Dori Marland Martin 43-W-8 | WASP in the Spotlight 2024

Dori Marie Jugle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 1, 1921, to Richard Marland Jugle and Marie Henkel Jugle. Her father was President of ABCO Ball Mill a mining machinery company. The family traveled back and forth from Pennsylvania and Colorado, as a result, Dori never stayed longer than two years in one school. Between elementary and high school she skipped three grades. School officials did not want her to graduate too early so they suggested she be kept out of school each time she advanced a grade. During her time off Dori fell in love with horses and at age fourteen, she became a champion rider on her horse, ‘Firebird’. She rode in the hunting, jumping, bareback, and English categories and was a three-time Colorado State Champion before she was eighteen.  Eventually, the family moved to Chicago where Dori spent her last two years of high school, swimming with the Lake Shore A.C. Water Ballet Team. After graduation in August 1940, Dori won the Catalina Swimsuits National Competition for the “Most Beautiful Figure.” The prize included a trip to California, where she enrolled as a full-time student at the Pasadena Playhouse. She took her father’s middle name as her official stage name and became Dori Marland. She spent two years learning to act while working at Paramount Pictures.