Category: Story

Julia Rooney and the Dancing Rooneys by Frank Cullen

Julia Rooney (1887–1990) has left her family scrapbook to the American Vaudeville Museum and her famous family connections ensure that her gift, now in the University of Arizona collection, is virtually a who was who of vaudeville. Like many performers, Julia Rooney came from a showbiz family. Her father was Pat Rooney Sr, (1848–1892), a…Continue Reading Julia Rooney and the Dancing Rooneys by Frank Cullen

Julian Eltinge: Vaudeville’s Most Famous Female Impersonator by David Soren

Julian Eltinge (Newtonville, Massachusetts, May 14, 1883 – New York, March 7 1941) was the most famous female impersonator of the 1910s and 1920s, so famous that the Eltinge Theatre in Manhattan was named after him and has a portrait of him in relief as a Muse on its auditorium ceiling. From his early childhood,…Continue Reading Julian Eltinge: Vaudeville’s Most Famous Female Impersonator by David Soren

Key Figures in Early Popular Music in America: Hutchinson Family, Rainer Family, Alleghanians, and the Trapp Family by Victoria Damore

Key Figures in Early Popular Music in America Religion as a Driving Force for Musical Expression Before the 18th century, the only form of musical teaching accessible to musicians and the rural public was from tune books. Editions such as Cyrus Phillips’s notable work Musical Self Instructor, Containing Five Hundred Questions and Answers Relative to…Continue Reading Key Figures in Early Popular Music in America: Hutchinson Family, Rainer Family, Alleghanians, and the Trapp Family by Victoria Damore

Larry Weeks: Juggler Extraordinaire by David Soren

Lester Fulton Weeks, known on-stage as Larry Weeks (Salem, Massachusetts 9-24-1919- New York City, 10-13-2014) was one of the most famous jugglers in the history of vaudeville and night clubs. A naturally taught juggler from at least the age of 10, he became a professional juggler early on while growing up in the Bronx. His…Continue Reading Larry Weeks: Juggler Extraordinaire by David Soren

Leon Errol: The Rubber-Legged Scoundrel of Vaudeville by Frank Cullen

Comedian, dancer, producer, director and writer Leon Errol never told jokes, but he was among the finest comedians. Squinty-eyed, bald and beaked, Errol looked and acted like an aggravated chicken. Often his film character was a befuddled, lecherous, lying sot, and his signature act was a rubber-legged drunken stagger that sometimes segued into dance. Like…Continue Reading Leon Errol: The Rubber-Legged Scoundrel of Vaudeville by Frank Cullen

Leon Errol: Versatile Rubber-Legged Comedian – by David Soren

This collection comprises primarily two scrapbooks describing the stage career of the comedian Leon Errol (1881 or more likely, 1876-1951), on the vaudeville circuits in the Northwest and then in New York with the Ziegfeld Follies. There are also later publicity photographs of Errol from Culver Pictures, First National Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures,…Continue Reading Leon Errol: Versatile Rubber-Legged Comedian – by David Soren

Lillian Roth: Vaudeville Star and Advocate for the Addicted by Klaudia Kendall

Lillian Roth, born Lillian Rutstein, and nicknamed Butterfingers, was a Jewish-American actress born the 13th of December 1910. Named after a famous singer at the time, Lillian Russell, the young vaudeville star, beginning her career in the Keith-Orpheum circuit, seemed destined for a life in the spotlight. Regardless of her namesake and her silly nickname,…Continue Reading Lillian Roth: Vaudeville Star and Advocate for the Addicted by Klaudia Kendall

Marion Harris: Hot Jazz and Black Themes for White Audiences by David Soren

Marion Harris (April 4, 1896? – April 23, 1944) became famous as a white vaudeville singer and recording artist who was influenced by contemporary black jazz and often did numbers in a certain “Negro Style” as it was termed which helped to usher in the Jazz Age across America. For several decades beginning around 1915…Continue Reading Marion Harris: Hot Jazz and Black Themes for White Audiences by David Soren

Milton Berle: Mr. Televison and Uncle Miltie by Brynna Jamison

Milton Berle is remembered fondly as one of the best comedians of the Vaudeville era and also played an important role in continuing vaudeville into early television. Vaudeville was the most popular form of American Entertainment from the 1860s to the 1930s and even continued up to the ’60s. There were many notable entertainers from…Continue Reading Milton Berle: Mr. Televison and Uncle Miltie by Brynna Jamison