Ivan Wesley Dodd (1910 - 1964)

Born 28 Mar 1910 in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Ruth Geneva (Wolfenden) Carrell — married 12 Nov 1940 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Died 10 Nov 1964 at age 54 in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

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Biography

James Dodd is Notable.

Birth and Youth

Ivan Wesley Dodd was born 28 Mar 1910, in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[1] He was the son of John and Luella (Thede) Dodd. At the time of the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, he was a newborn infant residing with his parents in the home of his maternal grandmother at 2009 Clarion Street in Cincinnati. Also residing in the household were three maternal aunts, all in their thirties and still single.^[2]

James' original birth certificate is said to read Ivan Wesley Dodd, although he was baptized "James Wesley Dodd" on 13 May 1917, at the Evanston Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. U.S.^[3] On 22 Jul 1949, Jimmie's mother filed an affidavit with the Ohio Department of Health, officially amending his birth certificate to read James Wesley Dodd, claiming "physician made mistake when registering record". This, however, seems to be contradicted by the Federal Census of 1910, which shows her infant's name as Ivan. Some have suggested that her decision to make the official name change in 1949, when her son was 39 years old, may have been motivated by the climate of fear inspired in the entertainment industry by the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee.^[4]

By 1920, James' grandmother had passed and his parents had divorced. That year, nine-year-old James and his mother were still living with his three aunts in the home on Clarion Street. Interestingly, James father was residing that year with his own aunt, Elizabeth Dodd, who lived just two doors down from James and his mother.^[5] James' mother remarried in 1922, to Alfred Brauer, and his father remarried two years later, to Alice Tudor, giving James his only sibling, a much younger half-brother named Jack.

James attended Withrow High School in Cincinnati, graduating in 1927.^[6] After graduation, Jimmie first attended the University of Cincinnati, where he played the banjo in his own band, and then the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He doesn't seem to have graduated from either institution, for he then went on to study at a third school, the Shouster Martin School of Dramatic Arts, also in Cincinnati. There he developed a professional dance act with a teenage Tyrone Power, whose mother was Jimmie's drama coach. In 1930, 20-year-old James was attending school while living with his mother and step-father, Alfred A. Braun, at 3532 Wabash Street in Cincinnati.^[7]

Hollywood

James began his entertainment career in 1933 when he got a gig playing guitar and singing on a local radio station. From that first professional job came another at WSUN in St. Petersburg, Florida, and in the mid-thirties, in Nashville, where he also attended Vanderbilt University. A touring job with the Louis Prima Orchestra brought him to California in 1937.

By 1940, James (now 30) and his mother (now 59) were renting a home at 746 Lillian Way in Los Angeles, where James was working as an entertainer at a night club. Also lodging with them was a 30-year-old advertising manager named Ruth Wolfenden.^[8] In October 1940, James registered for the World War II draft in Los Angeles, listing his employer as the Hollywood Theater Alliance, a progressive theatrical company that sought to reflect society at the end of the Depression with its production of a political review called Meet the People. The play ran for a year at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood before making a five month run on Broadway (Dec 1940 to May 1941) James was described on his draft card as being 5' 9", 155 lbs., with a ruddy complexion, red hair, gray eyes and a mole under his left eye.^[9]

James and Ruth Wolfenden would marry by the end of the year, on 12 Nov 1940.^[10] During World War II, the couple toured the Aleutians and the China-Burma-India area for the USO as "Jimmie Dodd" and "Ruth Carrell".

Jimmie made his first screen appearance with a minor role in the 1940 William Holden film Those Were the Days! He subsequently appeared in several small film roles during the 1940s and 1950s, including a recurring role as the sidekick Lullaby Joslin in The Three Mesquiteers series of B-Westerns. He played the taxi driver in the MGM film Easter Parade starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, and had a small, but important, part in the Mickey Rooney hit Quicksand. He also appeared with John Wayne in the film Flying Tigers, with Ronald Reagan in The Winning Team, and with Jackie Robinson in The Jackie Robinson Story. On television, he had a small role in an early episode of Adventures of Superman titled "Double Trouble".

