In December 1960, sixteen‑year‑old Dolly Read, a doe‑eyed, titian‑haired beauty, made her stage debut in a production of the pantomime Aladdin by Brislington Drama Club at the former St Luke’s Church Hall (now the site of flats) in Water Lane. Male members of the cast vied with each other each night to be the one who placed a jewel in her navel for her role as the principal girl, Princess. From this inauspicious beginning, Dolly went on to become a Playboy Bunny, a pin‑up girl, the star of a camp film classic, and the wife of a top American TV comedian.
Born Margaret Read at 143 Broadfield Road, Knowle Park, in 1944, Dolly grew up in Filton Avenue, Horfield, and attended St Anne’s Park Girls School, Lichfield Road (now The Kingfisher School). Her first job was at the Wesleyan and General Assurance Society, Triangle West, Clifton.
She left home for London in 1962 at the age of seventeen and appeared in an episode of the TV series Maigret. The following year she appeared in Dixon of Dock Green and landed her first (uncredited) film role in the Hammer horror film Kiss of the Vampire. Other TV drama roles followed in 1964–65, and in 1966 Dolly became a Playboy Bunny, working in clubs in Chicago, New York and London, where the first UK Playboy Club opened that year. Dolly was “Playmate of the Month” in May 1966 and posed for the magazine again in 1970.
Dolly dated singer Trini Lopez, best known for his 1963 hit If I Had a Hammer, and in 1969 appeared in a low‑budget lesbian melodrama, That Tender Touch. In 1970 Dolly landed the lead role in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, directed by Russ Meyer. The film includes lesbianism, a trans character, murder, suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction, and is regarded as a camp cult classic, being voted 23rd out of the 25 most famous cult movies. The film was first seen in Bristol in March 1971 at The Odeon, Union Street. The Western Daily Press reviewer wrote: “It might have been written by Biggles on an LSD trip after watching Fellini’s Satyricon backwards, on water skis… it’s so bad, it’s beautiful.”
In 1971, in Hawaii, Dolly married US TV comedian Dick Martin (1922–2008), half of the popular TV comedy series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh‑In, which ran from 1968–73. Dolly was 22 years Dick’s junior. Dick already had two children, but the couple did not have children together. They divorced in 1974 but remarried four years later and remained so until Dick’s death. In the 1970s Dolly had a few roles in Fantasy Island and Charlie’s Angels, but then retired from acting. The couple lived in Bel Air, Los Angeles, with Dolly’s pet poodle, called Bristol. Their social circle included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Juliet Mills, Goldie Hawn, Dick Van Dyke, Gregory Peck, James Garner, Jack Lemmon and Stan Laurel. Some neighbours included Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito and Dustin Hoffman. In 1973 Dolly met Bristol‑born Cary Grant, and they exchanged memories of their mutual home city. Dolly became a US citizen in 1977 and is now 82, living in California, and still receives fan mail.
John Allen of Claverton Road, Saltford, who directed Dolly in her Brislington stage‑debut panto 66 years ago, died in 1965 aged 58, having directed over 50 plays for Brislington Drama Club, of which he was a founder member in 1949. His ashes and memorial stone are in St Luke’s churchyard.
