Dorothy Dare - An Intriguing Tale

Dorothy Dare was an actress who appeared in several features of the 1930s. She was a singer in some of the movies, and while not a star, she played memorable supporting roles. Perhaps her most notable appearance was in "Gold Diggers of 1935", which starred Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart, Adolphe Menjou, and many others.

Here are a few vintage photos of Ms. Dare, provided by a friend who received them in email from a person who claimed he recently was Dare's "secretary" (he's signed off on some of the emails I've copied and pasted further on into this writing):




Ms. Dare's movie career was over by the early 1940s, and she faded into obscurity, as so many movie people of years ago have done.

In the past year or so, a person identifying herself as Dorothy Dare, the 1930s actress, popped up on the internet, registering in forums and message boards. She offered stories and anecdotes of many of the people she worked with. She freely gave her email address, and invited, indeed encouraged, movie fans to write to her. I know several people who did so, asking questions about her contemporaries such as whatever happened to them, what was it like to work with them, etc.

I wrote to her twice myself, the first time asking about an obscure actress named Frances McCoy. Ms. Dare's reply was that she didn't know Frances McCoy, but she did know the western actor Col. Tim McCoy. Apparently Frances McCoy was too obscure to admit knowing.

The second time, I sent her this email:

"Hello Dorothy,
I hope this finds you in good health and enjoying receiving emails from movie fans. I'm attaching to this email, a scan of the page from the pamphlet 'Foods and Fashions of 1936', which I've had in my collection for some time, and just found it again while looking for some other items. You probably already have this, but if you don't, well here it is. Let me know if it is large enough for you to read. Now maybe you can tell me if the recipe was really one of yours, or did a publicity agent just match up his own choice of recipes with Hollywood stars? Thank you very much for your attention and previous replies to my 'whatever happened to...?' emails.
Sincerely,Bill Cappello"

Below is the scan I included with the above email:


Here is her reply - I've copied and pasted it, to show how she always "wrote" her emails:

"Dearest Bill:

Thank you my dear for sending the recipe and article. Yes, this is my recipe from my earlier days in Hollywood, I still prepare this recipe during the holiday season.

I love to cook and this is one of the easier recipes to prepare. You should make it for yourself and see whether you like it??

Much Happiness,

Dorothy"

Ms. Dare continued her emails to others, and she also would tell people she was in contact by email and text messaging with many other old-timers. This was astonishing, considering that Ms. Dare was in her 90s, as would be any of her living contemporaries.

Some people were beginning to suspect that Dorothy Dare was not really the actress, but rather an impostor, most likely a much younger person, pretending to be her. Suspicions continued to grow when Ms. Dare would report the "recent deaths" of movie people who were known to have died some years ago, and then explain that her memory wasn't too good, and that's why she gave wrong information. For some of the movie people with whom she claimed to be in recent contact, when asked for mailing addresses, she'd reply that the person had just died.

Some people I know, sent some photos to an address provided by Ms. Dare's "secretary", who offered to have her autograph them. However, none of the photos was ever returned, signed or not.

Here is a supposedly recent photo of Dorothy Dare, posted on a YouTube video picturing Hollywood stars then-and-now (the video has since been removed by the person - Dare's "secretary" - who created it):
Word was spreading that Ms. Dare was not authentic, and the person/persons perpetrating this fraud began to get nervous. The first red flag was a change of email address. I received this email on April 15:

"Dear Mr. Cappello:
Dorothy has requested I send you her new email address, dorothyhdare@aol.com, please make a note.
Sincerely,
B. Sonvervjelde
Secretary to Dorothy Dare"

The change of email was supposedly because Dorothy was upset that people thought she was an impostor, and was receiving harassing emails from some of those people.

A few days later, on April 22, I, along with others in Dorothy's address book, received this email, each with a personalized greeting:

"Dear Bill:

It is with deep sorrow that I must inform you of Ms. Dare's passing. I received a call early this morning from Dorothy's daughter, stating Ms. Dare died in her sleep. I am devastated and shocked as is everyone! I loved Dottie and she is irreplaceable! I am very sorry to have to inform you.

I will be in Laguna Beach today with Ms. Dare's family and I will inform you of the funeral plans soon as I find out.

