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The Alhambra, opened around the turn of the 20th century, was a vaudeville house which later began screening films, then switched over to film altogether. Bob Hope attended vaudeville shows here with his mother while living in this neighborhood of Cleveland as a boy...
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The
Alhambra
vaudeville
Cleveland,
OH
Bob
Hope
Added: 11th December 2007
Views: 1822
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Posted By: Teresa |
 
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Mickey Rooney, whose real name was Joseph Yule, began performing at the age of fifteen months as part of his parents' vaudeville routine, wearing a specially tailored tuxedo. His parents separated in 1924. A year later, Mrs Yule moved with Joseph to Hollywood, where she managed a tourist home. Fontaine Fox had placed a newspaper ad for a dark haired child to play the role of "Mickey McGuire" in a series of short silent films, and, lacking the money to have her son's hair dyed, she took him to the audition after applying burnt cork to his scalp. Joseph got the role and became "Mickey" for 78 of the comedies, running from 1927 to 1936, starting with Mickey's Circus, released September 4, 1927. During an interruption in the series in 1932, Mrs. Yule made plans to take her son on a ten week vaudeville tour as "Mickey McGuire", but Fox sued successfully to stop him from using the name. Mrs. Yule suggested the stage name of "Mickey Looney" for her comedian son, which he altered slightly to a less frivolous version. Rooney did other films, including a few more of the McGuire films in his adolescence, and signed with MGM in 1934, where they cast him as the teenage son of a judge in 1937's "A Family Affair", setting Rooney on the way to another successful film series, and the rest is show business history.
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joseph
yule
mickey
rooney
mcquire
silent
films
Added: 28th December 2007
Views: 2326
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Posted By: Guido |
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Mary Louise Fuller (Loie) was an American dancer and theatrical innovator. She began her career as a child, performing in burlesque, vaudeville, the circus, plays, and other popular entertainments. Self-taught as a dancer, Fuller explored the use of voluminous silken skirts, which, illuminated by the multicolored lighting she created, floated, flowed, and swirled in her famous Serpentine Dance, first performed in New York in 1892. Later that year she traveled to Paris, where she and her dance productions became wildly successful. She was painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, sculpted by Rodin, exalted by Mallarmé and other writers, and dramatically portrayed in various art nouveau works. Remaining in Europe, Fuller became a successful artistic entrepeneur, forming her own school (1908) and founding a troupe that toured worldwide. She continued to experiment with lighting effects and other forms of stagecraft, and ultimately choreographed more than 100 dances...
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vintage
photo
Loie
Fuller
Added: 8th May 2008
Views: 2035
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Posted By: Teresa |
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A French vaudeville routine filmed in 1907. The piggy costume is so darn creepy it's almost like something you would see in your nightmares. I thought that what with all the Swine flu news this would be a nice humor break. I saw this short film on a DVD of old silent films and looked it up online and here it is for your enjoyment from 1907.
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vaudeville
pig
comedy
weird
odd
freaky
Added: 2nd May 2009
Views: 1899
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Posted By: stalzz |
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Kathleen Freeman was born February 17, 1919 and was acting on stage by the age of two with her dancing in her parents' vaudeville act. Although she had an extensive movie career including voice over work for the movie Sherk she was most well know for her roles on TV as she portrayed as maids, secretaries, busybodies, nurses, and zany neighbor.
She died of lung cancer on August 23, 200 at the age 82.
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Kathleen
Freeman
vaudeville
act
dancing
movie
star
tv
star
Added: 15th April 2014
Views: 1581
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Posted By: Old Fart |
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Allen Hoskins became part of Hal Roach's Our Gang troupe in 1922 before he was two years old. At first Hoskins' Farina character was androgynous; in some films he's a male, in others he's a female. Farina soon evolved into a fully male character--and one of the most popular of the late silent and early talkies period. Often dressed in a bizarre array of mismatched gaudy clothes, Farina's character was the stereotypical 'pickaninny.' By the time his tenure as Farina on Our Gang ended in 1931, Hoskins was the top-salaried performer, earning $250 per week. Hoskins briefly had a vaudeville act with his sister, but gradually drifted away from show business. 'I prefer jobs where I eat regularly,' he quipped. Hoskins served in WWII, rising to the rank of sergeant. Late in Hoskins' life he worked tirelessly with the disabled and mentally ill. Like his fellow black Our Gang performers, Hoskins was annoyed at the political correctness that caused the series to be heavily edited for TV in the early 1970s. While acknowledging that blacks were steroetyped in the Our Gang comedies, he pointed out that whites were too: There were the stereotypical fat kids, bullies, nerds, freckle-faced kids, and pretty blondes. He was also quick to point out that in an era when much of America was segregated, the racially mixed Our Gang kids played, socialized, and went to school together. Hoskins died of cancer a month before his 60th birthday in 1980.