The Mickey Mouse Club

After being hired by Walt Disney as a music writer, Jimmie was soon chosen to be the host and emcee of Disney's new children’s television variety show The Mickey Mouse Club, which appeared from 1955 to 1959. On the show Jimmie was the leader of the Mouseketeers, as well as the composer of the show's theme song The Mickey Mouse Club March, and all the daily opening songs that accompanied it on the show. A member of the ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) since 1946, among his more memorable song compositions were I'm No Fool, Annette, Talent Round Up, Proverbs, Do What the Good Book Says, Perri, Pussy Cat Polka, Today is Tuesday, Encyclopedia, Lonely Guitar, Meet Me in Monterey (for the Monterey Centennial) and Washington (now the official song of the District of Columbia).

After The Mickey Mouse Club ended, Jimmie and Ruth began a tour of Australia which lasted in 1960, at involved several of the former Mouseketeer kids. He also led his own dance group.

Retirement and Death

In August 1964, Jimmie and Ruth headed to Honolulu, Hawaii, where Jimmie was set to film a new children's show to be called Jimmie Dodd's Aloha Time. Two days after his arrival, he was admitted to a hospital suffering from what was reported as "complete exhaustion". In reality his illness is suspected to have been a rare blood disorder, a heart ailment, or a form of cancer, depending on which source is consulted. He died of a staph infection, 10 Nov 1964, at Honolulu, Hawaii. He was 54 years old. His wife and mother were both by his side. He was buried at Forest Lawn memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ Ohio Birth Index. Ancestry.com (database online with images) certificate #1910020127, James Dodd.
2. ↑ 1910 U.S. Federal Census. Ancestry.com (database online with images) Ohio, Hamilton County, City of Cincinnati, Ward 2, ED 33, sheet 3B, dwelling 74, family 83, household of John W. Dodd [image 6].
3. ↑ Presbyterian Church Records, 1701-1970, Ancestry.com (Database online with images) Cincinnati, Evanston Presbyterian Church, Baptisms, Birth, Marriages, Deaths, 1860-1926, Section V: Register of Baptisms, page 144, line 28, James Wesley Dodd (1917).
4. ↑ Jimmie Dodd, The Original Mickey Mouse Club Show, Available at http://www.originalmmc.com/jimmie.html (2012)
5. ↑ 1920 U.S. Federal Census. Ancestry.com (database online with images) Ohio, Hamilton County, City of Cincinnati, ED 60, sheet 6A, dwelling -, family -, household of Caroline Thede [image 11].
6. ↑ U.S. School Yearbooks, Ancestry.com (database online with images) Ohio, Cincinnati, Winthrow High School, Annual, 1926, p. 65, James W. Dodd.
7. ↑ 1930 U.S. Federal Census. Ancestry.com (database online with images) Ohio, Hamilton County, City of Cincinnati, ED 56, sheet 4B, dwelling 173, family 257, household of Alfred A. Braun [image 19].
8. ↑ 1940 U.S. Federal Census. Ancestry.com (database online with images) California, Los Angeles County, City of Los Angeles, ED 60-160, sheet 7B, visitation #178, household of Luella Braun [image 14].
9. ↑ Ancestry.com (database online with images) California, serial #1514, order #1968, James Wesley Dodd (1940).
10. ↑ California, U.S., County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980. ancestry.com (Database online with images) Index to Marriages, James W. Dodd to Ruth G. Wolfenden (1940).
11. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3513/jimmie-dodd : accessed 23 August 2021), memorial page for Jimmie Dodd (28 Mar 1910–10 Nov 1964), Find a Grave Memorial ID 3513, citing Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave

See also:

• Wikipedia: Jimmie Dodd
• Wikidata: Item Q6199337
• IMDB: Jimmie Dodd
• Disney Wiki: Jimmie Dodd
• Original MMC: Jimmie Dodd
• WikiTree: Classic Disney Project