Dorothy Knapp

Dorothy Knapp was an American dancer, actress, and model who performed on Broadway between 1923 and 1934. Born around 1900 to 1904, she is variously reported to have been born in Chicago or Dallas, Texas, though she settled in New York City after 1915 and was dancing professionally by 1916, working in the company of Norma Gould.

As a teenager, Knapp began entering beauty contests and pursuing modeling work. In 1922 she won a precursor contest to what would become the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, and that same year a newsreel described her as "the perfect woman." She was widely publicized under the title "American Venus," and her measurements were printed in detail in the press. Photographs of Knapp exercising in a swimsuit circulated broadly, with captions such as "Keeping fit is a pleasure by radio."

Her visibility through beauty pageants and glamorous photography led to engagements in variety productions. She appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities in 1923, 1926, and 1928, and performed in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1924 and 1925. Louise Brooks, who shared a dressing room with Knapp during their time with Ziegfeld and recalled her as one of his prize beauties, noted that prominent figures including Walter Wanger and Gilbert Miller would visit the dressing room, ostensibly for other purposes, but in practice to watch Knapp perform an impromptu striptease in front of a full-length mirror.

Knapp's Broadway career encompassed four productions. She appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities in 1925, starred in the musical Fioretta in 1929, and subsequently appeared in the musical Free For All in 1931 and the play Broadway Interlude in 1934. The run of Fioretta ended badly for Knapp: the show's failure was attributed in part to her limited musical abilities, and after she was dismissed from the production she was hospitalized, with legal disputes following. Both Free For All and Broadway Interlude closed quickly.

Her work extended to film and broadcasting. On screen she appeared in None But the Brave in 1928, followed by The Border Patrol, Whoopee!, and Under the Cock-Eyed Moon, all in 1930. In the spring of 1931 she hosted and performed in radio dramas on NBC, including a program called Backstage with Dorothy Knapp, which drew on her experiences in show business. Concurrently, NBC was preparing her for a role in its emerging television broadcasts, and the press frequently referred to her as NBC's Television Girl. She made her first appearance in experimental television transmissions in June 1931.

In her personal life, Knapp was involved with producer Earl Carroll and was briefly engaged to actor Chick Chandler, a cousin of illustrator Howard Chandler Christy. In 1933 she married Canadian radio announcer Jack Edmond; the marriage ended in divorce in 1934. She made public statements about entering a convent, possibly in Mexico, though no such move had occurred by 1936, when she was reported to be living in Tudor City and working on sculpture. In 1957, columnist Walter Winchell noted that Knapp was employed at a department store jewelry counter and living with actress Anna May Wong.