Caren Marsh Doll

	Caren Marsh Doll
	; Marsh Doll on her 98th birthday in 2017
Birth:	6 April 1919; Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
Age:	105 years, 291 days
Country:	USA
	Centenarian

Caren Marsh Doll (née Morris; born 6 April 1919), also credited as Caren Marsh, is an American centenarian former stage and screen actress, dancer, and dance instructor, specialising in modern dance and tap, notable as Judy Garland's stand-in in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Ziegfeld Girl in 1941. She is one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

From 1937 until 1948, she appeared in motion pictures with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a small uncredited part in Gone with the Wind. She became a dance instructor in 1956.

Her younger sister was film and television actress Dorothy Morris.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Marsh was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA on 6 April 1919. Her father was a Hollywood stockbroker. She and her family were active in the Methodist church. In 1937, she graduated from Hollywood High School and wanted to become an actress. Her parents did not approve of this choice and preferred she pursue a college education. They compromised by telling Caren that unless she could land an acting job she would be sent to school.

Film career[]

Marsh auditioned for a role in Rosalie (1937), starring Nelson Eddy and Eleanor Powell, but did not win the role. She later re-auditioned for that movie and got the part. She was hired as Judy Garland's dance stand-in for The Wizard of Oz. She was hired largely mostly because she was similar in height and build to Garland and even received her own pair of ruby slippers. She served as a stand-in for Garland a second time with Ziegfeld Girl (1941). According to Marsh, when she wasn't filling in for Garland in The Wizard of Oz she would be across Hollywood at Selznick International Pictures working as an extra in Gone with the Wind (1939).

In 1947, Marsh was named Miss Sky Lady of 1947 and began appearing in fewer films to focus on her new interest in dance. After appearing in an airshow as Miss Sky Lady, she took flight instruction classes, learned to fly and later dropped leaflets of her acting profile on various movie studios in Hollywood. She made an appearance on The Gabby Hayes Show in 1956, after which she became a dance instructor.

1949 plane crash survival[]

On 12 July 1949, at the age of 30, Marsh was aboard Standard Air Lines Flight 897R, when the C-46E crashed. The flight had left Albuquerque, New Mexico at 4:43 am. While on approach to the Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank, California at 7:40 am, the twin engine plane, flying too low, hooked a wingtip on a hill and crashed near Chatsworth, California, and Marsh was one of the 13 people who survived. Marsh was pulled from the wreckage by another passenger named Judy Frost. Marsh was hospitalized at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for several weeks, and nearly had her left foot amputated. Marsh's doctors told her that she would likely never dance again, but after careful exercise she was able to heal and continue in her dancing.

Personal life[]

She married Lewis Isaacs on 29 November 1939. The couple divorced in 1945.

Marsh moved to Palm Springs, California, in 1957 and married Bill Doll (died 1979), a press agent to theatre and film producer Mike Todd. The couple had one son.

Her sister actress Dorothy Morris, became her neighbor when Marsh retired in 1971. The sisters lived next door to each other until Dorothy's death on 20 November 2011.

Dance instructor[]

Once a month on the first Monday, Marsh volunteers as a dance therapy instructor at the Palm Springs Stroke Activity Center where the styles taught range from themes like ballroom dancing, country, Hawaiian, and belly dancing. She is an active member of The Palm Springs United Methodist Community Church.