Bucks
Dotty Ehling Bridge Player
Dear Friends,
Good morning. There’s a former Las Vegas showgirl who’s become an expert bridge player living right in our midst. Dotty Ehling (pronounced ‘ailing’), is a very peppy eighty-six year old from Buckingham Township. She owns a women’s apparel store in Warminster which doubles as a bridge emporium.
Our friend Dianne Lippincott introduced me to Dotty Ehling. Diane is a bridge player and thought that Dotty would make a good subject for an interview. Diane is always right.
“Are you Dotty Ehling,” I asked as I wandered through Dotty Lou’s, the name of her store?
“I answer to anything with a “D” including damn it,” she answered!
You’d never guess Dotty’s age. She looks 20 years younger. “I’m like the Energizer Bunny,” she quipped. “It’s hard to hit a moving target. Last year, I signed a five-year lease. I’m planning to live to 124!”
The first half of Dotty’s life was in show business. Raised during the Great Depression, she was on the stage at four. Dotty participated in amateur shows three days each week and usually captured first prize. “I won $15 per week [in prize money],” she began. Her father was a combustion engineer working in Philadelphia. “He brought home $8.50 each week,” Dotty laughed. “I made more money than he did.
“By the time I reached 15, I’d become an acrobatic, ballet, and tap dancer,” she continued. “I wasn’t a singer. I sing in keys that haven’t been discovered yet.”
Dotty has a picture from her days in Las Vegas during the 1950’s. It shows a drop dead gorgeous, sexy dancer. She appeared with Jimmy Durante, Vaughn Monroe, Duke Ellington, Frankie Lane, and the Andrew Sisters, just to name a few. Dotty has a “Life” magazine from 1953 with a full-page picture of herself on one of the pages. The cover price of “Life” was ten cents. Years later, Dotty paid $18 at an outdated magazine shop for a copy.
Her last appearance was at the Saints and Sinners Show at the Statler Hotel in Washington, DC when she was 40. She returned to her home in Central Bucks.
“I was one of the first women’s libber,” Dotty told me. “I became a manufacturer’s representative. Shortly thereafter, I entered retailing and rented a shop in the newly built Peddler’s Village on Route 263. I’m still on Route 263,” she laughed.
The owner of Peddler’s Village was Earl Jamison, to whom she paid $75 per month with no lease. “It was a bath shop at first,” Dotty said. “Then I rented a second store which specialized in lingerie which morphed into apparel. When I left Peddler’s, it had grown to 60 [retailers].”
But what’s the bridge connection?
“In my showbiz days, we played cards with the musicians,” Dotty explained. “Some of them played bridge. I was 21 when I took my first lesson.”
Now she gives them at her store in the Warminster Shopping Center. She began with a bridge studio in the Moose hall in Doylestown…later in the Boy Scouts building before moving to Warminster.
What do you think about bridge and boutique sharing the same space? “I don’t think there’s another combination like this in the world,” Dotty quipped.
She deals in fine ladies apparel. “Medium to high end,” she says (whatever that means…but I’m sure you women readers will understand). “You won’t find yourself coming or going,” Dotty added. “My customers like to have unusual outfits.”
Over the years, the American Contract Bridge League certified her as a bridge director and a teacher. Six days each week, her store becomes the site of bridge games at 22 tables of four. “Each pay $7 for 24 separate hands and lunch is included,” Dotty told me. That’s a bargain. Eighty percent of the players are women; 20 percent are men. You don’t need an appointment to play and all the games are the duplicate version.
She teaches bridge at the Bucks County Community College, Central Bucks East, New Hope/ Solebury and North Penn. “I’ve taught over four thousand students in the last 22 years,” she said.
Dotty summed up her 86 years. “I’ve had an interesting life,” she observed. “It hasn’t been boring. When things go wrong, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start over again.”
Now that’s excellent advice.
Finally, Dotty has an 8’ 6” oil painting of herself, which an admiring artist created 50 years ago. She’s wearing a revealing negligee. I saw a copy and it’s outstanding. Dynamite, I should say.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith