Dot Moore
Encyclopedia
Dot Moore was a Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 personality and "ambassador" to the stars for 46 years, whose long broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

 career spanned four talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....

 incarnations, numerous trips to the east and west coasts of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and dozens of conversations with television and motion pictures stars. When she died, US Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 Jo Bonner
Jo Bonner
Josiah Robins Bonner, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education, and early political career:...

 honored her memory; it is entered in the Congressional Record
Congressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...

.

Dot's early years

Born in Pensacola
Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...

, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 before her family moved to Mobile at the age of 12, Dorothy "Dot" Fillette had her young mind and eyes set on becoming an actress, an early indication of what was soon to come many years later. One indication was her attempt at imitating movies such as those featuring Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, whom Dot viewed on days when she voluntarily skipped school. Eventually she concluded that theater didn't have a particular lure, even though she managed to perform on stage locally. Dot's interests to perform before an audience would resurface during her years on television, as it gave her an easy, yet natural feeling. Before fulfilling her lifelong dreams, Moore would finish her schooling at Leinkauf Elementary and Murphy High School before her first job as a secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...

 close to her father, who was in the steam ship business. After being around ships came a Registrar position at the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....

 Expansion Center, sharpening her future interview skills in the process. While at the university, Dot was offered a place in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in downtown Mobile and the U.S. Air Force office at Brookley Field. The investigative position at the Air Force office would come shortly after marrying Baltimore native Robert Joseph Miller. Unfortunately her husband died from TB, leaving Dot and 2-year-old year boy Bobby behind. Following her husbands' death, Dot opened "Dot's Dress Shoppe". One day at this Springhill Avenue establishment, Dot met the two ladies who would introduce her to both the radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 and television business, a radio personality going on vacation and Connie Bea Hope
Connie Bea Hope
Connie Bea Hope was the stage name for Beatrice Walker Hope , a television personality and chef in Mobile, Alabama, on the local cooking program "Connie's Cupboard", which began in 1955 on WKRG-TV. She also appeared on the station's daily midday program Woman's World...

 who invited Dot over to her television show. Five years after Bob Miller's death, Dot would meet her second husband Lon Stephens Moore of Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 on account of a friend inviting him over to her Dauphin Street home. Yet again, illness would halt Dot's marriage and the two people Mr. Moore knew very briefly were left alone again. Weeks after a period of mourning, Dot went back to work after finding a job at the same radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 that introduced her to broadcasting, WABB
WABB (AM)
WABB is a radio station broadcasting a news and talk radio format serving the Mobile, Alabama, metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Dittman Broadcasting.-History:...

.

The half way point

Moore was a receptionist
Receptionist
A receptionist is an employee taking an office/administrative support position. The work is usually performed in a waiting area such as a lobby or front office desk of an organization or business...

 at WABB in 1958, a position under the Mobile Register-owned station that would lead to speaking before a wide radio audience with her low tone voice, earning the liking of one WABB announcer
Announcer
An announcer is a presenter who makes "announcements" in an audio medium or a physical location.-Television and other media:Some announcers work in television production , radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, news updates, station identification, or an introduction of a product in...

. Radio and TV commercials, including a televised March of Dimes
March of Dimes
The March of Dimes Foundation is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.-Organization:...

 PSA
Public service announcement
A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...

 featuring Moore as a donor would earn her something more than a year after working for WABB and WKAB radio, the daily half-hour program "Channel 10 Kitchen" on WALA-TV
WALA-TV
WALA-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Southern Alabama, Southeastern Mississippi, and the Western Florida Panhandle that is licensed to Mobile. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter in Spanish Fort, Alabama...

 after the previous chef had to leave for health reasons. There was only one problem Channel 10 managed to deal with and that was the fact that Dot was not a cook.

WALA's solution was to find a professional chef and let Moore assist before the viewers. Dot also got the last remark in the program's live commercials sponsored by General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

. Even after retirement, Dot was not very fond of cooking herself, yet up until the very end of her career, she was still seen speaking to her cooking guests in the studio
Television studio
A television studio is an installation in which a video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, with a few amendments for the...

 kitchen. Amazing enough, Dot managed to keep her son well nourished on something as easy to prepare as tuna fish casserole, in which Bobby would joke about at times. After the cooking show contract was finished, Dot returned to radio as a commercial copy writer in the WALA radio traffic department. There were also times when the TV side of the building called upon Dot for their commercials or public service spots. She was fired after a dispute with the new radio manager over paperwork that violates broadcasting rules in general. Termination gave Dot time to free-lance in media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

 during the early 1960s.

In this busy period of trying to stay in Gulf Coast media and keeping things well at home, Dot was actually contacted by a WALA-TV announcer who wanted her to co-host the station's new program "Poolside" from the Admiral Semmes
Raphael Semmes
For other uses, see Semmes .Raphael Semmes was an officer in the United States Navy from 1826 - 1860 and the Confederate States Navy from 1860 - 1865. During the American Civil War he was captain of the famous commerce raider CSS Alabama, taking a record sixty-nine prizes...

 Hotel in downtown Mobile. Dot accepted the job and continued to expand her horizons, both creatively and physically. After a successful run of "Poolside", Dot returned to free-lancing, including some work for Gayfer's department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 and their commercials for Pensacola station WEAR-TV
WEAR-TV
WEAR is the ABC affiliated television station for the Mobile, Alabama/Pensacola, Florida viewing area. It is licensed to Pensacola and is one of two major commercial stations in the market that is licensed on the Florida side of the market, the other being sister station WFGX, a MyNetworkTV affiliate...

