2013 Essays

Dot Farley

Miller, April

While Dot (Dorothy) Farley is most often identified as a comedic actress, she also seems to have written and directed films. Anthony Slide notes that Farley asserted in a 1923 Illustrated World article that she both wrote and directed dramas and comedies. He thinks that she may not have worked as a director for Mack Sennett’s Keystone Company. She may have directed and written shorts for another company in the first two decades (Slide 1996, 121). Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dot Farley began her acting career at the age of three, and was reportedly featured in a number of stage productions including an E. A. MacDowell Company production of “Wedding Bells,” appearing as “Chicago’s Little Dot” (Waddell III4). A Los Angeles Times 1924 career overview tells us that she continued to work with a Chicago comic-opera company until her voice failed in 1910, at which time she accepted an offer to star in comedy shorts for the Essanay Company (B26).