The Rise of Dorothy Hale

History has recorded that Dorothy Hale, the widow of American muralist Gardner Hale, died in New York City on October 21, 1938 after plunging sixteen stories from her apartment window at the Hampshire House on Central Park South. She was thirty-three years old. Dorothy’s death was ruled a suicide.

The story of Dorothy Hale has never really been thoroughly examined. Until Now. The Rise of Dorothy Hale, by Myra Bairstow, explores the life and death of Dorothy Hale through the creative process of Frida Kahlo and enables the contradictions in history to stand face to face. Did the alleged suicide note that Clare Boothe Luce claims to have received even exist? Why did Harry Hopkins involve the White House and two key players of the Roosevelt Administration to handle damage control around Dorothy’s death? What possible secrets did Dorothy know about Harry Hopkins and Clare Luce before she was found dead? Was Dorothy Hale’s death a suicide or a murder made to look like a suicide? Pamela Hall directs.