[4] The title character was originally modeled after 1920s film actress Louise Brooks and early stories followed Dixie's exploits as a Hollywood showgirl.

Dixie Dugan first appeared in two slightly risqué novels written by J. P. McEvoy, serialized in 1928-29 in the pages of Liberty.

[4] As time went by, the strip dropped the show business aspect, and Dixie became a career girl pursuing a more wholesome variety of jobs.

The Dixie Dugan Sunday page included a topper strip, Good Deed Dotty, which ran from February 5, 1933 to October 17, 1948.

Both novels were quickly adapted to movies, both starring Alice White as Dixie Dugan and both produced by Warner Bros.: Show Girl (1928) and Showgirl in Hollywood (1930).