Dorothy Foster

Dorothy Isabel May Foster (14 February 1908 – 5 July 1981) was an Australian radio producer, comedy scriptwriter and actress. She created the characters of "Ada and Elsie" during WW2.

Life Foster was born in 1908 in Devonport, Tasmania. Her parents Mary Isabel (born Collett) and Charles Marshall Foster who were both born in Australia. Her father was an engineer. She was educated in Hobart at St Michael's Collegiate School and her first job was in radio.

She went to Melbourne in 1934 as a secretary to the impresario John Tait and she was employed at radio 3UZ in 1935.

Foster had heard of a successful British comedy act named "Gert and Daisy" who were created by Elsie and Doris Waters. Foster wrote a similar conversational comedy script and then auditioned for a comic partner. She chose the haughty Rita Pauncefort and "Ada and Elsie" was formed. "Dilly" Dorothy Foster married, for the second time, a wool buyer named Robert Gray Nicolson in 1939. and she created her own company "Dorothy Foster Radio Features".

Death and legacy Foster died in 1981 in St Leonards, Sydney.