[1] An August 13, 2014, article in the New York Social Diary by David Patrick Columbia, titled "Losses and Gains", references her 89th birthday celebration with her husband, children, and family.
After graduating from high school, she performed in a local drama group and briefly worked as a model for department stores.
[5] A year after graduation from high school, Dahl lived in Chicago, where she worked as a buyer for Marshall and Brown.
She was promoted to leading lady in My Wild Irish Rose (1947) with Dennis Morgan, a big hit that led to an offer from MGM for a long-term contract.
[5] Dahl began working for MGM to play a supporting role in her first film, The Bride Goes Wild (1948), starring Van Johnson and June Allyson.
Dahl played the ambitious Carol Talbot in Woman's World (1954) at Fox, and she was Rock Hudson's leading lady in Universal's adventure war film Bengal Brigade (1954).
She began writing a syndicated beauty column in 1952,[12] and opened Arlene Dahl Enterprises in 1954, marketing cosmetics and designer lingerie.
John Payne and Dahl were reunited in a film noir, Slightly Scarlet (1956), alongside Rhonda Fleming, another red-haired star.
[15][16] Dahl hosted the short-lived television series Opening Night (1958) and had the female lead in the adventure movie Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), opposite James Mason and Pat Boone.
In 1960, she appeared in the TV series Riverboat in the role of Lucy Belle in the episode "That Taylor Affair".
The marriage did not last, but Dahl increasingly diversified her work to become a lecturer and beauty consultant while she continued acting.
[18] She had a supporting role in Kisses for My President (1964) and appeared in Land Raiders (1969), The Pleasure Pit (1969), and the French film Du blé en liasses.
After closing her company in 1967, she began serving as vice president at the ad agency Kenyon and Eckhardt that same year.
[20] Dahl also returned to Broadway in the early 1970s, replacing Lauren Bacall in the role of Margo Channing in Applause.
[3] Dahl began working at Sears Roebuck as director of beauty products in 1970, earning nearly $750,000 annually, but she left in 1975 to found a short-lived fragrance company, Dahlia.