. Just when Dot was getting ready to step out of the public eye after a week of commercials and public appearances in Pensacola, a friend employed at WALA stopped by the Gayfer's store to deliver her some good news. A new afternoon talk show of her very own was set to premiere on the following Monday, with all the guests booked for that week.

On May 14, 1963, "Dot Moore & Company" went the air between 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m.. The radio manager who had fired Dot previously was eventually fired shortly after learning of her return from his TV counterpart. Viewers from south Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 to the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 panhandle also got to see Dot help WALA cover Mobile's Mardi Gras Day
Mardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...

 celebration for 33 years. Ten years after "Dot Moore & Company" went on the air, Dot was given an on-air partner named Danny Treanor and the show became known as "Gulf Coast Today" in 1973. The 9:00 a.m. program following NBC's "Today" continued with this format for the next four years until Dot regained the position of host and producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

 of the show.

In September 1979, "Gulf Coast Today" began airing once a week before it once again bore Dot's name. "The Dot Moore Show" would remain on WALA's schedule well into the 21st century.

Dot and the stars

Over her career, Moore met numerous wealthy & famous people for TV interviews, which was quite easy for journalists and TV personalities during a time before satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

 became a common way of conducting interviews. Out of all the people she's met, it was former Pensacola resident and friend Leif Erickson
Leif Erickson
Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...

 of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 "The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral is a Western-themed television series starring Leif Erickson and Cameron Mitchell which aired on NBC from 1967 to 1971. The show was created by David Dortort, who had previously created the hit Bonanza for the network...

" who helped keep Dot's relationship with the network's stars alive for years to come. With such a Hollywood connection came a few roles on television, including Erickson's program and the show "Movin' On" with Claude Akins
Claude Akins
Claude Marion Akins was an American actor with a long career on stage, screen and television.Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series...

, another one of Dot's many guests ("Movin' On" was actually filmed on location once in Mobile and its surrounding areas). Besides people, Dot actually had an encounter with a Bengal tiger
Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...

 and its trainer, which went through fairly well despite a wet moment that would make Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...

 and the monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...

 he encountered laugh. All good things would come to an end in 1985, when NBC ended Moore's flights to visit the famous and must settle with the network's newly installed satellite technology to keep in touch, but there were exceptions. Art Linkletter
Art Linkletter
Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years...

 and Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney was an American actor and stuntman of Irish, French, and Cherokee ancestry. Born Jacques O'Mahoney, he was credited variously as Jock Mahoney, Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney. He starred in two television series, both westerns...

 were Dots' first celebrated guests three weeks into her show's run. The "People Are Funny" emcee and the "Yancy Derringer" star happened to be in Mobile the same day. Ed McMahon
Ed McMahon
Edward Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. was an American comedian, game show host and announcer. He is most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson's sidekick and announcer on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992. He also hosted the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983 to 1995...

 made a visit to Mobile for the America's Junior Miss
America's Junior Miss
Distinguished Young Women, formerly known as America's Junior Miss, is a national non-profit organization that provides scholarship opportunities to high school senior girls. Depending on the schedule of the various state and local programs, young women are eligible during the summer preceding...

 national finals in May 1973, plus he made a stop at WALA to appear on Moore's tenth anniversary show on May 14. "And now, here's Dottie!" was Ed's introduction for his friend Dot as she was getting ready to go on the air, which came as such a surprise that it never made it into the show's taping. After all those years of traveling, Dot felt grateful for the network's support and in a way, she was a star in their eyes.

Dot dot Dot...

During the 1990s, Moore's Sunday community service program and fourth incarnation had a greater focus on public affairs
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....

 figures than interviews with the stars. Despite her lessening presence over WALA-TV, which swapped its 43-year affiliation
Affiliate
An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...

 with NBC for Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 in 1996, Dot continued to tell people about her days of traveling outside Mobile. Hundreds of photos
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

 featuring her and the people she had met over the years served as a visual aid. Longtime viewers have noticed various changes in Dot's hairstyle
Hairstyle
A hairstyle, hairdo, or haircut refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human head. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although practical, cultural, and popular considerations also influence some hairstyles.-History of...

 and color since appearing on television. During her years under the eyes of sponsors, there were times when they wanted a blonde, brunette, or redheaded lady on the air. Dot would pay for her own hairstyle around 1994. Another surprise Dot had for her viewers were a pair of knee high boots from California, which had the WALA switchboard
Telephone switchboard
A switchboard was a device used to connect a group of telephones manually to one another or to an outside connection, within and between telephone exchanges or private branch exchanges . The user was typically known as an operator...

 lit up by those interested in her footwear
Footwear
Footwear consists of garments worn on the feet, for fashion, protection against the environment, and adornment. Being barefoot is commonly associated with poverty, but some cultures chose not to wear footwear at least in some situations....

.

The Dot Moore Show went on the air for the last time on July 11, 2004, less than a week after Moore had a car accident. According to many Mobile residents, including friend and fellow local media personality Uncle Henry, this accident was the reason for Dot's retirement and move to Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...

. Before leaving her condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...

of 23 years that July, WALA threw Dot a retirement party, featuring friends, colleagues, video clips, and a cake in her honor. Before leaving Mobile, Dot thanked loyal viewers, colleagues in television, friends, and her fellow colleagues at Channel 10 for the comfort and space they gave her for almost 50 years. She died on May 23, 2007, in Montgomery, Alabama.

External links

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