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Our
Gang
Farina
Allen
Hoskins
Added: 29th November 2009
Views: 3052
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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Harry Spear was one of the leading men in the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedies in the late silent period of 1927 to 1929. Before joining the popular Our Gang series, Spear appeared in several Buck Jones westerns. Spear's first appearance in an Our Gang comedy was in Chicken Feed when he was five. He became a popular member of the gang, notable for often donning an oversized bowler hat. At the dawn of the sound era, newcomer Jackie Cooper took over the role as the leader/tough guy in the gang, replacing Spear. Spear's final Our Gang film was Bouncing Babies. After departing the series, Spear briefly entered vaudeville, entertaining audiences with a dancing and monologue routine. By the mid-1940s, though, he had left the entertainment industry and had severed all ties with his former Our Gang alumni. Spear's whereabouts after the 1940s remained a mystery for over half a century. However, several diligent Our Gang fans tracked Spear down in 1995. Residing in San Diego, California at the time, Spear (who went by his legal name of Harry Bonner) continually denied being the 'Harry Spear' of Our Gang fame for unknown reasons, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. From military service records, it was found that Harry Spear served as a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Spear died of kidney cancer on September 22, 2006 in San Diego at age 85.
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Harry
lost
Spear
Our
Gang
Little
Rascals
Added: 30th October 2010
Views: 2519
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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If you've seen any of Charlie Chaplin's best comedy shorts, you've probably seen Eric Campbell. Campbell, a native of Scotland, played opposite Chaplin in a dozen films in 1916 and 1917. Campbell's daunting 6-foot-5, 300-pound frame made him perfect as a foe for the diminutive Chaplin. Despite his menacing figure, Campbell was a gentle soul whose final year was marred by terrible tragedy. On July 9, 1917, Campbell's wife died suddenly of a heart attack after dining at a Santa Monica restaurant near their home. Walking to a nearby store to buy a mourning dress, Campbell's 16-year-old daughter, Una, was hit by a car a seriously injured. That September, Campbell met Pearl Gilman, a vaudeville comedienne with a family reputation for gold-digging. Just five days after they met, Campbell and Gilman were married. (Daughter Una, still recuperating at a friend's home in Santa Monica canyon, was not told of the wedding for several weeks.) Less than two months after marrying the gentle giant, Gilman sued him for divorce, claiming her new husband abused her with his heavy drinking and profanity. Campbell moved into the Los Angeles Athletic Club, taking a room next to his best friend Chaplin. At a cast party Campbell got drunk. Driving home on December 20, 1917 at 4 a.m., Campbell crashed his car and was killed. He was 39. Campbell's ashes remained unclaimed for more than 30 years.
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Eric
Campbell
actor
silent
films
Chaplin
Added: 9th February 2011
Views: 2306
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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Billy West (September 22, 1892 - July 21, 1975) was an actor, producer, and director of the silent film era. He is best known as a terrific Charlie Chaplin impersonator.
Born Roy B. Weissburg in Russia, West adopted his professional name some time after emigrating to America. He appeared in many short films, first in Apartment No. 13 in 1912. In 1917 movie theaters couldn't get enough Charlie Chaplin comedies, and an enterprising producer hired West, who had been doing comic pantomimes on the vaudeville stage, to make imitation-Chaplin subjects to meet the demand. West, wearing the identical tramp costume and makeup, copied Chaplin's movements and gestures so accurately that modern audiences often mistake West for the genuine performer. Chaplin himself saw the Billy West company filming on a Hollywood street, and allegedly told West, 'You're a damned good imitator.' Some West comedies were later deceitfully re-released on the home-movie market as 'Charlie Chaplin' pictures. Most of the West comedies of 1917-18 resembled the Chaplin comedies of 1916-17, with Oliver Hardy approximating the villainy of Eric Campbell, and Leatrice Joy in the Edna Purviance ingenue role.
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silent
films
Billy
west
Chaplin
impersonator
Added: 7th July 2011
Views: 1915
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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