Let wars rage still while I work with a will at this peaceful trade of mine. “Armorer’s Song” from Robin Hood I. Doloroso He lies beneath a rectangular stone set flush with the ground behind the Pilgrim State Hospital in Brentwood, Long Island, New York. I haven’t seen his stone for myself but I’m guessing…Continue Reading Edward Metcalfe: The Splendid Foil, By Joyce H. Munro
Topic: Comedians
Willie, West and McGinty: The Comedy Builders by David Soren
Bill Briscoe (1886-1949) began his career as a comic acrobat in a team known as Wild and West, which toured internationally. He and Frank Crossley (ca. 1882-ca. 1942), both from Lancashire, England, developed a carpenter slapstick act as Willie West & McGinty (no comma) around 1900, while en route to perform a gymnast act in…Continue Reading Willie, West and McGinty: The Comedy Builders by David Soren
Vesta Victoria: The Self-Deprecating Singing Comedienne from England by Anna Jennings
Victoria Lawrence was born in Leeds, England on November 26th, 1873 into a theatrical family. Her mother, Annie Lawrence, whose stage name was “Marion Nelson,” was a singer; her father, Joe Lawrence, was called “The Up-Side-Down Comedian” for singing on his head (Fields 30-31). She toured with her parents as a little girl, performing at…Continue Reading Vesta Victoria: The Self-Deprecating Singing Comedienne from England by Anna Jennings
The Wiere Brothers: Organized Mayhem by David Soren
Harry (June 23, 1906- January 15, 1992), Herbert (February 27, 1908- August 5, 1999) and Sylvester Wiere (September 17, 1909- July 7, 1970) were a zany comedy team born in Berlin, Vienna and Prague respectively so that each had a different nationality despite being brothers. Their extraordinarily long career stretched from the 1920s right up…Continue Reading The Wiere Brothers: Organized Mayhem by David Soren
The Kill Kare Couple: John and Winnie Hennings by David Soren
This series consists of photocopies and digital printouts of press clippings and photographs describing the lives and careers of John and Winnie Hennings, who performed together as The Kill Kare Kouple from 1908 through the World War I years, and of John Hennings’ subsequent work in Hollywood during the 1920s. Some of the clippings and…Continue Reading The Kill Kare Couple: John and Winnie Hennings by David Soren
The Duncan Sisters: Vaudevilles #1 Female Comedy Duo by David Soren
There had been other comedic sister acts in vaudeville that preceded them, such as The Watson Sisters, but none were as clever and funny as the Duncan Sisters and the University of Arizona has a large collection of sheet music featuring the Duncans. Enormously popular in the 1920s, they have failed to transfer their humor…Continue Reading The Duncan Sisters: Vaudevilles #1 Female Comedy Duo by David Soren
The Dixon-Freeman Collection by David Soren
The collection consists of contracts and documents, photographs, programs, correspondence, typescripts, and sheet music related to the performances of Jessica Dixon and her husband, Frank Freeman. Several parts of the collection refer to their “train sketch” prooduction, “A Minute Late.” There are numerous publicity photographs of themselves and other vaudeville performers, and glass transparencies used…Continue Reading The Dixon-Freeman Collection by David Soren
Richard Carle: A Forgotten American Genius by David Soren
“ Richard Carle (Born in Somerville, Mass., July 7, 1871 – died North Hollywood, California, June 28, 1941) was a major force in the Broadway and Chicago theatre of the later 19th to early 20th century and after 1915 he became a character actor in at least 132 films until the time of his death….Continue Reading Richard Carle: A Forgotten American Genius by David Soren
Olsen and Johnson: Broadway’s Zanies – UA Library Entry, with David Soren
This collection contains material related to the career of Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. It includes signed photographs, playbills, posters and sheet music from Hellzapoppin. It also includes correspondence between Frank Cullen and the daughter of Ole Olsen, Moya Olsen Lear, and his grandson, Stephen Ron Olsen. Ole Olsen (born John Sigvard Olsen, 1892-1963) and…Continue Reading Olsen and Johnson: Broadway’s Zanies – UA Library Entry, with David Soren
Murray and Mack: Early Vaudeville Comedy Duo by David Soren
In the 1890s it wasn’t easy to travel across America in vaudeville shows but Charlie Murray (Laurel, Indiana, June 22, 1872 – Los Angeles, July 29, 1941) and Ollie Mack (born Oliver Turnbull) not only did it but were one of America’s major comic successes. Although just about completely unknown today even by vaudeville afficianados,…Continue Reading Murray and Mack: Early Vaudeville Comedy Duo by David Soren