Most Sincerely,
Bron Sonvervjelde
Sherman Oaks, CA"

So now Dorothy Dare was dead. Or was she? Or had she already been dead for many years?

Yet another email was sent by this "Bron" person, to a friend whom he asked to write an obituary for Dorothy. This only added to the confusion:

"Ms. Dare married musician and later Business Executive, John L. Van Dam, May 22, 1942 and he passed away in 1995. Survivors are 4 children, 3 sons and one daughter. 14 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.

I never knew Dorothy was married for so many years! She was very private and she never divulged any information regarding her family life. Dottie believed family was seperate from her public life and often would say, "Children need to be shielded from the harsh realities of public life and this includes the Hollywood spotlight!" I guess this is why she left Hollywood so soon??

Dorothy's grandson Laird says, "My Grandmother referred to my Grandfather as the greatest love in her life." She would often say, "I never would have believed I would be so lucky in life. I married a beautiful man, I was blessed with delightful children and I have the most wonderful grandchildren!" "What more can a Dutch girl ask for?"

This makes me so happy reading this statement from Laird and I must admit, it does make me both smile and cry at the same time. Laird says, Dottie married in Chicago. Sari states, "My Mother remained friends with many from her Hollywood days and shared many friendships with her fans." "She shared many interests in her life and especially enjoyed the "wonders" of the Internet and she loved her i-phone!" "Texting and e-mailing were her favorite things to do", states her friend former actress/dancer Cyd Charisse.

Sincerely, Bron
P.S.
I hope this helps you some, I must admit, these are very trying times right now.
Dottie's daughter is very distraught right now and I will be with her for the next few days."

Nothing could be found on a John Van Dam dying in 1995. The person who received the above email did a brief search on the internet and found a link in a December 2007 newsletter of the Larchmont (NY) Historical Society, which has a reprint of a newspaper article from 1949, in which the author writes of his childhood in Larchmont in 1899. Two of his friends are Colby and Loring Van Dam, sons of the "well-known actress Dorothy Dare". I contacted the archivist of the LHS and inquired if they had anything on Dorothy Dare, or the Van Dam family, but nothing was found in any of their sources. Apparently there was an earlier 'Dorothy Dare, actress' who married a 'Van Dam' - how coincidental could it be that the 1930s 'Dorothy Dare' also married a 'Van Dam'? This puzzle was becoming more intriguing with every bit of information that was found. My friend did not write an obituary for the "recently deceased Dorothy Dare", as he, too, was suspicious.

I began to search for more information on Dorothy Dare. None of my fellow researchers had anything substantial to go on - no vital information was available in any of the old Motion Picture Almanac directories, or similar sources. However, in thoroughly searching on the internet, all pages that were brought up containing the name "Dorothy Dare", I did find this entry:

Whomever provided this information, gave Dorothy's birth name as "Herskind", born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I then used the powerful search engine of Ancestry.com, and the one hit that came up, was an entry in the California Death Index, for a "Dorothy Dare - birth surname Herskind, born in Pennsylvania, died in 1981 in Orange County", as seen in this screenshot:
I asked a genealogist friend in Los Angeles to obtain a copy of the death certificate. The document provided primary confirmation that this was the real Dorothy Dare:
PRIMARY OCCUPATION: actress
EMPLOYER: Warner Brothers Studios
KIND OF INDUSTRY OR BUSINESS: motion pictures

My next step was to contact the informant who was listed on the certificate, shown as a "friend" of the deceased. I was hoping she was still living, and sure enough, she was. She verified for me that the Dorothy Dare she knew, was indeed the movie actress, as she (Dorothy) had several photos from her career and would sometimes talk about her days in movies.

The final verification was from the Warner Brothers Archives at University of Southern California. Another friend who had also been in email contact with "Dorothy Dare", called the curator, who located several contracts from the 1930s, showing Dorothy's name as "Dorothy Dare A/K/A Herskind".

So now it's official: the "real" Dorothy Dare died in 1981, and the "internet" Dorothy Dare was definitely an impostor.

The internet is certainly filled with strange characters, but why a young man or woman, or group of persons, would pose as a 92-year-old retired movie actress - well, I'll leave that to others to ponder.

(I wonder who really is the old gal in the 'recent' photo shown above?)

***I apologize for the rather sloppy appearance of the above posting, but I thought it best to copy and paste certain items rather than just re-type them.