Look Like a Lady, Be Like a Man
Born Angeline Brown in North Dakota in 1931, Angie Dickinson was the second of four daughters. Her father was a small-town newspaper publisher and editor, who worked for the “Kulm Messenger” and the “Edgeley Mail.” She said her town was smaller than small, with a population of just 700 people. But she found joy at the movie theater.
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Going to the movies was what most children with imagination and hope did during the Depression. However, Dickinson identified more with the leading ladies of the day than with the men. Actresses always played homemakers while the men got to be anything they wanted. Dickinson wanted to look like Marlene Dietrich but do what the men did.