Dora Hall

July 17, 2011 4:35 PM

A tribute to Dora Hall was recently presented at Everything is Festival by Mr. Neil Hamburger. "DORA HALL was the undisputed queen of vanity entertainment. Dora's husband was Leo Hulseman, the founder of the immensely successful Solo Cup Company, and a man who was quite happy to delve into Solo's apparently bottomless coffers to finance dozens of record releases by his wife, all of which were given away free of charge with packages of plastic cups and plates during the 1960's. Not content with her 'success' in the record business, in the 1970's and 1980's Dora branched out with several full-blown Solo-financed TV specials designed to make her a star--despite the fact that she was an elderly grandmother with limited show business experience." -- TV Heaven (as quoted by Everything is Terrible, supra.)

On Youtube, you may see excerpts from Dora's TV variety special Once Upon a Tour. It is, in fairness, no worse than many variety shows of the period, but few things are. You may also see songs like "Doctor Sniffle-Swiper" from Dora's children's special Imagine That!

posted by Countess Elena (10 comments total)

Wow, $400k. How much is that in today's dollars? I would've given the entirety of that cash to Oliver just for the sideways microphone singing.
posted by NoMich at 4:51 PM on July 17, 2011

Did they fade to the back-up dancers when Frank Sinatra Jr came on to fool audiences into thinking it might be Frank Sr? Weird.
posted by filthy light thief at 5:05 PM on July 17, 2011

Wait- is that really Dora Hall? Or was that Neil Hamburger in drag? I honestly can't tell.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:07 PM on July 17, 2011

I own "Once Upon a Tour" -- it's just... wow...
posted by AJaffe at 5:21 PM on July 17, 2011

You know, Dora isn't really bad. She has a good stage presence and a charming smile.
posted by Xoebe at 6:05 PM on July 17, 2011

Maybe they should not have spent all that money...
posted by Patapsco Mike at 7:21 PM on July 17, 2011

She is no Florence Foster Jenkins.
posted by NorthernLite at 8:02 PM on July 17, 2011

Just when I thought the Dr. Sniffle-Swiper clip couldn't get any stranger and wronger, enter THE BOOGER.

GLORIOUS.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:31 PM on July 17, 2011

It's a pity the glamor of show business is gone. Today Dora would be in the House of Representatives.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 4:37 AM on July 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Her uxorious svengali.
posted by y2karl at 5:44 AM on July 18, 2011 [2 favorites]