Biography : Back to Broadway

Although Dorothy had enjoyed her Beverley Hills lifestyle, she returned to New York at the end of the decade. Having divorced from her first husband a few years before, she had met businessman Eli Lahm, who became her second husband in 1939. They settled in Manhattan.

Back in New York, Dorothy was also back on Broadway with a new book musical, working with composer Arthur Schwartz. The show was Stars in Your Eyes and it had an impressive pair of stars in Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante.

Dorothy found the whole process more rewarding than her movie-making experiences:

You're with it in every phase – the writing,first – and then all through rehearsals, the out of town tryout, until you get to New York. When you write a score for a picture, you write it, and you leave. You don't see it for maybe nine months or a year. You become completely disassociated with it, and you don't even remember what you wrote. That happened to me a couple of times; I was amazed at the songs we had written.

Dorothy and her new husband had two children in the early 1940s. She remained active in the theatre, but not as a lyricist; with Herb she wrote the books for three hit Cole Porter shows: Let's Face It, Something For The Boys, and Mexican Hayride, the last two starring Ethel Merman.