During the late 1950s or early 1960s, I remember sometimes being allowed to stay up a little later than usual and watch television, but it was always some show(s) my Mom and Dad liked and not those of my choice. One that I always really enjoyed, though, was “I’ve Got a Secret,” which featured guest stars who had some amazing, secret, embarrassing, strange, humorous (something that would be interesting and novel) SECRET. And, it was the “panel’s job” to try to guess that secret. (A show called “What’s My Line” was also a hit during the same general era, and some of you my age or older will also probably remember that one!) Both were “guessing games” and took place in various rounds.
This show (“Secret”) was my first exposure to a “star,” who was considered by the public as a glamorous woman with a “beauty mark,” alabaster skin, instant appeal, and “that certain something.” When she spoke, people listened, even if she was not saying anything important. I remember that even as a boy, I knew she was what some of my uncles called an “eye catcher.”
As I remember, though, she was not only witty but also knowledgeable and able to communicate well and at one time wrote a syndicated column. And, she wrote books, including Always Ask a Man, which contains “gems of wisdom about hair styles and cosmetics and Dahl’s keys to femininity.”
Miss Dahl was of Norwegian ancestry with a working-class father and a mother who had at least for a while been a minor actress. And reports say that her folks were pretty strict. One day, though, apparently her dad asked her to sing in public, and when she was finished, the people around them applauded. According to Dahl, that was the beginning of her liking to perform.
She made quite a few films that she admitted were not of the highest caliber but were popular around the 1950s, and she married six times and once remarked that a “woman’s greatest beauty secret is LOVE: to love and be loved.” Husbands were Lex Barker (Tarzan in some movies), Fernando Lamas (a real love of the ladies in movies), Christian Holmes III, Alexis Lichine, Rounsevelle “Skip” Schaum, and Marc Rosen (1984 perfume executive 18 years her junior).
Believing in the power of positive thinking probably helped lead to her success with marketing her skin-care/health products through Sears stores.
Some television shows in which she performed included The Love Boat, Hotel, and One Life to Live. My main memories of her are “guest or cameo” appearances, where she quite often “stole the show,” either as a result of her beauty and charm or the surprise of her intelligence, despite being beautiful!
When I heard of Arlene Dahl’s passing on at the age of 96 and remembered how young I was when I watched her on television, I felt a little twinge that said, “Themer, you are not so young any more!” And I also sat for a moment and thought back to some of those shows of the “olden days,” and think I might start watching one of those channels that specializes in re-presentations of the classics. “Miss Kitty” of Gunsmoke and Miss Dahl would have made a great “Thelma and Louise!“
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