By Jonathan A. Stein
Oceanside California, October 23, 2007.
As raging wildfires threatened her Southern California home, Dorothy Deen
Sitz died in a nearby Oceanside hospital after a long illness. The vivacious
blonde Deen was best known for the Doretti sports car, a line of sports car
accessories of the same name and for importing Triumph Sports cars for the
Western United States. A darling of the local and automotive press, she was
a common fixture at races and promoting the sports cars she sold.
The glamorous Deen often modeled for publicity photos, such as this shoot for the early TR3
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Born in Hollywood, Calif., to engineer and businessman Arthur Andersen and
Martha Schultz Andersen, Dorothy grew up in a time when women either stayed
home with children or worked as secretaries and telephone operators. At an
early age, Dorothy Andersen had other ideas.
Her career started as a teenager test driving the Whizzer motor bicycles her
father had redesigned. She graduated to a mail order business selling
gasoline model airplane engines her father also designed and manufactured.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Dorothy had always been interested in cars, but
the interest really took off in 1950 when she took delivery of a brand new
ivory MG TD, which was followed by several sporty Simcas. Instantly, she was
propelled into a world of rallies, clubs and races. Although her later
business interests prevented her from racing, she and her father often ran
their cars on an abandoned airfield near the Andersen beach house.
Presiding over a ribbon-cutting with an unknown associate.
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The next business venture forever changed Dorothyıs life. Unable to find
high-quality accessories for her MG and her fatherıs Morgans, the pair
designed and marketed their own wind wings, sun visors, luggage racks, valve
covers in addition to wood and aluminum steering wheels. With backing from
Andersen and in partnership with machinist Paul Bernhardt, Cal Specialties
was born. To make the Cal Specialties line sound more exciting, the partners
took the first three letters of Dorothyıs name, and turned it into the
Italianate Doretti .
Dorothy Deen proves that although Standards station wagon was small, it still had plenty of trunk room.
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Through his work with thin-wall steel tubing, Andersen became involved with
the Standard Swallow Company that was building a sports car based on Triumph
TR2 running gear. In partnership with Dorothy, Andersen took on distribution
of the new car in the U.S. and simultaneously picked up Western distribution
rights for Triumph. Not only would Dorothy import the cars, but for a single
dollar she sold the rights to the Doretti name that soon graced the
attractive new two-seater. After Doretti production ended in 1955, Deen
continued to import Triumphs until the company bought out all distributors
in 1960.
The comely Deen not only managed the West Coast Standard-Triumph distributor, she personally promoted the cars, like the TR3A.
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She then became the 45th woman in the world to earn her helicopter
pilotıs license and later co-owned and managed an aircraft dealership. She
later returned to UCLA to become a para legal on her intended
completed--route to becoming an attorney.
Far more than a pretty face, Dorothy Deen ran several small manufacturing business, distributed Standard-Triumph, Doretti and Peerless cars for the Western United States and went on to operate an aircraft dealership.
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Along the way she declined Max
Hoffmanıs offer of a West Coast BMW distributorship and opted for a life of
retirement and travel with her late husband, Tony Anthony, whom she met when
he sold her that first MG TD sports cars years earlier.
She is survived by
automotive historian Jim Sitz, her husband of 16 years.