bil Dwyer (1932–1936)
| illustrator =
| status = Concluded daily strip
| syndicate = Newspaper Feature Service (King Features Syndicate)
| publisher =
| first = June 25, 1924
| last = January 1936
| genre = Humor
}}
Dumb Dora is a comic strip published from 1924 to 1936 distributed by King Features Syndicate.{{cite book |last1=Holtz |first1=Allan |title=American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472117567 |page=137}} The term "dumb Dora" was a 1920sThe Washington Herald (January 30, 1922), p. 6. American slang term for a foolish woman;{{cite web|url=http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm|title=Slang of the 1920|website=local.aaca.org|access-date=23 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618074534/http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm|archive-date=18 June 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/D.html|title=A Historical Dictionary of American Slang - alphaDictionary.com|first=Robert|last=Beard|website=www.alphadictionary.com|access-date=23 June 2017}} the strip helped popularize the term.
Publication history
Dumb Dora was initially drawn by Chic Young (of later Blondie fame).[http://www.toonopedia.com/dumbdora.htm Dumb Dora] at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. [https://archive.today/20240527060444/https://www.webcitation.org/6WpwWRIXf?url=http://www.toonopedia.com/dumbdora.htm Archived] from the original on March 6, 2015. After Young left the strip to create Blondie, Paul Fung took over Dumb Dora. Fung also added a topper strip to Dumb Dora, When Mother was a Girl. Bil Dwyer took over the strip in 1932, until Dumb Dora was discontinued in January 1936.
Story and characters
Although Young's Dora was uneducated, she was also capable of persuading people around her to let her get her own way. This frequently resulted in the strip ending with a character saying of Dora "She ain't so dumb!" Stephen D. Becker, Comic Art In America. New York : Simon and Schuster, 1959, (p.182).Maurice Horn, Women in the Comics. New York :Chelsea House Publishers, 1977. {{ISBN|087754056X}} (pp. 46, 56, 125)
In popular culture
According to slang glossaries of the early 1920s, the term "dumb Dora" referred to any young woman who was scatter-brained or stupid."Flappers Make Bums Blush With Latest English." Washington (DC) Herald, March 13, 1922, pp. 1, 3. Flappers of the 1920s were also sometimes likened to dumb Doras.{{cite web|url=http://www.csd509j.net/staff/SherwiM/AP%20US%20Page%20Docs/1920s_Slang.htm|title=1920s Slang|access-date=23 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011113427/http://www.csd509j.net/staff/SherwiM/AP%20US%20Page%20Docs/1920s_Slang.htm|archive-date=11 October 2011|url-status=dead}}"Flapper Blazing New Trail of Freedom", The Washington Times, April 16, 1922, p. 4E
The epithet "Dumb Dora" became identified with the vaudeville act of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, as did a similar slang expression for a female who was not very bright, but in a charming way: "dizzy dame.""Grace Allen 'Dizzy Dame'--Even George Burns Says So." Seattle Daily Times, July 15, 1931, p. 15. In the vaudeville era, as well as during the period from the Golden Age of Radio through the first several decades of television, female comedians were often expected to play a "Dumb Dora" or "Dizzy Dame" role,"Humor: Case Study--Comedy, United States." Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women. Routledge, 2004, p. 1086. even if in real life, they were very intelligent. A good example of this dichotomy was Lucille Ball.Horowitz, Susan. Queens of Comedy: Lucille Ball, Phyllis Diller, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, and the New Generation of Funny Women. Gordon and Breach, 2012, pp. 111-112.
Although Dumb Dora comic strip was discontinued in 1935, the TV game show Match Game occasionally alludes to the strip, asking those watching in the studio to shout in unison, "How dumb is she?" (borrowing from a routine from The Tonight Show).
References
{{reflist}}
{{King Features Syndicate Comics}}
Category:American comics characters
Category:American comic strips
Category:Comics characters introduced in 1924
Category:Female characters in comics