Mack was born in Price Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended the Mother of Mercy High School, graduating in 1947.[1] She then worked as a human mannequin in a department store window in Cincinnati, and as a salesperson,[1] before being employed as a record librarian at WCPO-AM radio in March 1949.[1][2]
Career
Mack appeared in Paul Dixon's radio show.[1] When WCPO-TV started in July 1949, she transferred to the Paul Dixon's Song Shop on television, performing with Dixon and Wanda Lewis.[1] She lip-synched to songs by singers including Rosemary Clooney,[1][3]Doris Day,[1]Dinah Shore,[1]Patti Page,[3] and Eartha Kitt.[3] She was known as the "Queen of Pantomime"[2][4] for "her striking beauty and seemingly innate ability to pantomime expertly any type of song."[2] She was so popular that she was given her own show, first Your Pantomime Hit Parade, then a 15-minute show called Girl Alone, and finally a half-hour program called The Dotty Mack Show, in which she was joined by Bob Braun and Colin Male.[1]ABC and the DuMont Television Network screened the Dotty Mack Show nationally from 1953 to 1956.[1] By 1955, a Dotty Mack fan club existed in Cincinnati.[5] TV host Faye Emerson said of her show in 1954, she is "extremely talented ... She can be cute as a kitten's ear, romantic as rose petals, or sultry as absinthe ... She is a good actress and her sense of timing is nothing short of miraculous."[3] However, Emerson wrote, she "would still rather see Rosemary Clooney singing her own songs" than "pretty little parrots like Dotty Mack and her friends."[3] She sometimes had enquiries for singing from people who did not know that she was principally a mime.[1] She was noted for her beautiful gowns on the air;[5] however, there was no clothing allowance, so they were all hers.[1]
